---
sidebar_position: 4
title: Build RAGFlow Docker Image
sidebar_label: Build RAGFlow Docker Image
slug: /build_docker_image
sidebar_custom_props: {
  categoryIcon: LucidePackage
}
---

# Build RAGFlow Docker Image

Build the Go backend and web frontend into a local Docker image for development and testing. The image uses external LLM and embedding services at runtime.

## Prerequisites

- A recommended starting configuration of 4 CPU cores, 16 GB RAM, and 50 GB free disk space. Actual requirements depend on the selected document engine, local models, build concurrency, and data volume.
- Docker ≥ 24.0.0 with Docker Compose ≥ v2.26.1 and BuildKit
- Access to the `infiniflow/ragflow_deps:latest` and `infiniflow/github_action_runner:latest` images during the build

The documented Go image target is `linux/amd64`. On an Apple Silicon Mac, Docker Desktop builds and runs this image through x86-64 emulation.

## Platform support

- **Linux x86-64:** This is the supported Docker build target. In the RAGFlow open-source 1.0 release, DeepDoc uses CPU inference for layout analysis, OCR, and table recognition.
- **Apple Silicon macOS:** Build and run the `linux/amd64` image through Docker Desktop x86-64 emulation. Document processing and image builds may be slower than on an x86-64 Linux host.
- **Linux ARM64:** A native Go Docker build is not currently supported. The Go image depends on native libraries that are published for Linux x86-64. Use a Linux x86-64 host for a supported native build.
- **Document engines:** Elasticsearch is the default engine in the Compose example. Infinity and other supported engines may have different CPU, GPU, and architecture requirements; verify the selected engine before deployment.

Before starting the stack, make sure the host ports used by the selected Compose profile are available. At minimum, check the web, metadata database, cache, object storage, and NATS monitoring ports. For the Go deployment, change the corresponding values in `docker/.env`; use `docker/.env` only when a separate command explicitly loads that file.

## Build the Go image

Run the build from the repository root. Keep the `.git` directory in the build context: `Dockerfile` uses it to stamp the image version.

```bash
git clone https://github.com/infiniflow/ragflow.git
cd ragflow
docker build --platform linux/amd64 -f Dockerfile -t ragflow:go-local .
```

`Dockerfile` builds the Go server and web frontend. `infiniflow/ragflow_deps:latest` supplies document models and tokenizer assets; `infiniflow/github_action_runner:latest` supplies the build toolchain and prebuilt ONNX Runtime libraries. You do not need to build either dependency image separately for this command.

## Start the service

For the default Elasticsearch document engine on Linux, set `vm.max_map_count` to at least 262144 on the Docker host. For macOS, use the Docker Desktop command below instead.

```bash
sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
```

Set `RAGFLOW_IMAGE=ragflow:go-local` in `docker/.env`. That file also controls the document engine, CPU or GPU selection, ports, and dependency credentials. Change the default passwords before making the service accessible over a network.

```bash
cd docker
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d
```

The Compose deployment starts the `ragflow-cpu` service. The open-source 1.0 Go DeepDoc backend uses CPU inference.

## Verify the service

```bash
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml ps
docker logs --tail 50 ragflow-cpu
curl -f http://localhost/api/v1/system/healthz
```

A healthy API returns HTTP 200. If you changed `SVR_WEB_HTTP_PORT` in `.env`, use that port in the health-check URL and when opening the web interface in a browser.

For a development checkout, a database version error may require `RAGFLOW_DEV_MODE=true` in `.env`. Use this only for local development; keep it `false` for production.

## macOS with Docker Desktop

The same Go image and Compose file work on macOS. On Apple Silicon, keep `--platform linux/amd64` in the build command so that the x86-64 Go image and native libraries use the same architecture. Emulation can make the build and document processing slower than on an x86-64 Linux host.

1. Start Docker Desktop and build from the repository root:

   ```bash
   git clone https://github.com/infiniflow/ragflow.git
   cd ragflow
   docker build --platform linux/amd64 -f Dockerfile -t ragflow:go-local .
   ```

2. If you use the default Elasticsearch document engine, set `vm.max_map_count` inside Docker Desktop's Linux virtual machine:

   ```bash
   docker run --rm --privileged alpine sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
   ```

   Repeat this command after restarting Docker Desktop. It is unnecessary when using another document engine such as Infinity.

3. Set `RAGFLOW_IMAGE=ragflow:go-local` in `docker/.env`, then start the Go stack:

   ```bash
   cd docker
   docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d
   curl -f http://localhost/api/v1/system/healthz
   ```

   Wait for the health check to return HTTP 200, then open `http://localhost` in a browser. Include `SVR_WEB_HTTP_PORT` in both URLs if you changed its default value.