> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://lightdash-mintlify-9d6f9427.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Self-host Lightdash using docker compose

This guide will give you a minimal Lightdash instance running on your local machine. It will not be accessible from the internet, but it will be accessible from your local machine. This is a great way to get started with Lightdash for a proof-of-concept without needing access to kubernetes.

## Prerequisites

* [Docker](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker)
* [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/install)

## 1. Clone the Lightdash repository

Clone the Lightdash code to your local machine. This will create a new directory called `./lightdash` (the Lightdash directory).

```bash theme={null}
# Clone the Lightdash repo
git clone https://github.com/lightdash/lightdash
cd lightdash
```

## 2. Update your ENV config

Edit all the ENV variables in `.env` to match your setup, eg:

```bash theme={null}
PGHOST=db
PGPORT=5432
PGUSER=pg_user *OR* machine username if no prior postgres set up
PGPASSWORD=pg_password *OR* blank if no prior postgres set up
PGDATABASE=postgres
DBT_DEMO_DIR=/*path*/*to*/lightdash/project/examples/full-jaffle-shop-demo
```

## 3. Create containers

You must set the following two environment variables:

* `PGPASSWORD` is the password used for the internal postgres database
* `LIGHTDASH_SECRET` is the secret used to encrypt data at rest in the database. If you lose this secret, you will not be able to access your data in Lightdash.

```bash theme={null}
export LIGHTDASH_SECRET="not very secret"
export PGPASSWORD="password"

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml --env-file .env up --detach --remove-orphans
```

<Info>
  If you have a Windows machine and get the error **Error response from daemon: i/o timeout**. Go to **Docker > Settings > General** and enable the option **Expose daemon on tcp\://localhost:2375 without TLS**
</Info>