Getting started

Marginalia runs in your browser. You can install it in two ways:

	Desktop app	Server (Docker)
Best for	One person on one computer	Several users, or access from other devices
Installation	Download and run, nothing else to install	Docker and Docker Compose
Address	http://127.0.0.1:8765 (your computer only)	Port 8080, normally behind a reverse proxy with HTTPS
Data	~/.marginalia	./data next to docker-compose.yml

Both versions are the same application with the same features: books, lorebooks, users, backups and extensions. To write from a phone, run the server version and open it in the phone's browser: see Using Marginalia on a phone.

Marginalia has no model of its own. It needs an OpenAI-compatible API to write text: a cloud service (OpenAI, OpenRouter...) or a model running on your own computer (llama.cpp, LM Studio, Ollama, vLLM...). Have the API address and an API key ready (a local server that doesn't need one works without a key, see Adding a provider).

Steps

1. Install Marginalia: desktop app or server.
2. Create the administrator account on the first start.
3. Follow the quick start: connect a model, create a protocol and write the first part of a book.