Running Locally

Get Rhesis running on your local machine in under 5 minutes with zero configuration required.

Overview

Perfect for quickly testing Rhesis locally without any configuration hassles. This setup includes:

• ✅ No Auth0 setup required - Local authentication bypass enabled
• ✅ Pre-configured database - PostgreSQL with automatic setup
• ✅ Auto-login enabled - Access the dashboard immediately
• ✅ Default admin user - admin@local.dev created automatically
• ✅ All secrets included - Development-safe defaults provided

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop installed and running
• Git (to clone the repository)
• Ports 3000, 8080, 8081, 5432, and 6379 available on your system

Quick Start

Get Rhesis running in under 5 minutes:

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/rhesis-ai/rhesis.git
cd rhesis

# 2. Start all services with one command
./rh start

# That's it! The platform will automatically:
# - Generate database encryption key
# - Create .env.docker.local with local configuration
# - Start all services (backend, frontend, database, worker)
# - Create default admin user and example data
# - Enable auto-login

# 3. Access the platform
# Frontend: http://localhost:3000 (auto-login enabled)
# Backend API: http://localhost:8080/docs
# Worker Health: http://localhost:8081/health/basic

# 4. (Optional) Enable test generation
# Get your API key from https://app.rhesis.ai/
# Edit .env.docker.local and update RHESIS_API_KEY=your-actual-key

That’s it! The ./rh start command automatically:

• Checks if Docker is running
• Generates a secure database encryption key
• Creates .env.docker.local with all required configuration
• Enables local authentication bypass (auto-login)
• Starts all services
• Creates the database and runs migrations
• Creates the default admin user (Local Admin)
• Loads example test data

What You Get

Configuration Files

The zero-configuration setup uses these files:

├── 

├── 

└── 

Auto-Generated Configuration

When you run ./rh start, the .env.docker.local file is automatically created with:

Auto-Generated Keys:

• Database encryption key (using Python cryptography.fernet)
• Local authentication bypass flags:
  • QUICK_START=true (enables backend auto-login endpoint)
  • NEXT_PUBLIC_QUICK_START=true (enables frontend auto-login detection)

You can add (optional):

• Rhesis API key (for test generation)
• AI provider keys (Gemini, OpenAI, Azure)
• SMTP credentials (for email notifications)

Default Services:

• Backend API on port 8080
• Frontend on port 3000
• Worker on port 8081
• PostgreSQL on port 5432
• Redis on port 6379

Default Access

Once running, access the platform at:

Optional Configuration

Enable Test Generation

The local setup works out-of-the-box, but to enable test generation, you need an AI provider. Two options:

Option 1: Use Rhesis API (Recommended)

1. Get your API key from https://app.rhesis.ai/ 
2. Edit .env.docker.local and add:

RHESIS_API_KEY=your-actual-rhesis-api-key-here

Option 2: Use Your Own AI Provider

Add your provider’s credentials to .env.docker.local:

# Google Gemini
GEMINI_API_KEY=your-gemini-api-key
GEMINI_MODEL_NAME=gemini-2.0-flash-001
GOOGLE_API_KEY=your-google-api-key

# Or Azure OpenAI
AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT=your-endpoint
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key
AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME=gpt-4o
AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION=your-version

# Or OpenAI
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-key
OPENAI_MODEL_NAME=gpt-4o

After updating, restart services:

./rh restart

Managing Services

Use the ./rh CLI for easy service management:

Stop services:

# Stop all services
./rh stop

View logs:

# All services (follow in real-time)
./rh logs

# Specific service
./rh logs backend
./rh logs frontend
./rh logs worker

Restart services:

# Restart all services
./rh restart

Delete everything (fresh start):

# Remove all containers, volumes, images, and data
./rh delete

# Then start fresh
./rh start

Troubleshooting

Docker not running

# The ./rh start command checks automatically
# If you see this error:
# ❌ Error: Docker is not running
# 💡 Please start Docker Desktop and try again

# Start Docker Desktop, then run:
./rh start

Port already in use

# Check what's using a port (e.g., port 3000)
lsof -i :3000

# Kill the process
kill -9 

Need a fresh start

# Delete everything and start fresh
./rh delete
./rh start

Check service health

# View all running containers
docker compose ps

# Check backend health
curl http://localhost:8080/health

# Check worker health
curl http://localhost:8081/health/basic

Python cryptography package missing

# If you see this error:
# ❌ Error: Failed to generate encryption key
# 💡 Make sure Python 3 and cryptography package are installed

# Install the package:
pip install cryptography

# Then run:
./rh start

Auto-login not working

# Check if Quick Start variables are set correctly
cat .env.docker.local | grep QUICK_START

# Should show:
# QUICK_START=true
# NEXT_PUBLIC_QUICK_START=true

# If missing, add them:
echo "QUICK_START=true" >> .env.docker.local
echo "NEXT_PUBLIC_QUICK_START=true" >> .env.docker.local

# Then restart:
./rh restart

Note: The ./rh start command automatically sets both variables. If you’re manually configuring, ensure both QUICK_START=true (for backend) and NEXT_PUBLIC_QUICK_START=true (for frontend) are set in your .env.docker.local file. If you add these variables after the frontend container was already built, you may need to rebuild it: docker compose --env-file .env.docker.local build frontend && ./rh restart

Next Steps

For local development setup without Docker (for contributing to Rhesis), see the Environment Setup Guide.