Requirements

Space Works runs as a set of Docker containers on one server. The installer checks most of the requirements on this page for you and refuses to change anything until they pass, but it helps to have them sorted out before you start.

The short version

For a first install on your local network you need:

a 64-bit x86_64 (amd64) Linux machine you can sudo on, with internet access;
at least 8 GiB of free disk where Space Works will be installed (/opt/spaceworks by default);
curl (or wget) and tar.

That’s it. The installer sets up Docker itself on Linux. Everything else on this page, like a domain name, HTTPS, email and external storage, is optional and can be added when you’re ready.

Operating system

The installer reads /etc/os-release to work out how to install packages. It supports these families:

Platform	Supported	How Docker gets installed
Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint	Yes	`apt` (`docker.io` plus the Compose V2 plugin)
Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, Rocky, AlmaLinux	Yes	`dnf`/`yum` from Docker’s official repository
Arch, Manjaro	Yes	`pacman`
openSUSE, SLES	Yes	`zypper`
macOS	Yes	Install and start Docker Desktop yourself first
Windows	Yes, with limits (see below)	Install and start Docker Desktop yourself first

Any other Linux distribution is refused with a clear message.

Windows

On Windows, Space Works needs Docker Desktop and a bash shell. What works depends on which shell you use:

Task	Git Bash	WSL2	PowerShell
Install (`install.sh`, `setup.sh`)	Yes	Yes	No: `setup.ps1` stops and points you to WSL2
Day-to-day Compose commands	Yes	Yes	No
Updates (`scripts/update.sh`)	Yes	Yes	No: `scripts/update.ps1` stops and points you to WSL2
Restore and backup import	No	Yes	No

Restore and backup import need Linux file locking (flock), sockets and file-ownership rules that Git Bash doesn’t provide, so they refuse to run there. Updates under Git Bash fall back to a simpler lock. If you might ever need to restore, use WSL2 from the start.

CPU architecture

The published release images are built for x86_64 (amd64) only. The installer accepts an aarch64/arm64 machine, such as a Raspberry Pi 4/5 on a 64-bit OS or an ARM cloud server, but there are no arm64 images to pull. On ARM, build the images on the machine itself from a full checkout of the repository with bash setup.sh --build (see One-line install). The single-box shape isn’t available that way. 32-bit systems aren’t supported at all.

Hardware

The installer requires 8 GiB of free disk space on the filesystem that holds the install directory. The project does not publish a minimum RAM or CPU figure. When you size a machine, keep in mind what the standard install runs:

PostgreSQL 16, Redis and the Silo object store;
the API (3 gunicorn workers by default), a separate live-updates process, a Celery worker (concurrency 4 by default) and a Celery beat scheduler;
the web frontend (nginx), plus Caddy if you choose automatic HTTPS.

On a small machine, the single-box install runs the API, worker, scheduler, live updates and website in one container instead.

Disk use grows over time with evidence photos, public images, print files and backups. Evidence photos are kept until your evidence retention policy expires them, so plan your storage with that in mind.

Software

Software	Version	Notes
Docker Engine	Any current release	Installed by the installer on Linux. On macOS and Windows, use Docker Desktop.
Docker Compose	V2 plugin (`docker compose`), 2.24.4 or newer recommended	2.24.4 is the first version that understands the `!reset` and `!override` tags the HTTPS, hosted-platform, API-only and external-storage layers use. If the plugin is missing, the installer downloads the latest release from GitHub.
curl or wget, and tar	Any	Must already exist: the installer needs them to read its questions before it installs anything.
sudo (or root)	Any	Linux only. Run the installer as a normal user and it asks for your password when it needs root.
Python 3	3.10 or newer, optional	Only needed on the host if you install the GitHub Actions runner. Without it, configuration checks run inside a container instead.

Network access

During install and updates the server needs outbound HTTPS access to:

github.com and api.github.com, to find and download releases;
ghcr.io, for the Space Works images (spaceworks-backend, spaceworks-frontend and, for the single box, spaceworks-allinone), all built for amd64;
Docker Hub, for the supporting images: postgres:16, redis:7-alpine, pgsty/silo, plus caddy and nginx when you use HTTPS or API-only mode.

Ports

The installer checks the ports your answers need after you’ve answered the questions, and stops if one is already in use.

Your choice	Ports that must be free
Plain HTTP (LAN or trial)	`80`
Automatic HTTPS (built-in Caddy)	`80` and `443`
Your own reverse proxy	`8080` (bound to `127.0.0.1` only)
Bundled Silo storage (not on a hosted platform)	`9000` and `9001` as well

With bundled storage, port 9000 is the storage API. On a plain HTTP install it is published so browsers on your network can upload and view photos; with HTTPS it is bound to loopback and served as files.<your-domain> instead. The storage console on 9001 always stays on 127.0.0.1.

Domain name and DNS

Setup	DNS you need
Plain HTTP on a LAN	None. Use the server’s IP address or local host name.
Automatic HTTPS	An `A`/`AAAA` record for your domain pointing at the server, plus `files.<your-domain>` if you use bundled storage. Inbound ports 80 and 443 must reach the server so certificates can be issued.
Your own reverse proxy	Your domain (and `files.<your-domain>` with bundled storage) pointing at your proxy.
Hosted platform with tenant subdomains	The platform domain, `origin.<platform>`, `files.<platform>` and each tenant subdomain (a wildcard record is convenient).

Point DNS at the server before you install with HTTPS, so the first certificate request succeeds. Domains and TLS covers each option in detail.

Outbound email (optional)

Space Works does not need email to run. Without it, password-reset emails can’t be sent, so the “Forgot password?” link is hidden and staff reset passwords for people from the console instead.

When you’re ready, add an SMTP server. You can set an instance-wide one in the staff console under Platform settings → Platform email, or per makerspace. Your server needs outbound access to the SMTP port your provider uses (587 by default). See Email.

Object storage

Evidence photos, print files, backups and public images live in S3-compatible object storage. You have two choices during setup:

Bundled Silo (default): a maintained, S3-compatible fork of MinIO runs on the same server. The installer creates the two buckets, turns on versioning, keeps the evidence bucket private and makes the public-image bucket readable. Nothing to prepare.
External S3-compatible buckets such as AWS S3, Cloudflare R2 or Supabase Storage. You create two separate buckets (a private one for evidence and a public-read one for images), turn on versioning and set CORS to allow your website’s origin, all in your provider’s dashboard. The installer never changes remote bucket policies.

See Object storage for the provider details.

Optional extras

You can skip all of these during setup and add them later:

a Google OAuth Web client ID for “Sign in with Google”;
Stripe secret and webhook keys, if you turn on online payments;
a GitHub Actions runner for automatic deploys (Linux with systemd only), see Updates.