Quick start

You need Docker with Compose v2.24 or newer, and one file. No clone, no build, no configuration.

1. Download the compose file

mkdir opencaptions && cd opencaptions
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leogaudin/opencaptions/main/docker-compose.yml

2. Start it

docker compose up -d

The first start pulls the images (the API image is about 600 MB) and starts eight small services: the web app, the API, a transcription worker, a render worker, the render engine, Postgres, Redis and an S3-compatible object store (Garage). It takes a minute or two on a good connection.

3. Open the editor

Go to http://localhost:5173, create an account, and drop a video in. The account is local to your instance: nothing is sent anywhere, and the first account is an ordinary user like any other.

The first transcription is slower

A speech model is downloaded the first time you use it, into a models folder next to the compose file, and reused after that. Whisper Large v3 Turbo, the default, is about 1.6 GB. A smaller model such as Whisper Small (about 480 MB) is a good way to try things out. See Transcription for the choices.

Before you share it

The web app listens on every network interface and sign-up is open, so anyone who can reach port 5173 on that machine can make an account and use its processor. On a shared network or a public host, read Security first.

Stop, restart and remove

docker compose stop        # stop, keeping everything
docker compose up -d       # start again
docker compose down        # remove the containers, keeping your projects
docker compose down -v     # remove the containers AND all projects and accounts

Your projects and accounts live in Docker volumes (postgres_data and garage_data), so docker compose down does not delete them. Backups shows how to copy them.

Build from source instead

If you have cloned the repository, docker compose up -d --build (or make up) builds every image from the source, and make watch adds live reload for development. See Contributing.

Next

• Your first captions: a walk through the editor.
• Installation: requirements, ports, data and updates in detail.