Self Hosted Overview & Guide
Self Hosted Overview & Guide
Deploy RapidMCP on your own infrastructure using Docker Compose.
RapidMCP — Self-hosted edition
Run RapidMCP on your own VM with Docker Compose. This is ideal for enterprises needing data residency, security, or compliance controls.
Prerequisites
- A VM you control (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended)
- Docker and Docker Compose installed
- A license key and private image credentials (provided after purchase)
Get started
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1. Clone the repo and configure .env
Set up the project on your VM and configure your environment.
git clone https://github.com/joshuaheslin/rapid-mcp-self-hosted.git
cd rapid-mcp-self-hosted/docker-compose
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and set EE_LICENSE_KEY and other values2. Authenticate the private image registry
You will receive registry credentials with your license. Log in before pulling images.
docker login ....Tip: exact pull instructions are provided after purchase.
3. Start the stack (app, API, Postgres)
docker compose up -dThis will start all containers and create a persistent Docker volume for Postgres.
4. Point your domain and set up TLS
- Add an A record pointing to your VM’s public IP
- Terminate TLS via Cloudflare or your own reverse proxy/ingress
5. Verify access
Open your browser to http://<VM-IP> (or your domain). You should see RapidMCP. Use your license-enabled credentials to sign in.
Releases and updates
We publish updates using Semantic Versioning (SemVer) on the releases page. See the latest version here: https://github.com/joshuaheslin/rapid-mcp-self-hosted/releases
To upgrade, bump the image tags in your docker-compose.yaml to the desired version, then pull and redeploy.
Example: bump from 1.0.0 to 1.0.1
services:
web:
image: us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/rapidmcp-corp/mcp-apps/web:1.0.1
backend:
image: us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/rapidmcp-corp/mcp-apps/mcp-backend:1.0.1Apply the update:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -dPinning strategy
Please pin to exact versions for deterministic deploys.
- Pin exact:
:1.0.1(recommended for deterministic deploys) - Floating:
:latest(if you like to live dangerously 🫢)
Operations
- Upgrade images:
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d - Restart:
docker compose restart - Stop:
docker compose stop
Example infrastructure setup
Below is a minimal reference architecture you can adapt:
- VM: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, 2 vCPU, 4–8 GB RAM, 30+ GB SSD
- Network: 80/443 open, SSH locked to your IP
- DNS:
app.yourdomain.com → <VM-IP> - TLS: Cloudflare proxy or Nginx with certificates
Data location
Postgres data persists in the Docker volume (e.g., /var/lib/docker/volumes/<project>_pgdata).
For the latest instructions and updates, see the GitHub repository: https://github.com/joshuaheslin/rapid-mcp-self-hosted
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