Copy-paste three commands on your computer or server. No tech skills needed — just follow along.
Sovnex runs on Docker. Set up what your system needs below and keep them running. Already have them? Skip this.
1. Docker Desktop — download, install and open it (the whale icon in the menu bar means it's ready).
docker.com/products/docker-desktop ↗2. Ollama — the local AI engine. Download the app, install and open it (it sits in the menu bar); Sovnex connects to it automatically. Skipped it? The installer offers to install it with Homebrew and start it — without Homebrew you have to install it yourself.
ollama.com/download ↗Paste this to auto-install Docker (needs sudo):
$ curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh $ sudo systemctl enable --now docker
Ollama needs nothing here — the installer sets the local AI engine up inside Docker (uses your NVIDIA GPU if present, otherwise the CPU). On very large NVIDIA servers it runs vLLM instead and creates no Ollama container.
Linux shortcut: you can skip Docker here and go to step 2 — ./install.sh will offer to install Docker for you (also needs sudo).
Open your Terminal, paste and run this — it downloads and unpacks automatically.
$ curl -fsSL https://download.sovnexai.com/sovnex-install.tar.gz | tar xz $ cd sovnex-install
Linux users only — run this one line first (else the search engine won't start). Mac users skip it:
$ sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
One command does the rest — it configures, downloads and starts everything, including a few-GB local AI model. Grab a coffee for 10–20 min; it tells you how to open it when done.
$ ./install.sh ==> checking… generating secrets… pulling… starting… ✅ Sovnex is up.
If your vendor uses private images, run docker login once before this. Everything else is automatic — no config to edit.
Write down the admin login it prints at the end — admin@sovnex.io and a password generated for this install (also in .env as DEFAULT_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD). There is no factory default password any more.
Open the Admin console in your browser and sign in with the login the installer printed → License. Click Purchase a plan and pay: your deployment activates by itself in about 30 seconds. Already have an activation code from your vendor? Paste it under Activate online instead.
# Admin console (replace localhost with server IP) http://localhost/admin → License
Next: connect the built-in API gateway to your local AI engine and add a model provider — the Getting started guide walks you through it.
Optional, NVIDIA servers running vLLM: a rerank model makes retrieval find answers the wording missed — worth it when your questions and your documents are in different languages. It is not started by the installer. From the install folder: docker compose -p sovnex-vllm -f docker-compose-vllm.yml --profile rerank up -d vllm-rerank, then add it in the app under Model providers → VLLM, type Rerank, base URL http://vllm-rerank:8000/v1.
<host> = localhost on this machine; use the server's IP or domain for remote access.
./install.sh down./install.sh up./install.sh status./install.sh logs./install.sh upgradedocker login./install.sh logs