Installation

Kaisoft is distributed privately while in preview. Your Kaisoft contact sends you a download link for the Docker image (or a native installer). You don’t need a container registry account.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

Docker 24.0 or higher installed (Get Docker)
4 GB RAM minimum (8 GB recommended)
10 GB free disk space
A download link from Kaisoft — sent to you by email. Links are time-limited; if yours has expired, ask for a fresh one.
A license file (.jwt) from Kaisoft — usually sent with your download link. Without it, Kai the AI agent stays locked. See Licensing.
An LLM API key from one of the supported providers — you’ll paste it into Settings after signing in:
- OpenAI — GPT-4o
- Anthropic — Claude
- Groq — Free tier available
- Ollama — Self-hosted, no API key needed (ollama.com)

Step 1 — Download the image

Open the link you received and download the file, which looks like:

kaisoft-preview-<version>-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Save it somewhere convenient, e.g. ~/Downloads.

Step 2 — Load the image into Docker

Open a terminal in the folder where you saved the file and run:

docker load -i kaisoft-preview-<version>-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Docker prints the name of the loaded image. To keep commands simple, retag it:

docker tag $(docker images --format '{{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}' | grep kaisoft | head -1) kaisoft:latest

Step 3 — Start the container

docker run -d \
  --name kaisoft \
  -p 8080:7080 \
  -v kaisoft-data:/app/data \
  kaisoft:latest

This maps port 8080 on your machine to Kaisoft’s internal port 7080, and creates a kaisoft-data volume so your dashboards, chat history, and configuration survive restarts.

Open your browser and navigate to:

http://localhost:8080

You’ll see the Kaisoft sign-in page. Sign in with the initial admin account:

Username: admin
Password: admin

You’ll immediately be asked to set a new password — this is required before you can use the app. Choose something you’ll remember; this admin account controls the whole workspace.

Note: If your organisation gave you personal credentials instead, use those — the forced password change still applies on first sign-in.

Step 5 — Upload your license

Click License (key icon) in the left sidebar and drop in the .jwt license file you received from Kaisoft. It validates and activates immediately.

Without a license you can still explore the app — dashboards, data sources, and reports all work — but Kai, the AI agent, is locked. See Licensing for details.

Verify the installation

docker ps --filter name=kaisoft
curl http://localhost:8080/health

You should see the container Up and the health endpoint responding. If the sign-in page doesn’t load, wait 30–60 seconds — the app takes a moment to initialise on first run.

Docker Compose (optional)

If you prefer Docker Compose, create a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  kaisoft:
    image: kaisoft:latest
    container_name: kaisoft
    ports:
      - "8080:7080"
    volumes:
      - kaisoft-data:/app/data
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  kaisoft-data:

Start with docker compose up -d.

Updating Kaisoft

When Kaisoft sends you a link for a newer version:

# Download the new tarball, then:
docker load -i kaisoft-preview-<new-version>-linux-amd64.tar.gz
docker tag $(docker images --format '{{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}' | grep kaisoft | grep <new-version>) kaisoft:latest
docker stop kaisoft && docker rm kaisoft
docker run -d --name kaisoft -p 8080:7080 -v kaisoft-data:/app/data kaisoft:latest

Your data is preserved in the kaisoft-data volume.

Next steps

Once you’re signed in, head to First Steps to connect your first data source and ask your first question.