Self-hosting

Lookout is one process and one SQLite file, so it fits a laptop, a home server or a small VPS. There is no login: keep it on 127.0.0.1, or put a proxy that authenticates in front of it.

Docker

mkdir -p config && cp lookout.example.yaml config/lookout.yaml   # edit: sources, stack, interests
docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.yml up -d
docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.yml exec lookout lookout doctor

Open http://127.0.0.1:8899. The image is ghcr.io/bhoudebert/lookout, published with each release as latest and by version. It runs as an unprivileged user, keeps its data in the /data volume, reads /config/lookout.yaml, and reports its health to Docker.

Ollama on the host is reached as http://host.docker.internal:11434/v1, so put that in llm.base_url (the compose file adds the host mapping). Secrets go in the environment, not in the file:

LOOKOUT_LLM_API_KEY=...      # if your endpoint needs a key
LOOKOUT_GITHUB_TOKEN=...     # GitHub sources, since `gh` is not in the image

To build the image yourself: docker build -t lookout .

NixOS

{
  inputs.lookout.url = "github:bhoudebert/lookout";

  # in your system configuration
  imports = [ inputs.lookout.nixosModules.lookout ];
  services.lookout = {
    enable = true;
    configFile = ./lookout.yaml;                    # copied to the store: no secrets in it
    environmentFile = "/run/secrets/lookout.env";   # LOOKOUT_LLM_API_KEY=... and so on
  };
}

The module runs the published image, keeps the data in /var/lib/lookout, listens on 127.0.0.1:8899, and installs a lookout command that runs inside the container (lookout doctor, lookout inbox, ...). Set image to a version tag to choose when updates happen.

Backups

Everything is in the SQLite file (/data/lookout.db in the container). Copy it while Lookout runs, or export the items: lookout export > backup.jsonl.

Updating

Pull the new image and restart. Schema changes are applied on start, one transaction per step, with a copy of the file written first (lookout.db.bak-vN).