Quickstart

Docker Compose (recommended)

The fastest way to get Llaboratory running:

git clone https://github.com/ampyard/Llaboratory.git
cd Llaboratory
cp .env.example .env # then edit .env with your API keys
docker compose up --build

Important: Set at least one API key in .env before running docker compose up. The backend reads keys from the environment at startup — sessions will fail fast if a referenced variable is unset.

Open http://localhost:5173 for the UI. The frontend proxies API calls to the backend container on port 8000.

Manual setup

Backend

# Requires Python 3.11+ and uv
cd backend
uv venv
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
cp ../.env.example ../.env # fill in your API keys
uv run uvicorn app.main:app --reload

Frontend

# Requires Node.js 18+
cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173 — the frontend proxies /api to :8000.

Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env in the project root and set at least one API key:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-...
# or any OpenAI-compatible provider

API keys are read from environment variables at session start. They are never stored in the database or export bundles.

Running tests

Backend

cd backend && uv run pytest -v --tb=short

Frontend

cd frontend && npm test