Docker

Prefer Docker Compose to keep settings together. The manual option below uses an image you build locally. First build the wa-indexer:development image with the Compose guide's build command, which records the source revision, then stop that installation before starting another archive instance. Docker Engine 28+ is required. Public CI for commit 401c4ba passed synthetic native Linux ARM64 and AMD64 container checks; real-account, live-provider, and end-user client tests are still pending.

Run the built image

docker volume create wa-indexer-standalone-data
docker run -d --name wa-indexer-standalone --restart unless-stopped \
  --read-only --cap-drop ALL --security-opt no-new-privileges:true \
  --tmpfs /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid,size=16m,mode=1777 \
  -p 127.0.0.1:8123:8123 \
  --mount type=volume,src=wa-indexer-standalone-data,dst=/var/lib/wa-indexer \
  wa-indexer:development serve --container \
  --browser-origin http://127.0.0.1:8123 \
  --docker-container-name wa-indexer-standalone \
  --data-dir /var/lib/wa-indexer/data
docker exec wa-indexer-standalone wa-indexer owner-link --data-dir /var/lib/wa-indexer/data

Open the private returned link within 30 seconds, or repeat owner-link. For host port 9000, change both the published mapping to 127.0.0.1:9000:8123 and browser origin to http://127.0.0.1:9000. Keep the internal port 8123. Owner links and browser sessions are distinct from per-client MCP grants. Do not publish the owner interface to your LAN or Internet.

The private volume includes databases, session, models/configuration and client files; the app runs as UID/GID 10001:10001. Keep host disk encryption enabled: SQLite is not encrypted by the app. Docker access can control this private archive, so grant it only to trusted users.

Stop and retain data

docker stop --time 10 wa-indexer-standalone
docker rm wa-indexer-standalone

These commands retain wa-indexer-standalone-data. Run the original command again to recreate the container with that same volume. For an update, take a full stopped-writer backup first and select the intended image; do not delete the volume. The backup helper commands also work for this named volume after every writer has stopped, substituting the exact standalone volume and container. Uninstall separates removal from irreversible data deletion.

This uses the same preview image as Docker Compose. There is no published image to pull, and real WhatsApp imports, live providers, and actual AI-client calls have not yet been confirmed for this setup.