Install Bark Wallet - Second Docs

Bark Wallet runs on your own hardware, and the app creates a wallet for you the first time it opens. Pick your platform.

Umbrel
Start9
Self-host

You need:

A device running umbrelOS 0.5 or later.

Open the App Store

Open umbrelOS in your browser, at http://umbrel.local by default, and select App Store in the dock.

Find Bark Wallet

Search for “Bark Wallet”, or browse the Bitcoin category. The same listing is on the web at apps.umbrel.com/app/bark-wallet.

Screenshot of the Bark Wallet listing in the Umbrel App Store, with the Install button — One-click install from the official Umbrel App Store

Select Install

umbrelOS downloads and starts the app in the background.

Open the app

Select Open on the listing, or the new Bark Wallet icon on your umbrelOS home screen.

Bark Wallet has no login of its own. Anyone who can sign in to your umbrelOS can open the wallet app and spend from it.

By default, Bark Wallet connects to Second’s mainnet Ark server at ark.second.tech. A different server can’t be configured yet.

You need:

A device running StartOS 0.4.0 or later.

Open the Marketplace

Select Marketplace in the top navigation bar.

Install Bark Wallet

Find Bark Wallet and select Install. The service appears on your Services page.

Screenshot of the Bark Wallet listing in the Start9 Registry, with the Install button and the version panel — Bark Wallet in the Start9 Registry

Run the Set UI Password task

The onboarding tasks sit on the service’s Dashboard, under Tasks. This one generates your login password and displays it. Save it somewhere secure.

Acknowledge the Backup Safety task

Read and accept this disclaimer. With Bark, restoring an out-of-date copy of your wallet can cause permanent loss of bitcoin, so only ever restore your most recent backup. The Wallet backups page explains why.

Configure an external backup target

Run the Configure Backups task and enable at least one target on a different machine: Google Drive, Dropbox, Nextcloud, or SFTP.

Your seed phrase will be required to recover from any backups sent to this target.

Start the service

Back on the service’s Dashboard, select Start.

Screenshot of the Bark Wallet service Dashboard on StartOS, with the Stopped status, the Start button, and all tasks complete — All tasks complete: start the service from its Dashboard

Open UI and log in

Once the service is running, select Open UI and log in with the generated password.

Screenshot of the Unlock Bark Wallet screen, asking for the password before showing the wallet app — Password protection blocks unauthorized access to the wallet app on your network

By default, Bark Wallet connects to Second’s mainnet Ark server at ark.second.tech. A different server can’t be configured yet.

You need:

Docker with Docker Compose. On Windows, macOS, and Linux, Docker Desktop includes both; on Linux, Docker Engine with the Docker Compose plugin also works.
Git.
Optionally, Node.js 22.12 or later, which gives you shorter npm commands. Docker does the work either way.

Already running your own Barkd?

You can run the web interface alone against an existing barkd, without Docker. This path needs Node.js 22.12 or later.

Clone the repository and install the dependencies

git clone https://gitlab.com/ark-bitcoin/labs/bark-web.git
cd bark-web
npm install

Create your configuration

cp .env.byob.example .env.byob

Point it at your daemon

In .env.byob, set BARKD_URL and BARKD_AUTH_TOKEN, and match BARK_NETWORK, ARK_SERVER, and CHAIN_SOURCE to your daemon’s network; the file ships signet defaults. The token stays server-side and never reaches the browser.

Start the interface

npm run dev:byob

Then open http://localhost:5173.

Run the wallet app

Clone the repository

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

Start the stack on your network

Pick your network. Mainnet moves real bitcoin; signet is for testing with free bitcoin.

Mainnet
Signet

docker compose --env-file .env.mainnet up --build

npm run dev:mainnet

By default you’ll connect to Second’s Ark server at ark.second.tech.

docker compose --env-file .env.signet up --build

npm run dev:signet

By default you’ll connect to Second’s signet Ark server.

Setup will take a few minutes during your first run. Leave the terminal running.

The first start creates the Docker volume that will hold your wallet. A storage mirror (RAID, ZFS, or BTRFS) keeps a hot spare of your VTXOs through a disk failure. To use one, move Docker’s storage onto the mirrored disk before the first start.

Docker Engine: set data-root in /etc/docker/daemon.json.
Docker Desktop: change Disk image location under Settings > Resources.

A mirror is not a backup, though. See Wallet backups.

Open the wallet app

Go to http://localhost:5173. The app creates a wallet automatically on first launch.

On signet, fund the wallet with free sats from Second’s faucet.

Turn on password protection

Out of the box the wallet app has no login. Anyone who can open the wallet page, on your machine or from any device on your local network, can spend from it. To enable password protection on the app, follow these steps.

Create the password file

In the repository directory, create .auth-dev/ui_password containing only your password (replace your-strong-password with your preferred password in the command below).

mkdir .auth-dev
echo "your-strong-password" > .auth-dev/ui_password

Start the wallet app with password protection

Mainnet
Signet

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.auth.yml --env-file .env.mainnet up --build

npm run dev:mainnet:auth

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.auth.yml --env-file .env.signet up --build

npm run dev:signet:auth

Once enabled, the next time you open the wallet page you’ll be prompted to enter your password. Sessions last seven days, and five failed login attempts trigger an escalating lockout of up to 15 minutes.

Open from other devices on your network

The wallet app is reachable from any device on your network at your machine’s local IP address, while the API and barkd stay private on your machine. Find the address with ipconfig on Windows, ifconfig on macOS, or ip addr on Linux, then go to http://<your-machine-ip>:5173 on the other device. Every device talks to the same barkd, so the same wallet loads everywhere.

After installing the wallet app, the first thing to do is back up your wallet.

​Run the wallet app

​Turn on password protection

​Open from other devices on your network

Run the wallet app

Turn on password protection

Open from other devices on your network