[Feature]: please create docker deployment config

[beniamincantorlabiserica]

Problem / pain point

multiple users on my local network cannot use this software

Proposed solution

adding a docker compose deployment, this should be easy as this is an electron app

Alternatives considered

No response

Scope

Other

Hard-constraints check

• I have read the hard constraints in CLAUDE.md and this proposal does not conflict with any of them.

[github-actions]

Thank you for the suggestion, @beniamincantorlabiserica. I appreciate the thought about making Open CoDesign accessible to multiple users on a local network.

However, a Docker deployment is fundamentally incompatible with Open CoDesign's architecture and project constraints. Here's why:

1. It's a desktop app, not a web service.
Open CoDesign is an Electron desktop application (see apps/desktop/ and CLAUDE.md) that runs on the user's laptop with a GUI. It depends on Electron's windowing, GPU, and filesystem APIs. Running it in Docker would require a full virtual display (e.g., X11/VNC), which is impractical for multi-user access and adds complexity far beyond the project's scope.

2. Local-first and BYOK design.
Per the hard constraints in CLAUDE.md:

• BYOK only – no proxied API calls, no cloud account. User credentials stay in a local config file (~/.config/open-codesign/config.toml).
• Local-first storage – design state is file/session based on the local filesystem, not a database.
• No bundled model runtimes – models are brought by the user, not shipped.

A Docker container would require centralizing API keys, storing sessions in a container, and exposing the app as a network service—all of which violate these core principles.

3. Multiple users on a local network.
The intended use is one user per laptop install. For multiple people on the same network, each user runs the app on their own machine with their own keys. If you need a shared design environment, Open CoDesign is not designed for that use case.

Alternatives to consider:

• Each user installs the app natively on their machine (via the GitHub releases or package managers like Homebrew/winget).
• If you need a server-side design tool, you could wrap Open CoDesign's generation logic in a custom web API, but that would be a separate project.

I'll leave this issue open for maintainer review, as it may warrant a discussion about future directions, but please understand that a Docker deployment does not align with the project's current architecture.

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Open-CoDesign Bot