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Odal Node
Alpha — Odal Node is in active development. APIs, schemas, and docs may and will change before 1.0.

Self-hosting

Self-hosting is the default way to run Odal Node. You run the engine on infrastructure you control, with your own keys — there are no licence keys, no passport caps, and no capability behind a paywall. Production self-hosting for your own organisation is free under the engine’s licence.

What you need

Docker, and the source tree. Everything is driven by the odal CLI.

The shape of it

  1. Configure your secrets. A node fails closed without them, by design — database credentials, a key-store passphrase, and your admin login live in a local environment file you create.
  2. Bring it up. Running odal walks you through it: it builds and starts the node, then onboards you and mints your first API key. The first start compiles from source and takes a few minutes; later starts are immediate.
  3. Verify health. odal status confirms the node is up and serving.

The Quick Start is the condensed version of this flow.

What stays with you

Your signing key is generated and held on your own infrastructure and never leaves it. Your raw production data is discarded after signing. What persists is the signed passport, its history, and the metadata needed to serve it — nothing more. This holds regardless of who operates the node; see What Odal can and cannot see.

Keeping current

The engine and the sector rules move as the regulation does. Updating a node brings in the latest validated sector schemas and fixes; a node you never update keeps working but drifts from the regulation over time.