Install a Dock

A Dock runs your sleeves in Docker on one machine and keeps them in the state you set in the console. It connects out to connect.sleevecast.com on port 443; you open no ports.

Requirements

A Windows 10 or 11 PC, a Mac, or a Linux machine or server, with about 4 GB of free memory (8 GB or more in total on Windows and macOS), about 20 GB of free disk, and outbound HTTPS (port 443). Each sleeve also uses the CPU and memory its spec allows.

You don't need to install Docker yourself: the installer checks what is there and installs or starts what is missing.

Docker Desktop is free for personal use, education and businesses with fewer than 250 employees and less than $10 million in annual revenue; larger organizations need a paid Docker subscription. Docker Engine on Linux is free.

Install

On Windows, in PowerShell (no need to run it as administrator):

irm https://get.sleevecast.com/dock.ps1 | iex

On Linux or macOS:

curl -fsSL https://get.sleevecast.com/dock.sh | sh

The installer first lists what it found and what it will do, and asks once before changing anything. Then it installs what is missing, writes a Docker Compose project to ~/.sleevecast/dock (on Windows, %USERPROFILE%\.sleevecast\dock), pulls the signed Dock image and starts it. The installers and their checksums are listed at get.sleevecast.com.

To only see what the installer would do, without changing anything:

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://get.sleevecast.com/dock.ps1))) -Check

curl -fsSL https://get.sleevecast.com/dock.sh | sh -s -- --check

For a scripted install with no question, use -Yes (Windows) or --yes (Linux and macOS) the same way.

Approve it

The installer shows a code and a link. Open the link, sign in with your Sleevecast account, check the code matches, and approve. Only Owners and Architects of an organization can approve a Dock. The Dock then appears on the Docks page, online within a few seconds.

Your plan sets how many Docks an organization can have (see Plans and limits).

Update

From Dock 0.7.0 on, a Dock updates itself. When Sleevecast ships a new Dock, each Dock checks it before it moves:

• the image must be signed with Sleevecast's release key, as the Dock image;
• the version inside the image must be newer than the running Dock, so an old Dock can never come back;
• by default the Dock waits until none of its sleeves is working (at most two hours).

The Dock then starts a short-lived updater that replaces the Dock's container with the new one and keeps the old one until the new one has run for half a minute. If the new one does not stay up, the old one comes back and the Docks page says why; the Dock tries that release again after 30 minutes. Sleeves keep running throughout, and their memory and your keys stay.

You decide on each machine how it takes updates. In the Dock's folder:

docker compose exec dock /app/dock updates           # show the setting
docker compose exec dock /app/dock updates manual    # update only when someone presses UPDATE NOW
docker compose exec dock /app/dock updates off       # never update by itself
docker compose exec dock /app/dock updates auto      # the default

The Docks page shows each Dock's update state (UPDATING, UPDATE WAITING, UPDATE TO, UPDATE FAILED). Owners and Architects can press UPDATE NOW to update at once, unless updates are off on that machine.

Rerunning the install command also updates a Dock in place, and is the way to update a Dock older than 0.7.0: those Docks show UPDATE TO with a copy button for that machine's command. The installer's compose.yaml keeps the version you installed; if you run docker compose up -d with it later, the Dock may start as that older version and then update itself again.

Check on it

In the Dock's folder:

docker compose exec dock /app/dock status

This shows the Dock's identity, its link to Sleevecast, the sleeves it runs and the state of your model keys on it.

Remove it

Remove the Dock on the Docks page first: this revokes its credential and stops its sleeves being managed. Then, in its folder:

docker compose exec dock /app/dock uninstall
docker compose down

Removing a Dock does not delete your sleeves' memory from the machine until you remove the Docker volumes yourself.