Install pgai with Docker

Install pgai with Docker

To run pgai, you need to run two containers:

1. A PostgreSQL instance with the pgai extension installed.
2. A vectorizer worker that syncs your data to the database and creates embeddings (only needed if using pgai vectorizer) .

We have example docker-compose files to get you started:

• docker compose for pgai - for using pgai with OpenAI and Voyage AI
• docker compose for pgai with Ollama - for using pgai with Ollama running locally

If you want to run the containers by themselves, see the detailed instructions below.

Detailed instructions for running the containers

Run the PostgreSQL instance

1. Run the docker container. The suggested command is:

   docker run -d --name pgai -p 5432:5432 \
   -v pg-data:/home/postgres/pgdata/data \
   -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=password timescale/timescaledb-ha:pg17

   This will start a PostgreSQL instance for development purposes using a volume called pg-data for data storage. To run in production, you would need to change the password above. See the full Docker image instructions for more information. You’ll be able to connect to the database using the following connection string: postgres://postgres:password@localhost/postgres

2. Create the pgai extension in your database:

   docker exec -it pgai psql -U postgres -c "CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS ai CASCADE;"

Run the vectorizer worker

1. Run the vectorizer worker container:

   docker run -d --name pgai-vectorizer-worker -e PGAI_VECTORIZER_WORKER_DB_URL=postgres://postgres:password@localhost/postgres timescale/pgai-vectorizer-worker:latest