Installation

Before you start, open the firewall ports and create the DNS record described in Networking. The HTTPS certificate cannot be issued until DNS resolves to the host.

1. Prepare the files

Installer (recommended)

SSH into the host and run:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/comcent-io/comcent-ce/main/install.sh | bash

The installer takes about 30 seconds and:

1. Verifies curl and openssl, and installs Docker via get.docker.com if it is missing.
2. Verifies the Docker Compose plugin.
3. Detects the host’s public IP.
4. Generates strong random values for POSTGRES_PASSWORD, RABBITMQ_PASSWORD, INTERNAL_API_PASSWORD, RPC_API_TOKEN, SECRET_KEY_BASE and SIGNING_KEY.
5. Downloads docker-compose.deploy.yaml as docker-compose.yaml.
6. Writes .env with file mode 600: known values filled in, the rest marked replaceMe.

Everything goes into ~/comcent-ce/. The installer does not pull images or start the stack.

Two environment variables change its behaviour:

Variable	Default	Effect
INSTALL_DIR	~/comcent-ce	Where the files are written
COMCENT_BRANCH	main	Which branch of the repository to download the compose file from

Caution

The installer refuses to run if .env already exists in the target directory, so it never overwrites your secrets. Move the old file aside or set INSTALL_DIR to a new location.

Manual

If you prefer not to pipe a script into your shell, do the same steps by hand:

mkdir -p ~/comcent-ce && cd ~/comcent-ce
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/comcent-io/comcent-ce/main/docker-compose.deploy.yaml \
  -o docker-compose.yaml

Then create .env in the same directory with the variables listed in Configuration. Generate each secret yourself, for example:

openssl rand -hex 32        # SIGNING_KEY
openssl rand -base64 64     # SECRET_KEY_BASE
openssl rand -base64 48     # passwords and tokens

Keep .env private (chmod 600 .env) and out of source control.

2. Fill in .env

nano ~/comcent-ce/.env

Search for replaceMe and replace every occurrence:

Variable	What to set
COMCENT_DOMAIN	Your hostname, for example voice.yourdomain.com
LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL	Email for certificate renewal alerts
SOURCE_EMAIL	Sender for invites and password resets
SMTP_URL	smtp://user:pass@host:port. Leave blank to disable email.
STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME, AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	Your S3 or S3-compatible bucket for recordings and uploads

Optionally add DEEPGRAM_API_KEY and OPENAI_API_KEY to enable transcription, AI analysis and voice bots. The full list is in Configuration.

3. Start the stack

cd ~/comcent-ce
docker compose up -d

The first run pulls about 800 MB of images and takes 5–10 minutes. That is normal. Follow the server as it boots:

docker compose logs -f server

The HTTPS certificate is issued about a minute after the first start. Database migrations run automatically every time the server starts.

4. Claim your instance

On first start the server prints a one-time setup token for creating the first admin account:

docker compose logs server | grep -A 10 "FIRST-RUN SETUP"

1. Open https://<COMCENT_DOMAIN>/setup.
2. Enter the setup token, your name, email and password, and your organisation’s details.
3. Submit. You are now the instance’s super-admin and the first member of your organisation.

Lost the token? It is printed again on every server start until the instance is claimed:

docker compose restart server
docker compose logs server | grep -A 10 "FIRST-RUN SETUP"

Next steps

• Connect your SIP trunk and add numbers
• Build an inbound call flow
• Invite your team