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Getting Started

This guide walks through the first deployment of Privitty Edge on a gateway using Docker.

Prerequisites

  • Docker 20.10+ with buildx (for multi-arch pulls, Docker handles this automatically)
  • Network egress to the Privitty relay (chat.privittytech.com by default)
  • A profile name for this gateway (e.g. factory-gw-01) — used as the display name

Step 1 — Start the container

docker run -d \
  --name privitty-edged \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -e PRIVITTY_PROFILE=factory-gw-01 \
  -e PRIVITTY_LICENSE_URL="https://license.privitty.com/v1/license/YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -p 127.0.0.1:7200:7200 \
  -v privitty-data:/var/lib/privitty \
  privitty/edge:latest

PRIVITTY_LICENSE_URL activates the license during startup (before the HTTP server starts). On later restarts, if privitty.lic already exists in the volume, activation is skipped automatically.

Flag Purpose
PRIVITTY_PROFILE Required. Gateway display name on first run
-p 127.0.0.1:7200:7200 Bind API to localhost on the host (recommended)
-v privitty-data:… Persist keys, database, blobs, and license

Inside the container

The daemon listens on 0.0.0.0:7200 by default so Docker port mapping works. The image CMD sets this automatically.

Step 2 — Wait for provisioning

On first start, the daemon:

  1. Creates the accounts directory under /var/lib/privitty
  2. Registers with the Privitty relay and receives credentials
  3. Runs IMAP/SMTP autodiscovery (10–30 seconds)
  4. Initializes encryption keys
  5. Starts the HTTP server

Watch the logs:

docker logs -f privitty-edged

Expected output (abbreviated):

[privitty-edged] Profile  : factory-gw-01
[privitty-edged] Provisioning via chatmail …
[privitty-edged] Account ready: abc123@chat.privittytech.com  (display: factory-gw-01)
[privitty-edged] Privitty storage ready.
HTTP server ready on http://0.0.0.0:7200

Profile vs e-mail address

PRIVITTY_PROFILE is your local display name, not the relay-assigned e-mail address. The relay assigns the actual address (e.g. abc123@chat.privittytech.com).

Step 3 — Verify health

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:7200/health | jq .

{
  "status": "ok",
  "service": "privitty-edged",
  "version": "0.1.0"
}

Step 4 — Get the account address

curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:7200/rpc \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"get_config","params":[1,"addr"],"id":1}'

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":"abc123@chat.privittytech.com","id":1}

Save this address — peers use it to identify your gateway.

Step 5 — Activate a license

Privitty send operations require an active license. Pass the delivery URL at container start:

-e PRIVITTY_LICENSE_URL="https://license.privitty.com/v1/license/YOUR_TOKEN"

The daemon activates the license before the HTTP server starts — no separate step or restart needed.

If the container is already running without a license, use:

docker exec privitty-edged \
  privitty-edge --accounts /var/lib/privitty \
  license activate "https://license.privitty.com/v1/license/YOUR_TOKEN"

docker restart privitty-edged

See License Management for details.

Step 6 — Connect a peer and send a message

  1. Generate an invite on the gateway — Example B
  2. Share the invite link with the remote operator or cloud node
  3. Send an encrypted message once the peer has joined
# After resolving chat_id 7 with your peer:
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:7200/rpc \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"send_msg","params":[1,7,{"text":"Hello from the gateway"}],"id":2}'

Next steps