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1 the installer
Sam Bent edited this page 2026-07-17 15:15:52 -04:00
Table of Contents

The installer

If you would rather not touch a terminal, i2pforge ships a desktop installer. It is a single application that checks your system, asks a handful of questions, and stands up your service for you. At the end it shows you your live address.

Getting it

Download the AppImage for Linux, make it executable, and run it:

curl -fsSLO https://sambent.dev/sam/i2pforge/releases/download/v0.1.0/i2pforge_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage
chmod +x i2pforge_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage
./i2pforge_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage

An AppImage is a self-contained program. There is nothing to install and nothing left behind. Double-clicking it in a file manager works too.

What the steps do

The installer walks you through nine short steps. You can go back at any point.

  1. Welcome. A one-screen summary of what you are about to do.
  2. Runtime. It checks that Docker is installed and running, and that the image is available. If Docker is missing, it tells you and stops here.
  3. Mode. Choose how people reach your service: an eepsite for a website, or raw TCP for something like SSH.
  4. Backend. Type the address of the service you are exposing, such as web:80.
  5. Identity. Choose a fresh random address, a vanity address with a prefix you pick, or reuse an existing key you already have.
  6. Encrypt. Optionally protect the key on disk with a passphrase. See Encrypt at rest.
  7. Hardening. Pick how cautious to be. The recommended setting is right for almost everyone.
  8. Deploy. Choose a folder for everything to live in, then launch. The folder holds your compose file, your keys, and any secrets.
  9. Running. Your .b32.i2p address appears. You can copy it, open it in a browser through the I2P proxy, or stop the stack.

What it writes

Everything lands in the folder you chose in the deploy step:

  • docker-compose.yml, the hardened stack definition.
  • i2p-keys/, your destination key and address. Back this up.
  • secrets/, the passphrase file if you turned on encryption.

The installer generates the exact same hardened compose file the command-line setup produces. Whichever path you pick, you get the identical result, so you can start with the installer and manage the stack later from the terminal if you prefer.

Viewing your site

To open your eepsite you need an I2P proxy running on your own machine, usually at 127.0.0.1:4444. The installer's "open in browser" button points a browser at your address through that proxy. If you do not have I2P installed locally, the address still works for anyone who does; you just cannot view it yourself until you set up a proxy.