litellm/docker

Docker Development Guide

This guide provides instructions for building and running the LiteLLM application using Docker and Docker Compose.

Just want to run LiteLLM? docker-compose.yml in the repository root runs the published image with a Postgres database, the stack the Docker quickstart documents, and it works on its own outside a checkout:

curl -sSLO https://github.com/BerriAI/litellm/raw/main/docker-compose.yml
printf 'LITELLM_MASTER_KEY=sk-%s\nLITELLM_SALT_KEY=sk-%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Compose

Building and Running the Application

The same docker-compose.yml builds from source when you pass --build: it builds the Dockerfile in the repository root, the one image LiteLLM ships. docker-entrypoint.sh next to it is the only entrypoint script; every container starts through it

One image, many components

Every LiteLLM container runs the same image. The first word of the container command (or the LITELLM_COMPONENT environment variable when the command carries only flags) picks the process the container runs, and everything after it is handed to that process unchanged:

Component	Runs	Port
proxy	litellm ... (everything in one process, default)	4000
gateway	python -m gateway.launch ... (inference routes)	4000
backend	uvicorn backend.main:app ... (management routes)	4001
ui	nginx serving the static admin UI	3000
migrations	python migrations/run.py, prisma migrate deploy then exit
metrics	python -m litellm.proxy.prometheus_metrics_server ...	--port
collector	python -m litellm.proxy.collector ...

docker run -p 4000:4000 litellm --config /app/config.yaml         # proxy, exactly as before
docker run -p 4000:4000 litellm gateway --port 4000               # componentized data plane
docker run -p 4001:4001 -e LITELLM_COMPONENT=backend litellm      # same, chosen through the env
docker run -p 3000:3000 --read-only --tmpfs /tmp litellm ui       # admin UI behind nginx
docker run -e DATABASE_URL=... litellm migrations                 # one-off schema migration job
docker run -it litellm sh                                         # anything else runs verbatim

PgBouncer is not a separate component: LITELLM_PGBOUNCER_ENABLED=true starts an in-container PgBouncer in front of DATABASE_URL inside proxy and gateway. USE_DDTRACE=true wraps whichever component runs with ddtrace-run, and PROMETHEUS_MULTIPROC_DIR is emptied of stale samples before any workers fork (the metrics and collector sidecars only read it, so their restart keeps the live samples)

The image runs as uid 65532 (nonroot in the Wolfi base) and also works as an arbitrary uid in gid 0, the shape OpenShift restricted-v2 assigns, because everything it writes at runtime lives under /app/.cache, /var/lib/litellm and /tmp. Mount those (or set readOnlyRootFilesystem with emptyDirs there) for a read-only root filesystem. Prisma's CLI and engines are baked under /opt/prisma, so migrations need neither network nor a writable home

1. Set the Master and Salt Keys

The proxy signs virtual keys with LITELLM_MASTER_KEY and encrypts stored provider credentials with LITELLM_SALT_KEY. Compose reads both from a .env file in the directory you run it from, so generate them once:

printf 'LITELLM_MASTER_KEY=sk-%s\nLITELLM_SALT_KEY=sk-%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env

Keep the file: regenerating LITELLM_SALT_KEY makes credentials already stored in the database unreadable. Provider keys such as OPENAI_API_KEY go in the same file, and the whole file is passed to the container

2. Build and Run the Containers

docker compose up -d --build

This command builds the image from the root Dockerfile and starts the litellm and db services in detached mode. Without --build, docker compose up pulls the published main-stable image instead. Add --profile monitoring to also start Prometheus on port 9090, scraping the proxy with the root prometheus.yml

3. Verifying the Application is Running

You can check the status of the running containers with the following command:

docker compose ps

To view the logs of the litellm container, run:

docker compose logs -f litellm

4. Stopping the Application

To stop the running containers, use the following command:

docker compose down

Embedded LiteAdmin MCP

Source builds containing embedded LiteAdmin MCP can serve it at /admin/mcp on the existing LiteLLM port. This capability is unreleased. Keep your existing database, master key, and proxy configuration, then add these settings to the serving container's environment:

LITELLM_ENABLE_ADMIN_MCP=true
LITELLM_LICENSE="your-enterprise-license"
PROXY_BASE_URL=https://gateway.example.com

For the compose deployment described above, put them in its .env file and rebuild:

docker compose up -d --build

In componentized deployments, set the flag and license on the backend component and route /admin/mcp to it. The gateway component excludes this endpoint. The image bundles the connector for every component

Hosting is disabled by default. Opting in requires a valid base Enterprise license; an unlicensed opt-in or invalid flag value prevents startup. Enabling it reserves /admin, so rename any MCP server alias called admin first

With native key authentication, connect with a personal proxy-admin bearer key. When enable_oauth2_proxy_auth is enabled, the existing trusted-proxy identity headers select the user instead; the MCP bearer is required by the connector but does not select the native user. The resolved user must have the stored proxy_admin role, and trusted_proxy_ranges applies to the original caller's direct peer

Embedded responses default to full; selecting LITELLM_ADMIN_RESPONSE_VIEW=compact requires subsequent saved-result reads to reach the same worker process, including within a multi-worker pod

See the LiteAdmin MCP guide for client configuration, tool restrictions, and verification

Hardening

The compose file runs the proxy the way a locked-down cluster would: as the image's non-root user with a read-only root filesystem, every capability dropped, no-new-privileges set, and tmpfs mounts only at /tmp and /app/.cache. The image is built for that, so a change that makes the proxy write anywhere else fails here before it fails in Kubernetes. To try an arbitrary uid in gid 0, the shape OpenShift restricted-v2 assigns, add user: "101:0" to the litellm service

Prisma's CLI and engines are baked under /opt/prisma, so migrations run without network access. Verify with:

docker run --rm --network none --entrypoint prisma docker.litellm.ai/berriai/litellm:main-stable --version

Troubleshooting

• required variable LITELLM_MASTER_KEY is missing a value: Compose did not find a .env file with LITELLM_MASTER_KEY and LITELLM_SALT_KEY in the directory you ran it from. Generate one as shown above.
• password authentication failed for user "llmproxy": the litellm_postgres_data volume was initialised by an older compose file with different credentials. docker compose down -v drops it and the next up recreates the database.
• build_admin_ui.sh: not found: the build context is wrong. Run docker compose from the root of the repository.