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Deployment Overview

Bodhi App ships in two supported flavors: a Tauri desktop app for personal use, and a Docker container for shared, always-on inference. Both run the same server, expose the same APIs, and use the same OAuth2 authentication. This page helps you pick.

If you want the conceptual difference first, read Concepts → Deployment Modes. This page is the operator-facing decision sheet.

Side-by-side

Tauri Desktop Docker (single-tenant)
Who runs the OS process You — launched like any other desktop app A server you control (VPS, homelab, GPU box, cloud VM)
Where data lives ~/.bodhi/ on your home directory A Docker volume mounted at /data (configurable via BODHI_HOME)
Single vs multi-user Single user (you, on this machine) Multiple users with separate accounts and roles
OAuth required Yes — first launch walks you through admin sign-in Yes — first user becomes admin; others request access
GPU access Native — Metal on macOS, CUDA on Windows/Linux (variant-dependent) Pick a GPU variant (CUDA, ROCm, Vulkan, MUSA, Intel, CANN)
Network reach localhost:1135 only — not exposed externally Any host/port you bind; pair with a reverse proxy for TLS
Update mechanism Download a new installer; ~/.bodhi is preserved docker pull the new tag and recreate the container
Intended use case Personal use, dev workstations, evaluation Team usage, always-on inference, GPU servers, sharing local models

Pick yours

Are you the only user, on your own machine?
├── Yes → Tauri Desktop
│         (/docs/deployment/desktop)
└── No
    ├── Need TLS / a public hostname?
    │   └── Docker + reverse proxy
    │       (/docs/deployment/docker, /docs/deployment/reverse-proxy)
    └── Internal LAN / homelab only?
        └── Docker (no proxy needed)
            (/docs/deployment/docker)

In short:

  • Choose desktop if you want zero ops and the lowest friction. It's also the fastest way to evaluate Bodhi.
  • Choose Docker if you want a shared, always-on server, want GPU acceleration on a non-laptop machine, or want to put it behind a domain name with TLS.

What this section covers

  • Desktop — Tauri specifics: system tray, browser auto-launch, the ~/.bodhi layout, per-platform secret storage, log locations, update flow.
  • Docker — Every published variant, docker run examples, required environment variables, volume mounts, and a docker-compose template.
  • Reverse Proxy — TLS termination and rate limiting in front of Docker, with Nginx and Caddy examples. Per the Bodhi security model, rate limiting is the responsibility of the reverse proxy, not the app.

What this section does not cover

  • Multi-tenant production deployment — exists internally for getbodhi.app itself, but is out of scope for this documentation.
  • The NAPI library (@bodhiapp/app-bindings) — for embedding the server inside another Node.js process; covered in the developer docs, not here.
  • Standalone HTTP binary (bodhi serve outside Docker) — supported for development, but not a recommended deployment path.

If you've picked a path, jump to Desktop or Docker next.