Helpin
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Install with the CLI

Install with the CLI

The helpin CLI is the recommended way to install Helpin Community. It checks your machine, downloads and verifies a release, generates every secret, starts the services, and waits until Helpin is ready.

Before you begin

Requirement

Details

OS

Linux or macOS, amd64 or arm64. On Windows, use a Linux environment with Docker

Docker

Docker Engine or Docker Desktop, with Docker Compose v2

Tools

Bash, OpenSSL, curl, and sha256sum or shasum

Memory

8 GB RAM available to Docker. An 8 GB server reports about 7.7 GiB, which is accepted

Disk

20 GiB free for the installation, plus room on Docker's data disk for images

The CLI never installs Docker or changes your firewall, DNS, or system services.

1. Download the CLI

curl -fsSL https://helpin.ai/install.sh | bash

This installs one verified executable at ~/.local/bin/helpin and nothing else. No services start yet. If ~/.local/bin isn't on your PATH, follow the printed instruction or use the full path.

To pin a release or choose another location:

curl -fsSL https://helpin.ai/install.sh | HELPIN_VERSION=<release-tag> HELPIN_BIN_DIR=/usr/local/bin bash

2. Run the setup wizard

helpin install

The wizard asks where Helpin will run:

  • local: evaluate on this computer. The dashboard runs at http://localhost:8085.

  • server: a public server with your own domains and HTTPS. See Deploy on a public server.

It then:

  1. Checks Docker, Compose, memory, disk, and port conflicts.

  2. Downloads the release bundle and verifies its checksum.

  3. Generates independent secrets and encryption keys in a private .env file.

  4. Offers two optional integrations, application email and an AI provider key. Enter skip to set them up later.

  5. Starts all services and waits until the API reports ready.

The first start downloads container images and can take a few minutes. Helpin installs to ~/helpin by default. Use --dir to change that.

3. Create your account

Open the dashboard URL the wizard printed and sign up. The first account becomes the server admin, and signup then switches to invite only. Next, create your organization and workspace.

Want to look around first? Open the Setup guide and choose Load sample data. Helpin adds a small fictional company with conversations, articles, a project, and CRM records, and sends no email or AI requests. Remove sample data deletes exactly what it added.

Unattended installs

For provisioning scripts and CI, pass --yes with explicit options. Without --yes, non-interactive runs fail instead of guessing.

helpin install --yes --mode local --dir /srv/helpin \
  --port 8085 --help-port 8086 --storage-port 9005

Server mode with email and AI configured:

HELPIN_SMTP_PASSWORD="$(cat /run/secrets/smtp)" \
helpin install --yes --mode server --dir /srv/helpin \
  --domain app.example.com --help-domain help.example.com --storage-domain files.example.com \
  --proxy builtin --acme-email ops@example.com \
  --smtp-host smtp.example.com --smtp-username helpin --smtp-from help@example.com \
  --ai-provider openrouter --ai-key-file /run/secrets/openrouter

--proxy builtin runs the bundled Caddy proxy with automatic certificates. To use your own reverse proxy, pass --proxy external --proxy-cidr <its source address> instead. See Deploy on a public server.

Secrets are never accepted as arguments. Use files (--smtp-password-file, --ai-key-file) or the HELPIN_SMTP_PASSWORD and HELPIN_AI_API_KEY environment variables.

Other useful flags:

  • --no-start prepares everything so you can start later with helpin start.

  • --version <tag> installs a specific release.

  • --bundle FILE --checksum FILE installs from a bundle you've already downloaded, for example on an air-gapped host that has the images.

Running it again

Running helpin install on an existing installation is safe. It keeps everything, rotates no keys, and prints the management commands. Use helpin configure to change settings and helpin upgrade to move to a new release.

Next steps

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