Docker

Open Mesh Storage → Device Setup → and select Docker to run the interactive flow with pre-filled tokens and compose files.

The client needs outbound access on port 443 (HTTPS) only. No inbound ports required.

Step 1: Pull the container image

In the Device Setup modal, select Docker, then pick your ROS distro (Jazzy/Humble), architecture (x86_64/ARM64), and optional variant. Click Generate Access Command to get a short-lived token (1 hour) for the private registry.

Authenticate with the registry:

echo "<TOKEN>" | docker login \
  -u oauth2accesstoken \
  --password-stdin \
  australia-southeast1-docker.pkg.dev

Then pull the image:

docker pull australia-southeast1-docker.pkg.dev/alloy-version-0/alloy-edge/alloy-edge:<TAG>

Step 2: Configure and download the compose file

In the Download Compose File section of the Device Setup modal, pick your middleware and download:

Leave Middleware on the default, FastDDS.
If alloy-edge will share topics with other ROS 2 containers on the same host, enter their UID in Run as UID (e.g. 1000:1000). Otherwise leave it blank.
Click Download docker-compose.yml.

Required for Isaac Sim. Highest throughput via shared memory.

UID must match. FastDDS uses /dev/shm internally — if alloy-edge runs as a different UID than your other ROS 2 containers, topics discover but data silently never flows. When in doubt, run echo "$(id -u):$(id -g)" as the user that owns those containers and paste the result into Run as UID.

Set Middleware to CycloneDDS.
Click Download docker-compose.yml.

No UID matching needed. Works without ipc: host — good for rootless Docker and Kubernetes.

Set Middleware to Zenoh.
Click Download docker-compose.yml.

The downloaded file includes a zenoh-router sidecar service automatically. Best for edge / WAN / multi-robot fleets.

Step 3: Run

docker compose up -d

Your device will appear in Mesh Storage under the devices/ folder as Pending.

Step 4: Approve the device

Open the devices/ folder in Mesh Storage
Find the new device and click Approve
Alloy issues the device a permanent API key
The client picks up the new key on its next sync — no manual key distribution needed

What happens next

After approval, the edge client picks up its configuration and starts recording. Within a minute or two you should see:

Last seen updating as the client syncs
Files appearing in the device's folder in Mesh Storage

You can then replay, inspect, or query any uploaded MCAP file directly from Mesh Storage.

ROS domain ID

ROS_DOMAIN_ID (default 0) isolates ROS 2 traffic on the same network. Set it when running multiple robots on the same LAN, or co-locating dev and prod stacks on one host:

ROS_DOMAIN_ID=42 docker compose up -d

All containers that need to communicate must share the same domain ID and the same middleware.

Managing the container

docker compose logs -f    # view logs
docker compose down       # stop
docker compose restart    # restart

Folder structure (mounted volumes):

data/
├── config/   # client config, provisioning key
└── data/     # recorded bags, uploaded files