Deploying Serin

Serin is a single container: FastAPI serves both the API and the built web UI on one port. State is one SQLite file + one secrets key file in /data.

The 60-second deploy (Docker Compose)

The only prerequisite is Docker (Docker Desktop on macOS/Windows, the engine + compose plugin on Linux).

git clone https://github.com/aviary-ai-labs/serin.git && cd serin
docker compose up -d --build

Then open http://localhost:8890. That's the whole install: free Yahoo market data works out of the box, and API keys are optional, added later in the Connectors tab if you want them.

docker-compose.yml mounts a named volume at /data (database + secrets key). That volume is your Serin — back it up.

Environment variables that matter in production

Var	Purpose	Recommendation
`SERIN_AUTH_PASSWORD`	App lock: passphrase for the web UI, bearer token for API clients	Set it for anything reachable beyond localhost
`SERIN_SECRET_KEY`	32-byte base64/hex key for secrets-at-rest	Set it so the key never lives next to the DB; else `/data/.serin-key` is auto-generated
`SERIN_LOG_FORMAT`	`json` for structured request logs	`json` behind a log collector
`FMP_API_KEY`, `SNAPTRADE_*`, `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY`	Providers	Optional — all configurable in the portal UI instead
`SERIN_SMTP_*`, `SERIN_EMAIL_TO`	Briefing email delivery	Optional

HTTPS

Serin does not terminate TLS. Put it behind Caddy / Traefik / nginx, or reach it over Tailscale/WireGuard (the natural fit for a personal instance):

serin.example.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:8890
}

Platform notes

Fly.io — fly launch --image from the Dockerfile; add a 1GB volume mounted at /data; set secrets with fly secrets set SERIN_AUTH_PASSWORD=….
Railway / Render — deploy the Dockerfile; attach a persistent disk at /data; configure the env vars above in the dashboard.
Umbrel / CasaOS / TrueNAS — generic Docker app: image from this repo, port 8890, volume /data. Reach it from a phone browser over your LAN or Tailscale.

Backup & restore

In-app: Connectors tab → Data panel → Download backup (full JSON) and Positions CSV. Restore uploads the same JSON.
File-level: snapshot the /data volume. Keep .serin-key (or SERIN_SECRET_KEY) separate from DB backups if you want leaked backups to be useless (see SECURITY.md).

Upgrades

git pull && docker compose up -d --build

Schema migrations run automatically on startup (schema_version table) and are additive; downgrading is not supported — restore a backup instead.

Health & monitoring

GET /api/v1/version — liveness (used by the container healthcheck).
Request logs: one line per request (method, path, status, ms). With SERIN_LOG_FORMAT=json each line is a JSON object for ingestion.
No telemetry — nothing leaves the box unless you configured a provider.