Installation¶

This guide covers installing STAC Server for development and production environments.

Development Setup¶

Using Docker Compose (Recommended)¶

The fastest way to get started is with Docker Compose:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-server.git
cd stac-server

# Start services
docker compose up -d

This starts:

OpenSearch on port 9200
STAC API on port 3000
Kibana/OpenSearch Dashboards on port 5601

The API will be available at http://localhost:3000.

Local Development¶

For active development without Docker:

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start OpenSearch (required)
docker compose up -d opensearch

# Start the API in development mode
npm run serve

The development server includes:

Hot reload on file changes
Debug logging
Transaction extension enabled
No authentication

Production Deployment¶

For production deployment to AWS, including infrastructure setup, configuration, and best practices, see the comprehensive Deployment Guide.

Docker Production Image¶

Build and run the production Docker image:

# Build image
docker build -t stac-server .

# Run container
docker run -p 3000:3000 \
  -e STAC_API_URL=https://your-domain.com \
  -e ES_HOST=your-opensearch-host \
  stac-server

Environment Variables¶

Key environment variables for all deployments:

Variable	Required	Description
`STAC_API_URL`	Yes	Public URL of the API
`ES_HOST`	Yes	OpenSearch/Elasticsearch endpoint
`STAC_ID`	No	Catalog identifier (default: `stac-server`)
`STAC_TITLE`	No	Catalog title (default: `STAC API`)
`STAC_DESCRIPTION`	No	Catalog description

See the Configuration Guide for the complete list.

Verification¶

After installation, verify the API is running:

# Check the landing page
curl http://localhost:3000

# List collections
curl http://localhost:3000/collections

# Check conformance
curl http://localhost:3000/conformance

Expected response from landing page:

{
  "id": "stac-server",
  "type": "Catalog",
  "title": "STAC API",
  "description": "A STAC API",
  "stac_version": "1.0.0",
  "conformsTo": [
    "https://api.stacspec.org/v1.0.0/core",
    "https://api.stacspec.org/v1.0.0/item-search",
    ...
  ],
  "links": [...]
}

Next Steps¶

Getting Started > Quick Start - Complete tutorial with sample data
Guides > Configuration - Configure collections and extensions
Guides > Usage - Learn how to use the API