On-Premise Deployment

Context7 On-Premise lets you run the full Context7 stack inside your own infrastructure. Your code, documentation, and embeddings never leave your environment.

What’s Included

Full Context7 parsing and indexing pipeline
Local vector storage (no external vector DB required)
Built-in MCP server — works with any MCP-compatible AI client
Web UI for managing indexed libraries and configuration
REST API compatible with the public Context7 API
Private GitHub and GitLab repository ingestion

Setup

Request a trial

Go to context7.com/plans and click On-Premise Trial. Fill out the request form — no credit card required. You’ll receive a 30-day full-featured license key via email once approved.

Authenticate with the registry

Use your license key to get a registry token and log in:

LICENSE_KEY="<your-license-key>"

TOKEN=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $LICENSE_KEY" \
  https://context7.com/api/v1/license/registry-token | jq -r '.token')

docker login ghcr.io -u x-access-token -p $TOKEN

Docker stores these credentials locally — docker compose will use them automatically when pulling the image. You can also pull manually:

docker pull ghcr.io/context7/enterprise:latest

Configure and start

Create a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  context7:
    image: ghcr.io/context7/enterprise:latest
    container_name: context7
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - context7-data:/data
    environment:
      - LICENSE_KEY=${LICENSE_KEY}

volumes:
  context7-data:
    driver: local

The context7-data volume is critical. It stores your SQLite database (configuration, credentials, indexed libraries) and all vector embeddings. Without a persistent volume, all data is lost when the container restarts or is recreated. Never run without a volume mount in production.

Create a .env file in the same directory:

LICENSE_KEY=ctx7sk-...

Start the service:

docker compose up -d

Complete the setup wizard

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser. On first launch, the setup wizard guides you through configuring:

AI Provider — Choose OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Enter your API key and model name.
Embedding Provider — Use the same provider as your LLM, or configure a separate one for embeddings.
Git Tokens — Add a GitHub and/or GitLab token for the platforms you use.

All configuration is stored locally in the embedded database and can be updated later from the Settings page.

Ingest your first repository

From the dashboard, click Add Repository and enter a GitHub or GitLab URL. Once ingestion completes, your private docs are ready to query.You can also add libraries via the REST API:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/parse \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://github.com/your-org/your-repo"}'

Connecting Your AI Client

Point your MCP client at your deployment URL. Replace https://context7.internal.yourcompany.com with your actual host.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --scope user --transport http context7 https://context7.internal.yourcompany.com/mcp

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context7": {
      "url": "https://context7.internal.yourcompany.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Opencode

{
  "mcp": {
    "context7": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "https://context7.internal.yourcompany.com/mcp",
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

For other clients, see All Clients.

Configuration

Environment Variables

These are set in your docker-compose.yml or .env file before starting the container.

Variable	Required	Description
`LICENSE_KEY`	Yes	License key issued by Upstash
`PORT`	No	HTTP port (default: `3000`)
`DATA_DIR`	No	Data directory inside the container (default: `./data`)

AI provider keys, model settings, and git tokens are not set via environment variables. They are configured through the setup wizard and can be updated anytime from the Settings page in the web UI.

AI Provider Settings

Configured via the Settings page in the web UI.

Setting	Description
LLM Provider	`openai`, `anthropic`, `gemini`, or custom
LLM API Key	API key for your chosen provider
LLM Model	Model name (e.g. `gpt-4o`, `claude-sonnet-4-5`, `gemini-2.5-flash`)
LLM Base URL	Custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint (for local models or proxies)

Examples

OpenRouter
Local Model (Ollama, vLLM)

Provider: custom
Base URL: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
Model: openai/gpt-4o
API Key: sk-or-v1-...

Provider: custom
Base URL: http://host.docker.internal:11434/v1
Model: llama3.2
API Key: ollama

Embedding Settings

By default, Context7 uses the same provider as your LLM for generating embeddings. You can configure a separate embedding provider if needed.

Setting	Description
Embedding Provider	`openai` or `gemini`
Embedding API Key	Separate API key for embeddings (falls back to LLM API key)
Embedding Model	Embedding model name (e.g. `text-embedding-3-small`)
Embedding Base URL	Custom embedding endpoint

Git Access Tokens

Configured via the Settings page in the web UI.

Setting	Description
GitHub Token	GitHub Personal Access Token — required for GitHub repositories
GitLab Token	GitLab token — required for GitLab repositories

You only need tokens for the platforms you use. If you only parse GitLab repos, you don’t need a GitHub token, and vice versa. Create tokens with repo scope (GitHub) or read_repository scope (GitLab) for private repository access.

Access Control

Admin credentials are set during first login (default: admin / admin). Change these immediately after setup via Settings > Change Credentials. The Settings page lets you control which operations are available without authentication.

Permission	Default	Description
Allow anonymous parse	Off	Allow unauthenticated users to trigger parsing
Allow anonymous refresh	Off	Allow unauthenticated users to refresh libraries
Allow anonymous delete	Off	Allow unauthenticated users to delete libraries
Allow anonymous support bundle	Off	Allow unauthenticated support bundle downloads

When a permission is off, the operation requires admin login. The MCP endpoint and search API are always publicly accessible.

Web UI

Open your deployment URL in a browser to access the dashboard. From here you can:

Add and remove libraries
Trigger re-indexing
Monitor parsing status and logs
Update AI provider settings, git tokens, and permissions
Test MCP connectivity
Change admin credentials

Operations

Updating the Image

If your registry login has expired, re-authenticate first:

LICENSE_KEY="<your-license-key>"

TOKEN=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $LICENSE_KEY" \
  https://context7.com/api/v1/license/registry-token | jq -r '.token')

docker login ghcr.io -u x-access-token -p $TOKEN

Then pull the latest image and restart the container:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Data persists in the named Docker volume across updates.

Health Check

curl http://localhost:3000/api/health

Example response:

{
  "status": "healthy",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "setup": "complete",
  "license": "configured",
  "licenseInfo": {
    "valid": true,
    "teamSize": 10,
    "expiresAt": "2026-06-01T00:00:00.000Z"
  },
  "repos_parsed": 5,
  "uptime": 3600,
  "connectivity": {
    "llm": "configured",
    "llm_provider": "openai",
    "embedding": "configured",
    "embedding_provider": "openai",
    "github": "configured",
    "gitlab": "not configured"
  }
}

Support

For license issues, upgrade requests, or deployment questions, contact context7@upstash.com.

Overview

How To

Enterprise

Clients

SDKs

Agentic Tools

API Reference

Integrations

Resources

What’s Included

Setup

Connecting Your AI Client

Claude Code

Cursor

Opencode

Configuration

Environment Variables

AI Provider Settings

Examples

Embedding Settings

Git Access Tokens

Access Control

Web UI

Operations

Updating the Image

Health Check

Support

Overview

How To

Enterprise

Clients

SDKs

Agentic Tools

API Reference

Integrations

Resources

​What’s Included

​Setup

​Connecting Your AI Client

​Claude Code

​Cursor

​Opencode

​Configuration

​Environment Variables

​AI Provider Settings

​Examples

​Embedding Settings

​Git Access Tokens

​Access Control

​Web UI

​Operations

​Updating the Image

​Health Check

​Support

What’s Included

Setup

Connecting Your AI Client

Claude Code

Cursor

Opencode

Configuration

Environment Variables

AI Provider Settings

Examples

Embedding Settings

Git Access Tokens

Access Control

Web UI

Operations

Updating the Image

Health Check

Support