Installation

SAMSKARA is currently distributed directly to early access teams — book a demo and we’ll get you repository access. Once you have it, bringing up a local instance takes a few minutes.

Requirements

• Docker and Docker Compose
• A copy of the SAMSKARA repository

1. Configure environment variables

Copy the example environment file and fill in the values:

cp .env.example .env

At minimum, set:

• SECRET_KEY — generate with python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))"
• SECRET_ENCRYPTION_KEY — generate with python -c "from cryptography.fernet import Fernet; print(Fernet.generate_key().decode())"
• POSTGRES_PASSWORD / REDIS_PASSWORD — strong values for local Postgres and Redis

Leave SMTP_HOST empty to skip email notifications entirely — everything else works without it.

2. Start the stack

docker compose up -d

This brings up Postgres, Redis, the FastAPI backend, a background worker (scheduler, artifact cleanup, report delivery), the AI service, and the React frontend.

3. Open SAMSKARA

• Frontend: http://localhost:3000
• Backend API: http://localhost:8000

Create your first organization and user from the sign-up screen, then continue to First Notebook in 5 Minutes.

Production deployment

docker-compose.prod.yml adds Caddy for automatic HTTPS against the DOMAIN you configure in .env. Set APP_ENV=production — SAMSKARA will refuse to start if SECRET_KEY or SECRET_ENCRYPTION_KEY are missing or left at their insecure defaults.