Raspberry Pi
A Pi 4 or 5 with 4GB or more runs Cobblr comfortably for a household or a single
person. The setup is the same two files and docker compose up -d as everywhere
else. The Pi-specific parts are the OS, the storage, and knowing the first pull
takes a little longer.
Use a 64-bit OS
Run a 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS (or another arm64 Linux), and confirm uname -m
reports aarch64 before you begin.
- The published images are multi-arch, so on an arm64 host Docker pulls the arm64 build automatically. Nothing compiles on the Pi. The first run just pulls and starts.
- A 32-bit OS will not pull the right image.
Put the database on an SSD, not the microSD
This is the one that matters for a Pi. Put your install folder on the SSD's mount
point and run docker compose up -d from there, so every bind mount lands on
the SSD.
- Keep the whole
./data/tree, and especially./data/db, on a USB SSD. A microSD card is slow and wears out under a database's write pattern. - A cheap SATA SSD in a USB 3.0 UASP enclosure is a solid setup.
Bring it up
The flow is identical to Install. Generate your files in the setup builder, copy them onto the Pi, and:
docker compose up -d
- The first pull is slower over a Pi's network and storage than on a desktop, so give it a few minutes.
- Updates are the usual
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d, or the updater if you would rather it happened by itself. - For HTTPS on a Pi, Tailscale is the least-effort path and is what lets the phone camera work.
Resource notes
- Memory is the thing to watch, not CPU. Postgres, the api, and the proxy sit within a 4GB Pi with room to spare, since the AI and embedding work runs on the provider you connect rather than on the Pi.
- For a busy group rather than a household, a small x86 box has more headroom for the money. See the sizing notes.