Installation

Install Compute Lite and connect it to NocoDB. Check the requirements first.

Before you begin

The examples pin Compute Lite to the tag 2c607a1381a9. Pin your own installation to a tag as well, so that a restart never pulls a new version. Do not use latest in production.

Make an API key. Compute Lite and NocoDB share it.
```
openssl rand -hex 24
```
Point a wildcard DNS name, such as *.sandbox.example.com, at Compute Lite. It must resolve from inside NocoDB. On Kubernetes, use a CoreDNS rewrite or an internal record for the Compute Lite Service.

Compute Lite runs as one privileged pod with a volume for its Docker engine. Run one replica only. The namespace must allow privileged pods. With Pod Security Admission, set pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: privileged on it.

Apply these manifests in the namespace of NocoDB:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: nc-compute-lite
stringData:
  NC_COMPUTE_LITE_KEY: <your key>
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: nc-compute-lite
spec:
  accessModes: [ReadWriteOnce]
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 50Gi
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nc-compute-lite
spec:
  replicas: 1
  strategy:
    type: Recreate
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nc-compute-lite
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nc-compute-lite
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: nc-compute-lite
          image: nocodb/nc-compute-lite:2c607a1381a9
          securityContext:
            privileged: true
          envFrom:
            - secretRef:
                name: nc-compute-lite
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8430
            - containerPort: 8431
          readinessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /health
              port: 8430
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: '4'
              memory: 8Gi
          volumeMounts:
            - name: docker
              mountPath: /var/lib/docker
      volumes:
        - name: docker
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: nc-compute-lite
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nc-compute-lite
spec:
  selector:
    app: nc-compute-lite
  ports:
    - name: api
      port: 8430
    - name: proxy
      port: 8431

Use a NetworkPolicy to allow only NocoDB to reach ports 8430 and 8431.

Run Compute Lite on its own host to keep untrusted code away from NocoDB:

docker run -d --name nc-compute-lite --restart unless-stopped --privileged \
  -p 8430:8430 -p 8431:8431 \
  -v nc-compute-lite:/var/lib/docker \
  -e NC_COMPUTE_LITE_KEY=<your key> \
  nocodb/nc-compute-lite:2c607a1381a9

Allow only NocoDB to reach ports 8430 and 8431.

2. Connect NocoDB

Set these three variables on NocoDB. For a separate host, use http://<compute-lite-host>:8430 as the URL.

Add to the environment of the NocoDB service, then run docker compose up -d:

      NC_COMPUTE_LITE_URL: http://compute-lite:8430
      NC_COMPUTE_LITE_KEY: ${NC_COMPUTE_LITE_KEY}
      NC_COMPUTE_LITE_DOMAIN: sandbox.example.com:8431

Add to the NocoDB Deployment. With the Helm chart, use the top-level extraEnvVars.

- name: NC_COMPUTE_LITE_URL
  value: http://nc-compute-lite:8430
- name: NC_COMPUTE_LITE_KEY
  valueFrom:
    secretKeyRef:
      name: nc-compute-lite
      key: NC_COMPUTE_LITE_KEY
- name: NC_COMPUTE_LITE_DOMAIN
  value: sandbox.example.com:8431

NC_COMPUTE_LITE_DOMAIN is the wildcard name without *., plus the proxy port. For HTTPS, see TLS.

3. Pull the sandbox images

The chat image is an 8 GB download (about 14 GB on disk), and a first chat that waits more than five minutes for it fails. Pull the four images (nc-chat-template, nc-script-template, nc-app-builder, nc-app-runtime) before first use. The exact references are in the release notes of your NocoDB version.

# Docker Compose
docker compose exec compute-lite docker pull nocodb/nc-chat-template:<tag>@sha256:<digest>
# Kubernetes
kubectl exec deploy/nc-compute-lite -- docker pull nocodb/nc-chat-template:<tag>@sha256:<digest>

4. Check that it works

Check that Compute Lite responds with "ok":true:
```
docker compose exec compute-lite wget -qO- localhost:8430/health
```
On Kubernetes, run kubectl exec deploy/nc-compute-lite -- wget -qO- localhost:8430/health.
Create a workflow with a Manual trigger and a Run script step:
```
output.set('ok', true);
```
Run the workflow. It finishes in a few seconds.
Ask NocoAI: "Create a CSV of the numbers 1 to 5 and their squares as a downloadable file." You get a CSV file.

If a step fails, see Troubleshoot.

Installation

Before you begin

1. Run Compute Lite

2. Connect NocoDB

3. Pull the sandbox images

4. Check that it works