Rasa Studio Docker Setup

This directory contains the Docker Compose configuration to run Rasa Studio locally. Further information about this can be found here.

Prerequisites

• Docker (version 20.10.0 or higher)
• Docker Compose (version 2.0.0 or higher) (Not required if you have Docker Desktop installed)
• At least 4GB of available RAM
• The following ports must be available on your host machine:
  • 4000: Studio Backend API
  • 5005, 5006, 8000: Model Service
  • 5432: PostgreSQL Database
  • 8080: Web Client Interface
  • 8081: Keycloak Authentication
  • 19092, 29092: Kafka Broker

Environment Variables

Before running the application, set up the required environment variables. You can either export them in your shell or put them in a .env file in this directory (same folder as docker-compose.yml).

# Required for the Model Service
export RASA_PRO_LICENSE=your_license_key
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_key  # If using OpenAI features

# Optional - only if using custom image paths/tags
export STUDIO_IMAGE_PATH=your_custom_image_path
export STUDIO_IMAGE_TAG=your_custom_tag
export RASA_PRO_IMAGE=your_custom_rasa_pro_image  # Custom Rasa Pro image for model-service

# Optional - for voice/audio features in the backend
export DEEPGRAM_API_KEY=your_deepgram_key
export CARTESIA_API_KEY=your_cartesia_key

Running the Application

1. Navigate to this directory containing the docker-compose.yml file.

2. Start all services:

docker compose up

The startup process will show logs from all services in your terminal. The application is ready when you see the following message from the startup-helper service:

🚀 Rasa Studio is ready!
📱 Studio URL: http://localhost:8080
🔐 Keycloak User Management URL: http://localhost:8081/auth/

If you prefer to run the services in the background, you can use:

docker compose up -d

Then monitor the progress with:

docker compose logs -f startup-helper

Accessing the Application

• Main Application: http://localhost:8080
• Keycloak Admin Console: http://localhost:8081/auth/
• Backend API: http://localhost:4000/api
• Model Service: http://localhost:8000

Default Credentials

Default values are defined for a number of credentials in the Docker Compose setup. You can override them either by putting the variables in a .env file in this directory or by passing them on the command line when you run docker compose up.

Overriding defaults

Option 1: .env file
Create a .env file in this directory (same folder as docker-compose.yml) and add the variables you want to override. Then run docker compose up as usual.

Option 2: Inline when starting
Pass the variables before the command so they apply to that run only:

KEYCLOAK_ADMIN=myadmin \
KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD=mypass \
KEYCLOAK_DEFAULT_USER_PASSWORD=userpass \
KEYCLOAK_API_PASSWORD=apipass \
DB_USER=dbuser \
DB_PASS=dbpass \
docker compose up

Replace the example values with your own. You can omit any variable you do not want to override.

Credentials reference

Credential	Purpose	Default Value	Environment Variable to Override
Keycloak Admin User	The username for the admin Keycloak user, used to create and manage users	kcadmin	KEYCLOAK_ADMIN
Keycloak Admin Password	The password for the admin Keycloak user, used to create and manage users	kcadmin	KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD
Keycloak Default Users Password	The password for the default Rasa Studio users that are automatically created in Keycloak	rasa	KEYCLOAK_DEFAULT_USER_PASSWORD
Keycloak API Password	Password used by the backend to communicate with the Keycloak API	realmadmin	KEYCLOAK_API_PASSWORD
Database User	The Postgres user for Studio and Keycloak databases	studio	DB_USER
Database Password	The password for the Postgres DB that Studio uses	studio	DB_PASS

Logging in

To sign in to the Studio web client (http://localhost:8080), use one of the default users created in Keycloak:

• Username: superuser
• Password: The default is rasa, or the value you set with KEYCLOAK_DEFAULT_USER_PASSWORD if you override it.

Example: if you run with KEYCLOAK_DEFAULT_USER_PASSWORD=userpass, log in with username superuser and password userpass.

Stopping the Application

To stop all services, press Ctrl+C if running in the foreground, or if running in the background:

docker compose down

To stop all services and remove volumes (this will delete all data):

docker compose down -v

Data Persistence

The following data is persisted:

• Docker volumes: studio-db-data (PostgreSQL database data), kafka-data (Kafka message broker data)
• Local directories: The model service uses ./rasa-pro and ./rasa-pro/enterprise-search-data in this directory for working data and enterprise search data; create them if needed or they will be created when the service starts

Troubleshooting

1. To view logs for a specific service:

docker compose logs -f [service-name]

Service names: studio-backend, studio-web-client, studio-keycloak, studio-event-ingestion, model-service, kafka, database, startup-helper

2. If you encounter memory issues, ensure Docker has enough memory allocated in your Docker Desktop settings.

Health Checks

All services have built-in health checks. You can monitor their status using:

docker compose ps