Run the daemon

This page explains how to keep the sMind by Spacing Mind daemon running as an operating-system service, reach it from other devices, run it in Docker and update it. It is for people who host smind on a machine or server.

sMind by Spacing Mind, version 0.17.0. This page describes the 0.17.0 release.

smind serve runs the daemon in the foreground and stops with your terminal. This page covers keeping it running, reaching it from another device, Docker, and updating.

Run it as a service

smind has no command that starts the daemon in the background. Your operating system's service manager supervises the daemon instead.

smind service install
smind service status

install writes the service, enables it and starts the daemon. Running it again is safe.

System	What `install` creates
Linux	a systemd user unit (`--system` for a system unit that still runs as you)
macOS	a LaunchAgent, loaded when you log in
Windows	a per-user scheduled task that starts at logon, not at boot

You can also install it with the installer script:

curl -fsSL https://spacingmind.com/install.sh | sh -s -- --service

On a headless Linux machine, a user unit stops when you log out unless lingering is on. Run sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER once.

The port and other settings come from config.yaml, not from flags. See Configuration. Other commands:

smind service start
smind service stop
smind service restart
smind service logs -f
smind service uninstall

smind service status exits 0 when the daemon runs, 3 when it is stopped and 4 when no service is installed. uninstall never touches your data.

Reach the daemon from another device

By default the daemon listens on 127.0.0.1:4648 only. There are two ways in from another machine.

Direct connection. Use this when the devices share a LAN or a VPN such as Tailscale or WireGuard. Set a password, choose the address to listen on, and restart:

smind set-password
smind config set server.listen 0.0.0.0:4648
smind config set server.hostnames nas.lan
smind stop && smind serve

Then open http://<address>:4648 in a browser and sign in. The daemon refuses to start on a non-loopback address without a password. Add every name clients type (other than an IP address or localhost) to server.hostnames.

The password gives whoever has it a terminal and every agent, with your user's rights. Pick a long, unique one. The connection is plain HTTP, so use it only on a network you trust, or put the daemon behind a VPN, an SSH tunnel or a reverse proxy that adds TLS.

An SSH tunnel needs no password and no open port:

ssh -N -L 4648:127.0.0.1:4648 you@homelab

Then open http://localhost:4648 on your own machine.

Relay. Use this for a phone, or when the daemon is behind NAT. The daemon dials out to a relay, and the relay only forwards encrypted data. See Mobile and relay pairing.

Run it in Docker

The image ghcr.io/spacingmind/smind (amd64 and arm64) runs the daemon with the web UI. It listens on all interfaces, so it needs a password of at least 12 characters and refuses to start without one:

docker run -d --name smind --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 4648:4648 \
  -e SMIND_PASSWORD="$(openssl rand -base64 24)" \
  -v smind-data:/data -v smind-home:/home/smind -v "$PWD/workspaces:/workspaces" \
  ghcr.io/spacingmind/smind

/data is the smind home (database, token, accounts, config.yaml).
/home/smind holds the agent CLIs' logins.
/workspaces is where your repositories go. Register them with their container path, for example /workspaces/my-repo.
Run smind commands with docker exec --user smind smind smind ....
Restart with docker restart smind. smind stop ends the container.
Update by pulling a new image tag. smind update refuses inside a container.
The image does not include claude or codex. The repository has a sample child image, docker/Dockerfile.agents.example, that adds them.

Set the port and listen address with -p or SMIND_LISTEN, not with smind config. The environment wins over the file.

Update

Rerun the install script to update the CLI, or run:

smind update --check
smind update

--check only reports. --version <v> picks a release, and --dry-run shows what would change. smind update verifies the download against a signed checksum list, and it refuses while runs are active unless you pass --force.

The desktop apps check for updates on their own and ask before downloading.

Install a release by hand

Each GitHub release has smind binaries for Linux and macOS (amd64, arm64) as .tar.gz files, smind_<version>_windows_<amd64|arm64>.zip for Windows (with smind.exe at the top), and a checksums.txt:

version=0.8.0   # match the release you want
os=linux        # or darwin
arch=amd64      # or arm64

curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/spacingmind/smind/releases/download/v${version}/smind_${version}_${os}_${arch}.tar.gz"
curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/spacingmind/smind/releases/download/v${version}/checksums.txt"
sha256sum --ignore-missing -c checksums.txt
tar -xzf "smind_${version}_${os}_${arch}.tar.gz"
./smind --version

On Windows, unzip anywhere and run smind.exe serve.

Back up

The daemon keeps its state in smind.db in the smind home. While it runs, the database also has smind.db-wal and smind.db-shm files, so do not copy smind.db alone. For a live backup, use the sqlite3 tool:

sqlite3 "$SMIND_HOME/smind.db" "VACUUM INTO '/backups/smind.db'"

The target file must not exist. Or stop the daemon and copy the whole home directory. Keep the home directory on a local disk.

Run the daemon ​

Run it as a service ​

Reach the daemon from another device ​

Run it in Docker ​

Update ​

Install a release by hand ​

Back up ​

Further reading ​