Self-host your assistant

Uruchom asystenta u siebie

The whole agent is one Docker container. No account with us, no dashboard, no telemetry. You bring a dedicated mailbox for it and an OpenRouter key, and everything it learns stays on your machine.

Cały agent to jeden kontener Dockera. Bez konta u nas, bez panelu, bez telemetrii. Ty dajesz dedykowaną skrzynkę dla niego i klucz OpenRouter, a wszystko, czego się nauczy, zostaje na Twojej maszynie.

Self-hosting means you are the operator: you own the updates and the backups. That is the deal. This page is the shortest honest path through it.

Self-hosting znaczy, że jesteś operatorem: aktualizacje i backupy są na Twojej głowie. Taki jest układ. Ta strona to najkrótsza uczciwa droga przez ten proces.

A dedicated address at a mail provider

Dedykowany adres u dostawcy poczty

Create a separate address for the agent at your mail provider — or a new one. No server to run, no DNS to edit. About 15 minutes, start to first reply.

Załóż osobny adres dla agenta u swojego dostawcy poczty — albo u nowego. Żadnego serwera do prowadzenia, żadnego DNS-u do edycji. Około 15 minut od startu do pierwszej odpowiedzi.

1. Get an OpenRouter key

   Create an account at openrouter.ai, add a small amount of credit, and create a key with a monthly limit. That limit is your blast radius if anything goes wrong.

2. Create the agent's own mailbox

   Create a separate, dedicated address for the agent (e.g. [email protected]). Do not use your personal inbox. Turn on IMAP/SMTP access and create an app password — never your main login password.

   Common providers and their servers:

   Provider	IMAP	SMTP
   Gmail / Workspace	imap.gmail.com	smtp.gmail.com
   Fastmail	imap.fastmail.com	smtp.fastmail.com
   mailbox.org	imap.mailbox.org	smtp.mailbox.org
   Migadu	imap.migadu.com	smtp.migadu.com
   Zoho Mail	imap.zoho.com	smtp.zoho.com
   iCloud+	imap.mail.me.com	smtp.mail.me.com

   Gmail: app passwords only appear after you turn on 2-Step Verification. Use port 465 (SSL) or 587 (STARTTLS).

3. Install Docker

   Follow the official instructions for your system at docs.docker.com. You need the docker compose plugin (v2).

4. Download the compose file and fill it in

   terminal

   mkdir -p ~/uff-agent/brain && cd ~/uff-agent
   curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/worotyns/uff-agent/main/docker-compose.yml
   nano docker-compose.yml

   Everything is set in the environment: block — there is no separate .env file. The values that matter:

   docker-compose.yml

   OPENROUTER_KEY: sk-or-v1-...
   EMAIL_USER: [email protected]   # dedicated mailbox
   EMAIL_PASSWORD: your-app-password
   EMAIL_IMAP_HOST: imap.yourdomain.com
   EMAIL_SMTP_HOST: smtp.yourdomain.com
   EMAIL_OWNER: [email protected]        # only this address may write
   USER_LANGUAGE: pl
   USER_TIMEZONE: Europe/Warsaw

   EMAIL_OWNER is the security boundary. Only this address can talk to the agent. Mail from anyone else is logged and dropped.

5. Start it

   terminal

   docker compose up -d
   docker compose logs -f

   You should see the config load, the IMAP listener connect, and the scheduler start. It then sits quietly, polling the inbox.

6. Test it — allowed and denied

   Send an email from EMAIL_OWNER to the agent's address, e.g. “Summarize this thread and list the next steps.” A reply should arrive in the same thread.

   Then send one from a different address. Nothing should happen to you — the agent ignores it and the log shows “ignored email … (not in whitelist)”. That is the whole access-control model, and it is worth seeing it work once.

   Where did the test mail go? By default EMAIL_DELETE_AFTER_READ=true, so the agent removes each message from its inbox once processed. Set it to false if you want them kept.

7. Keep it alive

   terminal

   # update to the latest image
   docker compose pull && docker compose up -d
   
   # back up everything it knows
   tar czf uff-brain-$(date +%F).tar.gz brain/

   brain/ is the entire state: memory, threads, indexed documents, its config and its personality. It is the only thing worth backing up.

• [!]

  Your main password in the compose file. Use an app password, scoped to mail, revocable on its own. You will paste this file into terminals.

• [!]

  No backups. brain/ is months of accumulated memory. Losing it is losing the assistant's whole history. Back it up like it matters.