V Vant Docs

Docker

Run Vant in containers. Two ports are involved:

Port Service Where
3457 MCP (JSON-RPC over HTTP) lib/mcp.js, VANT_MCP_PORT
3456 REST/health server lib/server.js, VANT_SERVER_PORT 
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│          Vant Docker Setup                  │
│                                             │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐    │
│  │        Docker Container             │    │
│  │                                     │    │
│  │  /app/models  <- brain volume       │    │
│  │  /app/config  <- config volume      │    │
│  │                                     │    │
│  │  Port 3457    <- MCP                │    │
│  │  Port 3456    <- API/Server         │    │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────┘    │
│                    │                        │
│                    v                        │
│          GitHub (external)                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Quick Start

Run Container

# Basic run
docker run -it dhaupin/vant vant start

# With brain volume
docker run -it -v vant-brain:/app/models dhaupin/vant vant load

# With full config
docker run -it \
  -e GITHUB_REPO=owner/repo \
  -e GITHUB_TOKEN=xxx \
  -v vant-brain:/app/models \
  dhaupin/vant vant start

MCP Server

# Run MCP server (default port 3457)
docker run -d -p 3457:3457 \
  -e GITHUB_REPO=owner/repo \
  -e GITHUB_TOKEN=xxx \
  -v vant-brain:/app/models \
  dhaupin/vant vant mcp

Image Tags

Tag What Use For
latest Latest release Development
v0.8.x Specific version Production
v0.8.6 Pinned version Reproducibility 
# Pull specific version
docker pull dhaupin/vant:v0.8.6

Volumes

Volume Purpose Persists
/app/models Brain storage Yes
/app/config Config files Yes
/app/logs Log files No 
# Create volume
docker volume create vant-brain

# Use volume
docker run -v vant-brain:/app/models dhaupin/vant vant start

Upgrading an existing volume (pre-multi-brain layout)

If your volume predates the multi-brain layout (brain files flat in models/public/), the first vant start on Vant 0.9 and later imports it automatically, default brain name vant, confirmation banner on the CLI. Skip with --no-migrate, or run manually:

docker run -v vant-brain:/app/models dhaupin/vant vant migrate --status
docker run -v vant-brain:/app/models dhaupin/vant vant migrate --dry-run
docker run -v vant-brain:/app/models dhaupin/vant vant migrate --brain-name mybrain
docker run -v vant-brain:/app/models dhaupin/vant vant migrate

Detection is content-based and idempotent; nothing is lost, and repeat runs are no-ops.

Environment Variables

Variable Required What
GITHUB_TOKEN Yes GitHub API token
GITHUB_REPO Yes Brain repository
VANT_SERVER_PORT No REST/health port (default: 3456)
VANT_MCP_PORT No MCP port (default: 3457)
VANT_MCP_REQUIRE_KEY No Require API key for MCP (true/false)

Dockerfile

FROM node:20-alpine

WORKDIR /app

COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --production

COPY . .

ENV NODE_ENV=production

EXPOSE 3456 3457

CMD ["node", "bin/vant.js", "server"]

docker-compose.yaml

version: '3.8'

services:
  vant:
    image: dhaupin/vant:latest
    ports:
      - "3456:3456"
      - "3457:3457"
    environment:
      - GITHUB_TOKEN=${GITHUB_TOKEN}
      - GITHUB_REPO=${GITHUB_REPO}
    volumes:
      - vant-brain:/app/models
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  vant-brain:

Run:

docker-compose up -d

Kubernetes

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: vant
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: vant
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: vant
        image: dhaupin/vant:latest
        env:
        - name: GITHUB_TOKEN
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: vant-secrets
              key: github-token
        - name: GITHUB_REPO
          value: owner/brain
        ports:
        - containerPort: 3456
        - containerPort: 3457
        volumeMounts:
        - name: brain
          mountPath: /app/models
      volumes:
      - name: brain
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: vant-brain

Health Check

# Check health
curl http://localhost:3456/health

# Response
{"status": "ok", "uptime": 3600}