---
title: Installing with Docker
---
# :fontawesome-brands-docker: Docker
!!! warning "For end users"
We highly recommend to Install InvokeAI locally using [these instructions](index.md)
!!! tip "For developers"
For container-related development tasks or for enabling easy
deployment to other environments (on-premises or cloud), follow these
instructions.
For general use, install locally to leverage your machine's GPU.
!!! tip "For running on a cloud instance/service"
Check out the [Running InvokeAI in the cloud with Docker](#running-invokeai-in-the-cloud-with-docker) section below
## Why containers?
They provide a flexible, reliable way to build and deploy InvokeAI. You'll also
use a Docker volume to store the largest model files and image outputs as a
first step in decoupling storage and compute. Future enhancements can do this
for other assets. See [Processes](https://12factor.net/processes) under the
Twelve-Factor App methodology for details on why running applications in such a
stateless fashion is important.
You can specify the target platform when building the image and running the
container. You'll also need to specify the InvokeAI requirements file that
matches the container's OS and the architecture it will run on.
Developers on Apple silicon (M1/M2): You
[can't access your GPU cores from Docker containers](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/issues/81224)
and performance is reduced compared with running it directly on macOS but for
development purposes it's fine. Once you're done with development tasks on your
laptop you can build for the target platform and architecture and deploy to
another environment with NVIDIA GPUs on-premises or in the cloud.
## Installation in a Linux container (desktop)
### Prerequisites
#### Install [Docker](https://github.com/santisbon/guides#docker)
On the [Docker Desktop app](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/), go to
Preferences, Resources, Advanced. Increase the CPUs and Memory to avoid this
[Issue](https://github.com/invoke-ai/InvokeAI/issues/342). You may need to
increase Swap and Disk image size too.
#### Get a Huggingface-Token
Besides the Docker Agent you will need an Account on
[huggingface.co](https://huggingface.co/join).
After you succesfully registered your account, go to
[huggingface.co/settings/tokens](https://huggingface.co/settings/tokens), create
a token and copy it, since you will need in for the next step.
### Setup
Set the fork you want to use and other variables.
!!! tip
I preffer to save my env vars
in the repository root in a `.env` (or `.envrc`) file to automatically re-apply
them when I come back.
The build- and run- scripts contain default values for almost everything,
besides the [Hugging Face Token](https://huggingface.co/settings/tokens) you
created in the last step.
Some Suggestions of variables you may want to change besides the Token:
#### Build the Image
I provided a build script, which is located in `docker-build/build.sh` but still
needs to be executed from the Repository root.
```bash
./docker-build/build.sh
```
The build Script not only builds the container, but also creates the docker
volume if not existing yet, or if empty it will just download the models.
#### Run the Container
After the build process is done, you can run the container via the provided
`docker-build/run.sh` script
```bash
./docker-build/run.sh
```
When used without arguments, the container will start the webserver and provide
you the link to open it. But if you want to use some other parameters you can
also do so.
!!! example "run script example"
```bash
./docker-build/run.sh "banana sushi" -Ak_lms -S42 -s10
```
This would generate the legendary "banana sushi" with Seed 42, k_lms Sampler and 10 steps.
Find out more about available CLI-Parameters at [features/CLI.md](../../features/CLI/#arguments)
---
## Running the container on your GPU
If you have an Nvidia GPU, you can enable InvokeAI to run on the GPU by running the container with an extra
environment variable to enable GPU usage and have the process run much faster:
```bash
GPU_FLAGS=all ./docker-build/run.sh
```
This passes the `--gpus all` to docker and uses the GPU.
If you don't have a GPU (or your host is not yet setup to use it) you will see a message like this:
`docker: Error response from daemon: could not select device driver "" with capabilities: [[gpu]].`
You can use the full set of GPU combinations documented here:
https://docs.docker.com/config/containers/resource_constraints/#gpu
For example, use `GPU_FLAGS=device=GPU-3a23c669-1f69-c64e-cf85-44e9b07e7a2a` to choose a specific device identified by a UUID.
## Running InvokeAI in the cloud with Docker
We offer an optimized Ubuntu-based image that has been well-tested in cloud deployments. Note: it also works well locally on Linux x86_64 systems with an Nvidia GPU. It *may* also work on Windows under WSL2 and on Intel Mac (not tested).
An advantage of this method is that it does not need any local setup or additional dependencies.
See the `docker-build/Dockerfile.cloud` file to familizarize yourself with the image's content.
### Prerequisites
- a `docker` runtime
- `make` (optional but helps for convenience)
- Huggingface token to download models, or an existing InvokeAI runtime directory from a previous installation
Neither local Python nor any dependencies are required. If you don't have `make` (part of `build-essentials` on Ubuntu), or do not wish to install it, the commands from the `docker-build/Makefile` are readily adaptable to be executed directly.
### Building and running the image locally
1. Clone this repo and `cd docker-build`
1. `make build` - this will build the image. (This does *not* require a GPU-capable system).
1. _(skip this step if you already have a complete InvokeAI runtime directory)_
- `make configure` (This does *not* require a GPU-capable system)
- this will create a local cache of models and configs (a.k.a the _runtime dir_)
- enter your Huggingface token when prompted
1. `make web`
1. Open the `http://localhost:9090` URL in your browser, and enjoy the banana sushi!
To use InvokeAI on the cli, run `make cli`. To open a Bash shell in the container for arbitraty advanced use, `make shell`.
#### Building and running without `make`
(Feel free to adapt paths such as `${HOME}/invokeai` to your liking, and modify the CLI arguments as necessary).
!!! example "Build the image and configure the runtime directory"
```Shell
cd docker-build
DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build -t local/invokeai:latest -f Dockerfile.cloud ..
docker run --rm -it -v ${HOME}/invokeai:/mnt/invokeai local/invokeai:latest -c "python scripts/configure_invokeai.py"
```
!!! example "Run the web server"
```Shell
docker run --runtime=nvidia --gpus=all --rm -it -v ${HOME}/invokeai:/mnt/invokeai -p9090:9090 local/invokeai:latest
```
Access the Web UI at http://localhost:9090
!!! example "Run the InvokeAI interactive CLI"
```
docker run --runtime=nvidia --gpus=all --rm -it -v ${HOME}/invokeai:/mnt/invokeai local/invokeai:latest -c "python scripts/invoke.py"
```
### Running the image in the cloud
This image works anywhere you can run a container with a mounted Docker volume. You may either build this image on a cloud instance, or build and push it to your Docker registry. To manually run this on a cloud instance (such as AWS EC2, GCP or Azure VM):
1. build this image either in the cloud (you'll need to pull the repo), or locally
1. `docker tag` it as `your-registry/invokeai` and push to your registry (i.e. Dockerhub)
1. `docker pull` it on your cloud instance
1. configure the runtime directory as per above example, using `docker run ... configure_invokeai.py` script
1. use either one of the `docker run` commands above, substituting the image name for your own image.
To run this on Runpod, please refer to the following Runpod template: https://www.runpod.io/console/gpu-secure-cloud?template=vm19ukkycf (you need a Runpod subscription). When launching the template, feel free to set the image to pull your own build.
The template's `README` provides ample detail, but at a high level, the process is as follows:
1. create a pod using this Docker image
1. ensure the pod has an `INVOKEAI_ROOT=` environment variable, and that it corresponds to the path to your pod's persistent volume mount
1. Run the pod with `sleep infinity` as the Docker command
1. Use Runpod basic SSH to connect to the pod, and run `python scripts/configure_invokeai.py` script
1. Stop the pod, and change the Docker command to `python scripts/invoke.py --web --host 0.0.0.0`
1. Run the pod again, connect to your pod on HTTP port 9090, and enjoy the banana sushi!
Running on other cloud providers such as Vast.ai will likely work in a similar fashion.
---
!!! warning "Deprecated"
From here on you will find the the previous Docker-Docs, which will still
provide some usefull informations.
## Usage (time to have fun)
### Startup
If you're on a **Linux container** the `invoke` script is **automatically
started** and the output dir set to the Docker volume you created earlier.
If you're **directly on macOS follow these startup instructions**.
With the Conda environment activated (`conda activate ldm`), run the interactive
interface that combines the functionality of the original scripts `txt2img` and
`img2img`:
Use the more accurate but VRAM-intensive full precision math because
half-precision requires autocast and won't work.
By default the images are saved in `outputs/img-samples/`.
```Shell
python3 scripts/invoke.py --full_precision
```
You'll get the script's prompt. You can see available options or quit.
```Shell
invoke> -h
invoke> q
```
### Text to Image
For quick (but bad) image results test with 5 steps (default 50) and 1 sample
image. This will let you know that everything is set up correctly.
Then increase steps to 100 or more for good (but slower) results.
The prompt can be in quotes or not.
```Shell
invoke> The hulk fighting with sheldon cooper -s5 -n1
invoke> "woman closeup highly detailed" -s 150
# Reuse previous seed and apply face restoration
invoke> "woman closeup highly detailed" --steps 150 --seed -1 -G 0.75
```
You'll need to experiment to see if face restoration is making it better or
worse for your specific prompt.
If you're on a container the output is set to the Docker volume. You can copy it
wherever you want.
You can download it from the Docker Desktop app, Volumes, my-vol, data.
Or you can copy it from your Mac terminal. Keep in mind `docker cp` can't expand
`*.png` so you'll need to specify the image file name.
On your host Mac (you can use the name of any container that mounted the
volume):
```Shell
docker cp dummy:/data/000001.928403745.png /Users//Pictures
```
### Image to Image
You can also do text-guided image-to-image translation. For example, turning a
sketch into a detailed drawing.
`strength` is a value between 0.0 and 1.0 that controls the amount of noise that
is added to the input image. Values that approach 1.0 allow for lots of
variations but will also produce images that are not semantically consistent
with the input. 0.0 preserves image exactly, 1.0 replaces it completely.
Make sure your input image size dimensions are multiples of 64 e.g. 512x512.
Otherwise you'll get `Error: product of dimension sizes > 2**31'`. If you still
get the error
[try a different size](https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/resize-rotate-or-flip-an-image-prvw2015/mac#:~:text=image's%20file%20size-,In%20the%20Preview%20app%20on%20your%20Mac%2C%20open%20the%20file,is%20shown%20at%20the%20bottom.)
like 512x256.
If you're on a Docker container, copy your input image into the Docker volume
```Shell
docker cp /Users//Pictures/sketch-mountains-input.jpg dummy:/data/
```
Try it out generating an image (or more). The `invoke` script needs absolute
paths to find the image so don't use `~`.
If you're on your Mac
```Shell
invoke> "A fantasy landscape, trending on artstation" -I /Users//Pictures/sketch-mountains-input.jpg --strength 0.75 --steps 100 -n4
```
If you're on a Linux container on your Mac
```Shell
invoke> "A fantasy landscape, trending on artstation" -I /data/sketch-mountains-input.jpg --strength 0.75 --steps 50 -n1
```
### Web Interface
You can use the `invoke` script with a graphical web interface. Start the web
server with:
```Shell
python3 scripts/invoke.py --full_precision --web
```
If it's running on your Mac point your Mac web browser to
Press Control-C at the command line to stop the web server.
### Notes
Some text you can add at the end of the prompt to make it very pretty:
```Shell
cinematic photo, highly detailed, cinematic lighting, ultra-detailed, ultrarealistic, photorealism, Octane Rendering, cyberpunk lights, Hyper Detail, 8K, HD, Unreal Engine, V-Ray, full hd, cyberpunk, abstract, 3d octane render + 4k UHD + immense detail + dramatic lighting + well lit + black, purple, blue, pink, cerulean, teal, metallic colours, + fine details, ultra photoreal, photographic, concept art, cinematic composition, rule of thirds, mysterious, eerie, photorealism, breathtaking detailed, painting art deco pattern, by hsiao, ron cheng, john james audubon, bizarre compositions, exquisite detail, extremely moody lighting, painted by greg rutkowski makoto shinkai takashi takeuchi studio ghibli, akihiko yoshida
```
The original scripts should work as well.
```Shell
python3 scripts/orig_scripts/txt2img.py --help
python3 scripts/orig_scripts/txt2img.py --ddim_steps 100 --n_iter 1 --n_samples 1 --plms --prompt "new born baby kitten. Hyper Detail, Octane Rendering, Unreal Engine, V-Ray"
python3 scripts/orig_scripts/txt2img.py --ddim_steps 5 --n_iter 1 --n_samples 1 --plms --prompt "ocean" # or --klms
```