Docker Setup

The Docker path requires no Python installation. Everything runs in a container and you configure it through the browser.

Prerequisites

• Docker (Docker Desktop on Mac/Windows, OrbStack on Mac, or Docker Engine on Linux)
• A Discord bot token — see Discord Setup
• An API key for your chosen model provider

Steps

1. Download docker-compose.yml

Navigate to the folder where you want to install Dango, then download the file:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zhiro-labs/dango/main/docker-compose.yml

2. Start the containers

docker compose up -d && docker compose logs -f

-d runs the containers in the background. logs -f streams output to your terminal — press Ctrl+C to stop watching; the containers keep running.

3. Open the setup wizard

Go to http://localhost:17860 in your browser. The wizard will ask for:

• Discord Bot Token
• Model provider and API key
• Bot personality (system prompt)

Save, and the bot connects to Discord automatically.

4. Test the bot

In Discord, mention the bot in any channel it can see:

@YourBotName hello!

It should reply within a few seconds. If it doesn't, run docker compose logs to check for errors.

Managing the bot

# Stop (preserves your data)
docker compose stop

# Start again
docker compose start

# Pull the latest image and restart
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

Your data (data/, config/, workspace/) lives in a Docker volume and survives updates.

Custom commands & tools

The bot service mounts a ./custom folder next to your docker-compose.yml, so you can add your own Discord commands and agent tools without rebuilding the image. On first run the folder is seeded with *.example templates. To activate them:

cp custom/commands.py.example custom/commands.py   # edit it, then:
docker compose restart bot

See Custom Commands & Tools for how to write them.

Extra Python packages

If a custom tool needs a package that isn't in the image (e.g. the Google Drive provider needs google-api-python-client), the volume mount alone isn't enough — build a derived image:

FROM ghcr.io/zhiro-labs/dango:latest
RUN uv add google-api-python-client google-auth-httplib2 google-auth-oauthlib

then point the bot service at it with build: instead of image:. Custom tools that only use the standard library and existing dependencies work with the mount alone.

Running on a VPS?

The web dashboard has no login screen — do not expose port 17860 to the internet. See VPS Deployment for the SSH tunnel approach.