Running rowlab

rowlab is one Python package with two modes.

Local (the default) is one person on their own machine: no sign-in, the server’s own files readable and writable, one SQLite file and one data folder.

uvx rowlab                # or: pip install rowlab && rowlab serve
rowlab serve --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Hosted is a shared server: people sign in with WorkOS, everything belongs to an organisation, and the protections a shared server needs are on: no reading the server’s disk, no requests to private addresses, saved keys encrypted, runs taking turns. It wants Postgres, S3 and the hosted extra:

pip install "rowlab[hosted]"

See A shared server for the setup, and Configuration for every setting.

With Docker

The image is ghcr.io/row-and-reason/rowlab, for amd64 and arm64. On its own it is local mode, with its state in /data:

docker run -p 127.0.0.1:8000:8000 -v rowlab:/data ghcr.io/row-and-reason/rowlab

The repository’s docker-compose.yml runs it the way a shared server does: the API and a separate runner, Postgres, and S3 storage (VersityGW on a folder). It starts in local mode; put ROWLAB_MODE=hosted and the hosted settings in a .env file next to it to share it.

docker compose up

Commands

Command
rowlab serve	the API, the web app and, unless --no-runner, the runner that processes runs
rowlab runner	a runner on its own; with Postgres, start as many as you like
rowlab mcp	the MCP server over stdio, for an agent on this machine
rowlab openapi	the OpenAPI spec as JSON

Where things are

Locally, ~/.rowlab (or ROWLAB_DATA_DIR) holds the SQLite database, the datasets as Parquet and temporary files. Back it up like any folder; delete it to start over. A saved OpenRouter key is in the database, never returned by the API, and encrypted when ROWLAB_SECRET_KEY is set.

rowlab sends nothing home: no telemetry, no update checks. Model calls go to OpenRouter with your key, and nowhere else.