Self-Host Explorer
Next to the managed cloud deployment of 
Invariant Explorer, you can also run a self-hosted version of Explorer for local use.
This allows you to keep your traces private while still benefiting from the visualization and analysis features of Explorer. The self-hosted version of Explorer is available as a Docker Composer setup that you can run on your local machine.
Note The self-hosted version of Explorer is intended for local use and is not recommended for production deployments. For production use of a shared Explorer instance, please use the managed cloud instance.
1. Setup Docker and Docker Compose on Your Machine
First, install Docker Compose on your machine and make sure the docker service is running.
2. Install the invariant-ai Package
First, install the Invariant package in your local Python environment:
This package includes the utility scripts to launch the self-hosted version of Explorer.
3. Run the invariant explorer command
To start the self-hosted version of Explorer, run the following command:
This will pull and launch the required Explorer Docker containers on your machine. The images are build as configured in the open-source Explorer repository.
Arguments You can specify the
--portor--versionin the command to change the port or use a different version of Explorer (e.g.mainor a previous version). You can also specify alternative compose commands such asup -dordownto start or stop the Explorer containers.
Using the Self-Hosted Explorer
The self-hosted version of Explorer is configured to run on http://localhost. You can access it in your browser at this address. The local instance provides the same API as the managed cloud instance, so you can use the Invariant SDK to connect to it.
Storage
The self-hosted version of Explorer will create a data/ directory in the current working directory to store traces and other data.
Usage and Access
You can access the self-hosted version of Explorer at http://localhost. To use it with the Invariant SDK you can set the INVARIANT_API_ENDPOINT environment variable to http://localhost/. For security reasons, you'll still need to create and provide an API key to access the self-hosted version of Explorer.
Updates
invariant explorer will automatically check for updates and pull the latest stable version of the Explorer Docker images. If you want to try the latest development version, you can use the --version=main flag. Note however, that database migrations may be required when switching between versions, which may not always be backwards compatible.
Troubleshooting and Support
If you encounter any issues with the self-hosted version of Explorer, please refer to the Explorer repository for more information or open an issue there.
If you are interested in private, managed cloud deployments of Explorer, please contact us at explorer@invariantlabs.ai for more information.