Docker Compose

This guide walks through deploying Frona AI with Docker Compose. This is the recommended approach for most deployments.

1. Get the example files

git clone https://github.com/fronalabs/frona.git
cd frona/examples/docker-compose

The directory contains:

File	Description
docker-compose.yml	Service definitions
env.example	Environment variable template
config.yaml	Frona configuration (optional — defaults work out of the box)
searxng/settings.yml	SearXNG search engine configuration

2. Create your environment file

cp env.example .env

Edit .env and set your encryption secret and at least one LLM API key:

# Required: change this from the default
FRONA_AUTH_ENCRYPTION_SECRET=generate-a-strong-secret-here

# Required: at least one LLM provider API key
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

See Environment Variables for the full reference.

3. Start the services

docker compose up -d

This starts three services:

Service	Description	Port
frona	Frona server	3001 (host)
browserless	Headless Chromium for browser automation	internal only
searxng	Meta search engine for web search	internal only

4. Verify the deployment

Check that all services are running:

docker compose ps

Open http://localhost:3001 in your browser.

5. Create your first account

The first time you access Frona, you’ll see the registration page. Create an account with a username and password. This becomes the first user on the instance.

Docker Compose file

services:
  frona:
    image: ghcr.io/fronalabs/frona:latest
    ports:
      - "3001:3001"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/data
      - ./config.yaml:/app/data/config.yaml:ro
    env_file:
      - .env # See .env.example
    environment:
      - FRONA_BROWSER_WS_URL=ws://browserless:3333
      - FRONA_SEARCH_SEARXNG_BASE_URL=http://searxng:8080
    depends_on:
      - browserless
      - searxng
    restart: unless-stopped

  browserless:
    image: ghcr.io/browserless/chromium:latest
    environment:
      - MAX_CONCURRENT_SESSIONS=10
      - PREBOOT_CHROME=true
    volumes:
      - ./data/browser_profiles:/profiles
    restart: unless-stopped

  searxng:
    image: searxng/searxng:latest
    environment:
      - SEARXNG_BASE_URL=http://searxng:8080
    volumes:
      - ./searxng:/etc/searxng
    restart: unless-stopped

Configuration

The optional config.yaml file lets you configure model groups, providers, and other settings. Environment variables with the FRONA_ prefix override values from the config file. See Config File Reference for the full reference.

Data

All persistent data is stored in ./data/:

Directory	Contents
data/db/	Database
data/workspaces/	Agent workspaces
data/files/	Uploaded files
data/browser_profiles/	Browser automation profiles

Stopping the services

docker compose down

To stop and remove all data (volumes):

docker compose down -v

Updating

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

See Upgrades for more details on the upgrade process.