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Deployment

Troubleshooting? See Troubleshooting for common issues and solutions. Interface Usage? See Interfaces for accessing Telegram, Web API, and CLI.

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Quick Start

See README.md for the 3-tier installation overview. The interactive wizard (pnpm wizard) handles all configuration — API keys, interfaces, storage paths, and scheduler. It writes a chmod 0600 .env file and creates the required data directories.

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Prerequisites

  • Node.js 20+, pnpm 9+
  • Docker and Docker Compose (for Docker deployments)
  • .env file — generated by pnpm wizard or manually from .env.example

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Docker Compose

# Build and start
cd docker
docker compose up -d --build

# View logs
docker compose logs -f echos

# Stop
docker compose down
Services:
  • redis: Redis 7 for BullMQ job queue (optional — only started if EchOS depends on it)
  • echos: The EchOS application (healthcheck: GET /health)
The echos service has required: false on Redis, so EchOS starts cleanly when ENABLE_SCHEDULER=false. Data is persisted via volume mounts to ./data/.

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With nginx + Let’s Encrypt (HTTPS)

# 1. Generate nginx config from template
sed "s/DOMAIN_NAME/example.com/g" docker/nginx.conf.template > docker/nginx.conf

# 2. Start all services including nginx
cd docker && docker compose --profile nginx up -d

# 3. Obtain SSL certificate
docker compose --profile nginx run --rm certbot certonly \
  --webroot -w /var/www/certbot -d example.com

# 4. Uncomment the HTTPS server block in docker/nginx.conf
# (see the commented block at the bottom of the file)

# 5. Reload nginx
docker compose --profile nginx exec nginx nginx -s reload
Certbot auto-renews every 12 hours.

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Manual Deployment

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build all packages
pnpm build

# Start (requires Redis running)
pnpm start

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Troubleshooting

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Module Not Found Errors

If you see Cannot find package '@echos/shared' or '@echos/plugin-youtube' or similar: 
# Rebuild all workspace packages
pnpm build

# Or if that fails, clean and rebuild
pnpm clean
pnpm install
pnpm build

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LanceDB Native Module Errors

If you see Cannot find module '@lancedb/lancedb-darwin-x64' or similar:
  1. Intel Macs: The project uses LanceDB 0.22.3 (configured in packages/core/package.json)
  2. ARM Macs/Linux: LanceDB should install the correct native binding automatically
  3. Force reinstall: pnpm install --force

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Telegram Bot Conflicts

Error: Conflict: terminated by other getUpdates request This means another instance of your bot is already running. Only one instance can poll Telegram. Solution: 
# Stop all echos processes
pkill -f "tsx.*index.ts"

# Or find the specific process
ps aux | grep "tsx"
kill <PID>

# Verify nothing is running (should only show "grep echos")
ps aux | grep echos

# Then restart
pnpm start
For production: Use webhooks instead of polling to avoid conflicts.

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VPS Deployment (Ubuntu/Debian)

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One-liner install

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/albinotonnina/echos/main/install.sh | bash
Installs prerequisites, clones repo, and launches the setup wizard.

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systemd service (production)

# /etc/systemd/system/echos.service
[Unit]
Description=EchOS knowledge management
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=echos
WorkingDirectory=/home/echos/echos
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/pnpm start
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now echos
sudo journalctl -u echos -f   # follow logs

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SSH / VPS CLI Access

The daemon runs via systemd or Docker as normal. When you SSH in, run queries directly against the live data without interrupting the daemon: 
ssh user@your-server
cd ~/echos

# One-shot query
pnpm echos "what are my reminders for this week?"

# Interactive session
pnpm echos
SQLite WAL mode allows concurrent reads (and occasional writes) alongside the running daemon. This is safe for single-user personal use.

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Oracle Cloud Deployment

# Deploy to remote server
./scripts/deploy.sh user@your-server-ip
The deploy script:
  1. Syncs project files via rsync
  2. Installs dependencies on remote
  3. Builds the project
  4. Restarts via docker-compose

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Important: Dev vs Production

Before starting locally, ensure your production deployment is stopped: 
# SSH to production
ssh user@your-server

# Stop the bot
docker compose down
# Or
pkill -f "echos"

# Exit SSH
exit

# Now safe to start locally
pnpm start
Only one instance can poll Telegram at a time. See Troubleshooting for details.

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Backup

# Create backup
./scripts/backup.sh ./backups

# Restore (copy files back)
tar -xzf backups/echos_backup_TIMESTAMP.tar.gz

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Environment Variables

See .env.example for the full list. Required:
  • TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN - Get from @BotFather on Telegram
  • ALLOWED_USER_IDS - Comma-separated Telegram user IDs (get from @userinfobot)
  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY - Get from https://console.anthropic.com/
Optional but recommended:
  • OPENAI_API_KEY - Required for embeddings and Whisper transcription
Scheduler (requires Redis):
  • ENABLE_SCHEDULER - Set to true to enable background jobs (default: false)
  • DIGEST_SCHEDULE - Cron expression for AI daily digest (e.g. 0 8 * * * for 8am daily)
  • REMINDER_CHECK_SCHEDULE - Cron expression for due reminder checks (e.g. */15 * * * * for every 15min)
See Scheduler for details.

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Process Management

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Development

# Start daemon (foreground)
pnpm start

# Stop (Ctrl+C or from another terminal)
pkill -f "tsx.*index.ts"

# CLI — no daemon needed, works alongside or independently
pnpm echos "query"           # one-shot
pnpm echos                   # interactive REPL
echo "msg" | pnpm echos      # pipe mode

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Production

For production deployments, use a process manager: 
# With PM2
pm2 start "pnpm start" --name echos
pm2 stop echos
pm2 restart echos
pm2 logs echos

# Or use Docker Compose (recommended)
docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f echos
docker compose stop