[REFACTOR] Self-hosting documentation

[JoaGamo]

🔍 Description

Hello! I can't get the project to work. I feel that the documentation is confusing enough to require a refactoring.
A quick example is that both .env.template on both client/server side are different than what is shown in the running Sentient guide. Not only that, but there's no explanation on which are strictly required and why some of them exist. For example, there's a Gemini API Key around, which, if not explained, the first impression may not be that it's used for gmail. I thought it was for API calls to Google's servers for the Gemini AI

For example, the project requires the AUTH0_DOMAIN variable to be set, which isn't defined in the .env.template.

Another point that could be further expanded on are on which variables are strictly required, and which are not. I see that a docker template is coming soon, and setting up this huge project without even knowing if it works may be bothersome to some (as mentioned in #12 ). I personally couldn't get it to work, I've got a problem with setting up Auth0 that comes from me not understanding how to use that service. I'm running the instructions on an Ubuntu VM and connecting from my thin client

[itsskofficial]

Hey @JoaGamo, I appreciate you taking the time to try to self-host Sentient.

We use Auth0 to manage authentication on the new Cloud Platform. Docker is used to make deployments easy for the same Cloud Platform and we don't have a Docker image for self-hosting specifically as of yet.

We're trying to find some middle ground for the self-hosted codebase. Ideally, a local self-hosted codebase does not need Auth0 for authentication. Also, other dependencies like MongoDB and Redis can be managed via Docker for self-hosting.

We will be releasing a proper self-hosting guide with an official Docker image (derived from the current image that is live on the master branch) soon.

After that, the steps for self-hosting will be very simple:

1. Use the reference .env.template to set env variables
2. docker compose up --build -d

This is a pending task for our team and we will get to it ASAP.

[Kabeer2004]

hey @JoaGamo

thanks for raising this issue, its been something we wanted to get done for a while

please check this commit on the self-host branch 8586333

we have added full self-hosting support via docker compose. all you need to do is populate the env file with some mandatory env variables as well as any env variables for services you wish to use, such as GCP, Accuweather, etc

I have also added logic to bypass auth0 for self-hosting, so no auth0 setup is required.

I am currently updating our detailed self-hosting guide with this information as well

keeping this issue open for now to track any further discussions on the topic :)

[Kabeer2004]

updated self-hosting docs are now live on gitbook!

[JoaGamo]

Hello! That was fast indeed. Will check out tomorrow to see if I can get it working :)

[Kabeer2004]

I've tested it further today and there were some small bugs

They've been fixed now and the Dockerized app seems to be stable.

I'm moving forward with merging the Dockerized app to https://github.com/existence-master/Sentient/tree/development https://github.com/existence-master/Sentient/tree/staging and https://github.com/existence-master/Sentient/tree/master branches

[JoaGamo]

Thank you very much!
What is missing from from the .env.selfhost template (and docs!) is related to setting up OLLAMA. The variables OLLAMA_MODEL_NAME and OLLAMA_BASE_URL are missing from the template

[Kabeer2004]

Ahh yes, currently our setup is locked on only one provider - which is Novita

Making model selection more flexible is definitely on my agenda and I will get to it as soon as I can.

Support for both Ollama and any OpenAI API-based Cloud LLMs will be added 👍

[JoaGamo]

Understood! The point of this issue was refactoring documentation (atleast for installation steps, which are very straight-forward), which is already done. Thank you!