Native local backend

Use the native local backend when iterating on Rust API and runtime code. Docker runs PostgreSQL, Redis and Adminer; the API and runtime run on your workstation. This development setup uses shared processes, fixed database credentials and published infrastructure ports. Use the Compose deployment for isolated execution on a Linux host.

Prepare configuration and infrastructure

Install Docker Compose and the repository’s Rust development toolchain. Prepare private .env files in apps/backend/local/api/ and apps/backend/local/runtime/; both processes load their directory’s environment. The infrastructure file supplies SQL and Redis only. Configure object storage, Hub/OIDC settings and API signing material for your development installation as described in Storage Providers and runtime API configuration. The local API also requires its CDN bucket configuration.

From the repository root:

cd apps/backend/local
docker compose up -d
docker compose ps --all

PostgreSQL listens on port 5432 with database/user flowlike and password flowlike_dev. Redis listens on port 6379. The db-init service applies the development schema before the API is started. It mounts packages/api into its container, installs Prisma tooling there, and removes generated tooling files afterward; use a development checkout with no needed local changes to those generated files.

Adminer is available at http://localhost:8082. Select PostgreSQL, server postgres, username/database flowlike, and password flowlike_dev.

Start the API and runtime

Start each command from a separate terminal at the repository root:

cd apps/backend/local/api
cargo run

cd apps/backend/local/runtime
cargo run

The API listens on http://localhost:8080; the runtime defaults to http://localhost:9000. The API passes its callback address with each run. Hosted completion and remote embedding requests go through the authenticated API proxy. Upstream provider credentials belong in the API environment.

Setting	Process	Purpose
API_PORT	API	Listener port, default 8080
DATABASE_URL	API	Local PostgreSQL connection string
REDIS_URL	API and runtime	Local Redis connection string
EXECUTOR_URL	API	HTTP runtime URL
EXECUTION_BACKEND=http	API	Streaming HTTP dispatch
ASYNC_EXECUTION_BACKEND	API	HTTP dispatch or a Redis queue
RUNTIME_PORT	Runtime	Listener port, default 9000
QUEUE_WORKER_ENABLED=true	Runtime	Consume Redis jobs when Redis asynchronous dispatch is selected
REDIS_EXECUTION_QUEUE=exec:jobs:v3	API and runtime	Explicit matching queue name when using Redis
API_BASE_URL	API and runtime	Local model proxy URL, default http://localhost:8080

The runtime’s API_BASE_URL is a fallback for executions without the API-supplied callback address. API_URL remains a compatibility alias; use API_BASE_URL for new configuration. See Execution Backends for the dispatch model. Set the same queue protocol/name on both processes and reconcile existing jobs before changing it.

Stop the development services

Stop the native API and runtime processes, then run from apps/backend/local/:

docker compose down

Named volumes retain PostgreSQL and Redis data. Use docker compose down -v only when intentionally deleting that local data.