Canton Docker Operations

Obtain and run Canton Docker images

Obtaining the Docker Images

(See Install With Docker for instructions on running the Canton Docker images.)

You can download the Canton docker images using:

docker pull \
    europe-docker.pkg.dev/da-images/public/docker/canton-base:3.4.8
docker pull \
    europe-docker.pkg.dev/da-images/public/docker/canton-participant:3.4.8
docker pull \
    europe-docker.pkg.dev/da-images/public/docker/canton-sequencer:3.4.8
docker pull \
    europe-docker.pkg.dev/da-images/public/docker/canton-mediator:3.4.8

Visit https://europe-docker.pkg.dev/v2/da-images/public/docker/canton-participant/tags/list to see available tags.

These docker images are published starting with Canton version 3.4.8.

Snapshot releases are available at /da-images/public-unstable/docker/ instead of /da-images/public/docker/, but they are not recommended for any production usage and they are periodically cleaned up.

Link to howto for downloading docker images. Link to hardware and software requirements. Explain how to run canton from docker.

Work With the Docker Containers

Using the Participant Image

As a convenience, we provide a pre-configured participant image that can be used to start a Canton participant with sensible defaults.

Using this image requires setting several environment variables:

docker run \
    -e AUTH_TARGET_AUDIENCE="audience" \
    -e AUTH_JWKS_URL="fake.com/jwks" \
    -e CANTON_PARTICIPANT_POSTGRES_SERVER="canton-postgres" \
    -e CANTON_PARTICIPANT_POSTGRES_PORT="5432" \
    -v "$(pwd)/bootstrap.sc:/app/bootstrap.sc" \
    --rm -it \
    europe-docker.pkg.dev/da-images/public-unstable/docker/canton-participant:3.5.0-ad-hoc.20251021.17321.0.v2cdf16447

Note that you’ll need a valid postgres instance.

This image requires you to initialize the participant via a bootstrap script. See Manual identity initialization for more details.

To see all configuration defaults and possible env vars, run

cid=$(docker create europe-docker.pkg.dev/da-images/public-unstable/docker/canton-participant:3.5.0-ad-hoc.20251021.17321.0.v2cdf1644) && docker cp "$cid":/app/app.conf ./app.conf && docker rm "$cid"
cat app.conf

Logging

Logs are JSON encoded and sent to stdout. The log level is set via -e LOG_LEVEL_STDOUT=INFO. It defaults to DEBUG.

Bound Ports

canton-participant image binds:

• Ledger API port: 5001
• Admin API port: 5002
• HTTP Ledger API port: 7575
• GRPC Health Server port: 5061

canton-mediator image binds:

• Admin API port: 5007
• GRPC Health Server port: 5061

canton-sequencer image binds:

• Public API: 5008
• Admin API: 5009
• GRPC Health Server port: 5061

Supplying custom configuration and DARs

To supply custom configuration, either

1. add it via ADDITIONAL_CONFIG environment variable, or
2. mount /app/additional-config.conf into the container.

Dars must be added dynamically. This is done via remote console or the admin API.

To run a participant console with custom configuration:

docker run -e ADDITIONAL_CONFIG="canton.participants.participant1 {
      storage.type = memory
      admin-api.port = 5012
      ledger-api.port = 5011
      http-ledger-api.server.port = 5013
    }" \
    --rm -it \
    europe-docker.pkg.dev/da-images/public-unstable/docker/canton-participant:3.5.0-ad-hoc.20251021.17321.0.v2cdf1644 \
    --console

The --console flag starts canton in interactive console mode.