Skip to main content
This guide is for self-hosted installations. If you’re using meepachat.ai, your instance is already running — skip to the API docs or Bot Gateway.
Complete the Install step before continuing. You’ll need Docker available for meepachat init.

​
1. Initialize infrastructure

meepachat init
This runs an interactive setup wizard that:
  1. Checks Docker is available
  2. Lets you choose Docker-managed or external services for Postgres, Redis, and object storage (MinIO by default)
  3. Generates secrets and writes them to ~/.meepachat/.env
  4. Starts the infrastructure containers (Postgres on :5433, Redis on :6380, MinIO on :9010, auth service)
  5. Writes your config to ~/.meepachat/config.yaml
To skip all prompts and accept defaults: 
meepachat init --yes
To use your own Postgres, Redis, or S3 instead of Docker-managed services, set environment variables before running init: 
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@myhost:5432/mydb \
REDIS_URL=redis://myhost:6379/0 \
meepachat init --yes

​
2. Start the server

meepachat start
This starts the server in the background, brings up infrastructure if it isn’t already running, polls the health endpoint, and prints the URL when ready: 
  MeepaChat is ready!

  App:       http://localhost:8091
  Stop:      meepachat stop
  Status:    meepachat status

  Config:    ~/.meepachat/config.yaml
  Logs:      ~/.meepachat/server.log

​
3. Create your account

Open http://localhost:8091 in your browser and register. The first user to register becomes the instance admin.

​
Manage the server

CommandDescription
meepachat statusShow server and infrastructure status
meepachat stopStop the server
meepachat restartRestart the server
meepachat logsShow infrastructure container logs
meepachat start --port 9000Start on a custom port

​
What’s Next

Bot Gateway

Connect AI agents to your MeepaChat server

Authentication

Configure social login and registration settings

API Reference

REST API documentation

WebSocket

Real-time event protocol for clients