Set up an Ark server with Docker Compose

All dependencies are included and configured automatically. The optional Core Lightning service ships with Boltz’s hold plugin.

This path runs on regtest, a local-only test network. If you’d prefer to run on signet with each component installed individually, see the manual setup guide instead.

The Compose file handles boot-time dependencies and initializations using depends_on and health checks.

Start the server

Clone the repository

git clone https://gitlab.com/ark-bitcoin/bark
cd bark

Start all services

docker compose -f contrib/docker/docker-compose.yml up

Verify services are running

Once everything is up, you can run commands against the containers:

# bark
docker compose -f contrib/docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm bark bark ark-info

# bitcoin-cli
docker compose -f contrib/docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm bitcoind \
  bitcoin-cli -regtest -rpcuser=second -rpcpassword=ark \
  -rpcconnect=bitcoind getblockchaininfo

# captaind
docker compose -f contrib/docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm captaind \
  captaind --config /root/captaind/captaind.toml get-mnemonic

# Core Lightning
docker compose -f contrib/docker/docker-compose.yml exec cln \
  lightning-cli --regtest getinfo

Shared volumes

captaind — persistent data for captaind
postgres — PostgreSQL database files
bark — data for bark
bitcoind — Bitcoin Core blockchain and wallet data
cln — Core Lightning node data

Fund the server

Generate some regtest blocks and send bitcoin to the server:

# Get the server's funding address
export CAPTAIND_ADDRESS=$(docker compose -f contrib/docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm captaind \
  captaind --config /root/captaind/captaind.toml rpc wallet | jq -r '.rounds.address')

# Generate blocks
docker compose -f contrib/docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm bitcoind \
  bitcoin-cli -regtest -rpcuser=second -rpcpassword=ark \
  -rpcconnect=bitcoind -generate 106

# Send bitcoin to the server
docker compose -f contrib/docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm bitcoind \
  bitcoin-cli -regtest -rpcuser=second -rpcpassword=ark \
  -rpcconnect=bitcoind sendtoaddress $CAPTAIND_ADDRESS 1

Documentation

Bark SDK

Barkd

Run an Ark server

Set up an Ark server with Docker Compose

Start the server

Fund the server

​Start the server

​Fund the server

Start the server

Fund the server