These installation instructions assume you have already installed Docker on your machine. You can find information on how to install Docker in the Official Docker Documentation.

EvolutionAPI is Docker-ready and can be easily deployed with Docker in both standalone and swarm modes. The official EvolutionAPI repository contains all the necessary compose files to install the API.

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Docker Run

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Quick Start

CLI installation is recommended for quick deployment, mainly for testing or development. It should not be used for production. Instead, we recommend that you use docker-compose for easier deployment and maintenance.

The fastest way to deploy EvolutionAPI with Docker is by using docker run on the command line interface.

Terminal
docker run -d \
    --name evolution-api \
    -p 8080:8080 \
    -e AUTHENTICATION_API_KEY=change-me \
    atendai/evolution-api

This will run a Docker container exposing the application on port 8080, and you can start testing and requesting the WhatsApp QR code using the authentication variable content with the apikey header set.

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Quick Start with Volumes

You can also deploy using Docker volumes to keep your EvolutionAPI’s persistent data and all WhatsApp instances on your local machine, avoiding issues with container restarts by using docker run on the command line interface.

Run the following command to deploy EvolutionAPI with the necessary volumes. This command maps the evolution_store and evolution_instances volumes to their respective directories inside the container.

Terminal
docker run -d \
    --name evolution-api \
    -p 8080:8080 \
    -e AUTHENTICATION_API_KEY=change-me \
    -v evolution_store:/evolution/store \
    -v evolution_instances:/evolution/instances \
    atendai/evolution-api

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Docker Compose

Deploying EvolutionAPI using Docker Compose simplifies the setup and management of your Docker containers. It allows you to define your Docker environment in a docker-compose.yaml file and then use a single command to start everything.

This is a Docker Compose example for standalone environments, i.e., a single running server. For synchronization of two servers in parallel, use Swarm. This is for more advanced Docker users.

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Standalone

Warning: the commands featured here as docker compose might not work on older versions, and must be replaced by docker-compose.

Docker standalone is suitable when your Evolution API will be running on just one machine, and you don’t need scalability or other Docker Swarm features for now. It’s the most convenient way to use Docker for most people.

Create a docker-compose.yml file with this content:

docker-compose.yml
version: '3'
services:
  evolution-api:
    container_name: evolution_api
    image: atendai/evolution-api
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    env_file:
      - .env
    volumes:
      - evolution_store:/evolution/store
      - evolution_instances:/evolution/instances

volumes:
  evolution_store:
  evolution_instances:

Create a .env file in the same directory with the following:

.env
AUTHENTICATION_API_KEY=change-me

For more configurations, take the example file from the official repository. And see the guide here.

Navigate to the directory containing your docker-compose.yml file and run: services defined in the file

docker compose up -d

This command will download the necessary Docker images, create the defined services, networks, and volumes, and start the EvolutionAPI service.

After running the docker-compose up command, you should see logs indicating that the services are running.

docker logs evolution_api

To stop the service, use:

docker compose down

Open your browser and go to http://localhost:8080 to check if the EvolutionAPI is operational.