System Requirements

AxonOS runs anywhere Docker does. GPU acceleration is optional but recommended for heavy scientific workloads.

Minimum requirements

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system	Linux, macOS, or Windows with Docker	Linux for GPU servers
RAM	4 GB	8 GB+ (16 GB+ for memory-heavy apps)
Storage	10 GB free	SSD with room for images + data
CPU	2 cores	4+ cores
Network	Internet for initial setup	—

Required software

For the AxonOS container

Docker 20.10 or later with BuildKit support
Docker Buildx (for multi-platform builds; included in recent Docker)
A modern web browser for the desktop interface

For the AxonOS Launcher

Python 3.6 or later
tkinter (only for GUI mode — usually bundled with Python)
Docker 20.10+
xdg-open on Linux/macOS for automatic browser launching

GPU acceleration (NVIDIA)

Optional

AxonOS runs fine on CPU. GPU acceleration unlocks faster molecular dynamics, image processing, and AI inference.

NVIDIA GPU — CUDA-compatible card
NVIDIA Container Toolkit — for Docker GPU access
NVIDIA drivers — 450.80.02+ or compatible with your GPU
CUDA 11.0+ — installed automatically inside the container

Supported browsers

AxonOS is accessed through noVNC. For best performance use a recent browser:

Browser	Minimum version
Chrome / Chromium	88+ (recommended)
Firefox	85+
Safari	14+
Edge	88+

Network configuration

Port	Purpose	Exposure
`6080`	noVNC browser access	Required
`8889`	Gate API (billing/auth)	Compose stack
`5901`	Direct VNC	Optional — avoid exposing publicly
`4001`, `5001`, `8080`, `9090`	IPFS swarm / API / gateway	Optional

Don't expose direct VNC

Prefer reaching the desktop through noVNC (6080) behind a TLS reverse proxy. Avoid publishing direct VNC (5901) or the IPFS API (5001) to the public internet. See Security.

Install prerequisites

Ubuntu 22.04

bash

# Update system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Python + tkinter (for the GUI launcher)
sudo apt install -y python3 python3-tk

# GPU support (optional)
distribution=$(. /etc/os-release; echo $ID$VERSION_ID)
curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/nvidia-docker/gpgkey | sudo apt-key add -
curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/nvidia-docker/$distribution/nvidia-docker.list \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-docker.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y nvidia-container-toolkit
sudo systemctl restart docker

macOS

bash

# Install Docker Desktop from https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop
# Python 3 is usually pre-installed (tkinter included)
python3 --version
docker --version

Windows

powershell

# Install Docker Desktop from https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop
# Install Python 3 from https://www.python.org/downloads/ (tkinter included)
python --version
docker --version

Ready? Head to the Quick Start or jump straight to Installation.