deploy

Deploying flightdeck serve (reference)

FlightDeck stays local-first: this directory is optional packaging for demos, staging, or a trusted private network. Read SECURITY.md before exposing HTTP beyond loopback.

Docker image

Build (from this directory):

docker build -t flightdeck-serve:local .

The image installs flightdeck-ai from PyPI and runs flightdeck serve on 0.0.0.0:8765 inside the container.

entrypoint.sh creates a default flightdeck.yaml in /workspace on first start (flightdeck init) if the mounted volume is empty.

Compose (loopback bind on the host)

cd examples/deploy
docker compose up --build

• UI + API: http://127.0.0.1:8765/ (static UI + /v1/*).
• Health: GET http://127.0.0.1:8765/health.
• Compose healthcheck: docker-compose.yml probes /health so orchestrators can mark the service ready (see healthcheck: in that file).
• Data: named Docker volume fd_workspace (SQLite under .flightdeck/ inside the volume). Remove with docker compose down -v when you want a clean ledger.

SQLite backups

FlightDeck stores the ledger in .flightdeck/flightdeck.db under the workspace root. For a hot copy while the server is stopped or idle, run from the workspace directory:

flightdeck doctor --backup ./backups/flightdeck-$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ).db

Inside the Compose stack, exec into the running container with /workspace as cwd (same layout as local flightdeck init), or run a one-shot sidecar that mounts the same volume and invokes flightdeck doctor --backup /workspace/backups/snapshot.db. Schedule with cron or your platform scheduler; keep backups off the primary volume when possible.

Optional mutation token

Set FLIGHTDECK_LOCAL_API_TOKEN in your environment before docker compose up (or in an .env file beside docker-compose.yml). Clients must send Authorization: Bearer … for ledger writes: POST /v1/promote*, POST /v1/rollback, and POST /v1/events. With no token configured, those routes accept only loopback callers. POST /v1/diff stays unauthenticated (read-only); still treat network placement as a trust boundary.

Helm (optional single-replica chart)

A minimal chart lives under chart/flightdeck/. It runs one replica of flightdeck serve with an emptyDir workspace (ephemeral); for a persistent ledger, replace the volume in templates/deployment.yaml with a PVC or mount your own image init.

docker build -t flightdeck-serve:local .
helm install fd ./chart/flightdeck --namespace flightdeck --create-namespace

Tune values.yaml (image, resources, service.type) for your cluster.

Bind-mounting a host workspace

To reuse an existing directory that already contains flightdeck.yaml and .flightdeck/, replace the volumes entry with:

volumes:
  - /path/on/host/my-workspace:/workspace

Use an absolute path on Linux/macOS; on Windows Docker Desktop, use a path Docker can mount.

Process supervision

Compose sets a healthcheck on /health plus restart: unless-stopped on the service; for systemd/Kubernetes, reuse the same image and run /entrypoint.sh (or invoke flightdeck serve directly with a prepared workspace directory).

Operator checklist

• Logs: docker compose logs -f flightdeck (or your platform log stream) when debugging ingest or policy failures.
• State: one flightdeck serve instance per workspace SQLite file; do not run two writers against the same volume.
• Upgrades: rebuild the image on semver bumps; keep /workspace mounted so the ledger survives container recreation.

Related

• examples/integration/README.md — emit RunEvent traffic into a running server.
• examples/ci/README.md — CI policy gates without serve; approval-gated promote script promote_with_approval.sh and workflow samples.
• SECURITY.md — trust boundaries before exposing /v1/* beyond loopback.