@profoundlogic/coderflow-server

CoderFlow Server

CoderFlow is an enterprise platform that runs autonomous engineering agents inside your infrastructure. Instead of merely suggesting code, agents compile, test, validate, and fix legacy systems end-to-end — delivering verified, ready-to-commit results and 5–10x productivity gains.

CoderFlow:

• Submits coding tasks to AI agents (Claude, Codex, Gemini) running in isolated Docker containers
• Lets agents execute code, compile, test, and validate changes automatically
• Supports both headless execution (submit once, review results later) and interactive sessions (work within containers for guided work)
• Manages multi-repository workspaces with build pipelines and test suites
• Allows developers to review, iterate, and approve changes before committing

Installation

Prerequisites

A Linux server with the following installed:

• Docker — Install Docker Engine
• Git — Available via your distribution's package manager

Optionally, if you'd like the server to listen on a port below 1024 (such as 443 or 80):

• On Ubuntu and Debian-based distros - Install authbind via APT package manager.
• Other distros - See your distro's documentation for enabling non-root users to bind network services to privileged ports

Root Permissions

[!IMPORTANT] Only a few parts of the installation process require root permissions.
Do not use root permissions (i.e. sudo or su) except where specifically instructed.
The server installs and runs as a non-root user.

Create a Dedicated Linux User For Each Installation

Each installation of CoderFlow server should run under a unique and dedicated user account, rather than your personal account or root. This provides better security isolation and makes it easier to manage the service.

Create a dedicated user (we suggest coder, but any name works):

# Create the user with a home directory
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash coder

# Set a password (optional, if you need interactive login)
sudo passwd coder

# Add the user to the docker group so it can manage containers
sudo usermod -aG docker coder

If coder conflicts with an existing user on your system, choose a different name — the server works the same regardless of the username.

Optional: If Using Server Listen Port Below 1024

If you'd like to use a server listen port below 1024 (e.g. 443), configure authbind to allow the dedicated CoderFlow user to use the port:

For example, for port 443:

sudo touch /etc/authbind/byport/443
sudo chown coder /etc/authbind/byport/443
sudo chmod 500 /etc/authbind/byport/443

Switch to Dedicated CoderFlow User

Switch to the dedicated user before proceeding with installation:

sudo su - coder

Install Node.js via NVS

Use the installation guide to install Node Version Switcher (NVS) in the dedicated user's home directory. This allows each CoderFlow installation/user to use a separate version of Node.js. If you prefer, you can use nvm instead, but NVS will be used in this documentation.

After installing NVS, exit and restart your shell and then install Node 24:

nvs add node/24
nvs use node/24
nvs link node/24

Setup

Install the Server

npm install -g @profoundlogic/coderflow-server

Create a Setup Repository

The setup repository contains your environments, task templates, and configuration.

If your organization already has a setup repository, clone it:

git clone https://github.com/your-org/mycompany-coder-setup.git

Otherwise, create a new one:

coder-server init mycompany-coder-setup

This creates a mycompany-coder-setup directory with the required structure and initializes it as a git repository.

Install License

coder-server license set <your-license-key>

Create Admin User

coder-server create-user --username=admin --email=[e-mail] --name="Admin User" --role=admin

You'll be prompted to set a password.

Optional: Configure Server Listen Port and SSL

By default the server listens on port 3000. To configure an alternate port (e.g. 443):

coder-server config set server_port 443

To configure a certificate for SSL:

[!INFO] Certificate and key files must be in PEM format.
Concatenate certificate, intermediate, and root into a single file, in that order.
File paths can be given as absolute or relative.
Files must be readable by the dedicated CoderFlow user.

coder-server config set ssl_cert_path mycert.pem
coder-server config set ssl_key_path mykey.pem

Start the Server

coder-server start

If using a listen port below 1024 (e.g. 443, 80) and using authbind to allow that, the server must be started like this instead:

authbind --deep coder-server start

Once running, connect to the server's online documentation to continue with the installation (e.g., http://myserver:3000/docs/#/admin/installation?id=start-the-server).

Git History Guardrail Tuning

Git History protects server and browser performance by applying diff guardrails for large commits.

• GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_FILES (default: 500)
• GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_BYTES (default: 5242880, 5MB)
• GIT_HISTORY_MAX_SUMMARY_COMMAND_BUFFER (default: 6291456, 6MB)
• GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_COMMAND_BUFFER (default: max(GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_BYTES + 1MB, 6MB))

Suggested tuning profiles:

• Conservative (default): GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_FILES=500, best for lowest server/UI load
• High-churn monorepo: GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_FILES=2000
• Very large commit workflows: GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_FILES=6000

If your repositories regularly include very large commits (for example 5000+ changed files), raise GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_FILES intentionally based on your infrastructure limits:

GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_FILES=6000
GIT_HISTORY_MAX_DIFF_BYTES=10485760

Higher limits can increase API payload size, response latency, and browser rendering load. Raise these values gradually and monitor server memory/CPU and Git History page responsiveness.