Run Causet with a Local App

Causet has two runtime deployment options:

Option	Use for	Status
Self-hosted Docker	Local development, on-prem, your own infrastructure	Coming soon
Causet Cloud	Managed hosted runtime — production and shared dev environments	Early access

There is no third deployable runtime path. The browser Tutorials and CLI causet build compile are developer tools for learning and authoring — they are not substitutes for a runtime.

Full readiness table: What runs today?.

Learn the model (no runtime required)

Browser tutorials

The 5-Minute Quickstart runs in your browser — in-memory compiler and rules engine, no signup, no network. Use this to learn intents, events, and timelines before deploying a runtime.

CLI compile and validate

causet build validate --runtime ./your-app
causet build compile --runtime ./your-app --out build/your-app-out

These run on your machine with no runtime connection. They produce IR artifacts you deploy to whichever runtime you use.

Self-hosted local runtime (Docker)

When the public Docker Compose stack ships, local development looks like:

docker compose up -d

Your app points at the local runtime URL (typically http://localhost:8085):

CAUSET_API_URL=http://localhost:8085

Then submit intents via the SDK or CLI against your local stack — no Cloud login required.

⚠️

Team contributors only. The self-hosted Docker stack requires private source access. Most users should use Causet Cloud. See Installation (self-hosted) and Development Setup.

Managed hosted runtime (Causet Cloud)

Causet Cloud is the managed hosted runtime — intents, ledger, projections, and queries run on Causet infrastructure.

Install the CLI and request early access
causet login and causet init to create an application
Publish a release and deploy to a fork
Submit intents: causet intent submit … or client.emit() from your app (SDK)
Inspect timelines: causet inspect timeline …

CAUSET_API_URL=https://api.causet.cloud

See Quickstart: Concert App for the full Cloud walkthrough.

End-to-end adoption loop

Once you have a runtime (Cloud today, Docker when available):

Define the workflow in .causet files
Compile locally: causet build compile
Deploy IR to your runtime (Cloud publish, or Docker stack reload)
Retrofit one API route — Retrofit an Existing App
Trigger the endpoint and inspect the timeline
Simulate failure and verify retry behavior
Replay/repair if needed — Replay

For Next.js apps, see Add Causet to Next.js.

Quickstart: Concert App Production Rollout Checklist