Starter Kit

The Drumee Starter Kit is a self-contained local development environment that runs the full Drumee stack inside a single Docker container — MariaDB, nginx, Redis, and all Node.js services included. It is intended for developers who need a complete Drumee instance on their workstation.

Unlike the Playground, the Starter Kit gives you direct access to the database, stored procedures, and all service internals. However this mode has some limitations, such virtual hosting or organization features.

Prerequisites

• Docker installed with your user added to the docker group

• Node.js v22 or later

Verify Node.js version:

node --version # Must be v22.x.x or later

Step 1 — Build the Docker Image

The Starter Kit requires a locally built Docker image. Clone the docker-file repository and build from the starter-kit Dockerfile:

git clone git@github.com:drumee/docker-file.git
cd docker-file
docker build -f Dockerfile.starter-kit -t drumee/starter:local .

This step installs all system dependencies (MariaDB, nginx, Redis, Node.js, etc.) inside the image. It takes approximately 10–20 minutes depending on network speed.

Verify the image was built:

docker images | grep drumee/starter # Expected: drumee/starter
local
<id>
<size>

Step 2 — Clone and Configure the Starter Kit

git clone git@github.com:drumee/starter-kit.git
cd starter-kit
npm install
npm run configure

npm run configure sets up the local host environment — it creates the required directory structure under storage/ and generates the initial docker.yaml.

After configure completes, open docker.yaml and verify the image tag matches what you built in Step 1:

image: drumee/starter:local

Step 3 — Add a Local DNS Entry

The Starter Kit uses local.drumee as its domain. Add it to your host machine's /etc/hosts:

echo "127.0.0.1 local.drumee" |
sudo tee -a
/etc/hosts

Verify:

ping -c1 local.drumee # Expected: PING local.drumee (127.0.0.1)

Step 4 — Start the Container

docker compose -f docker.yaml up -d

This starts the container in detached mode. The container runs a persistent bash session — no services start automatically at this point.

Verify the container is running:

docker ps |
grep starter-kit

Step 5 — Configure the Server (First Time Only)

Run the configuration script inside the container. This initialises the database, creates the drumee-app MariaDB user, and generates server configuration files:

npm run server.configure

This only needs to be run once. On subsequent starts, skip directly to Step 6.

Step 6 — Start All Services

npm run server.start

This starts MariaDB, nginx, and Redis, verifies system users exist in the database, and starts all Node.js services via PM2 — including the factory daemon.

Wait approximately 30 seconds for services to come online, then verify:

docker exec starter-kit pm2 list

All processes should show online status.

Step 7 — Set the Admin Password

Set the admin password directly via the MariaDB shell inside the container:

docker exec starter-kit mariadb yp -e "call set_password('admin@local.drumee', 'your-password')"

Replace admin@local.drumee with the admin email configured during setup and your-password with your chosen password.

Then open the Drumee interface in a browser:

http://local.drumee:8080

Log in with the admin email and the password you just set.

Volume Structure

The docker.yaml maps the following host directories into the container:

Host path	Container path	Contents
storage/db	/var/lib/drumee/db	MariaDB data files
storage/data	/data	MFS file storage
runtime	/srv/drumee/runtime	Node.js server and service code
plugins	/var/lib/drumee/plugins	Custom plugins
docker.d	/var/lib/drumee/start.d	Start and configure scripts

All persistent data (database, uploaded files) lives in storage/ on the host. The container can be recreated without losing data.

Port Mapping

Host port	Container port	Service
8080	80	HTTP
4443	443	HTTPS

Restarting After a Machine Reboot

The container does not start automatically after a host reboot:

cd ~/starter-kit
docker compose -f docker.yaml up -d
npm run server.start

Useful Commands

# Open a shell inside the container npm run server.shell
# Check PM2 process status docker exec starter-kit pm2 list
# Stream PM2 logs for a specific process docker exec starter-kit pm2 logs factory --lines 50
# Check the entity pool (should grow over time toward ~210 per type) docker exec starter-kit mariadb yp -e \\
"SELECT type, COUNT(*) as count FROM entity WHERE area='pool' GROUP BY type;"
# Stop the container docker compose -f docker.yaml down

How the Factory Daemon Works

The factory PM2 process pre-creates schema pools for new Hub and Drumate entities. On a fresh install it starts with a small pool and grows gradually toward the configured watermark (210 per type by default). The pool count increasing over the first few minutes after start is normal.