Install on a small server

The core shape runs Mantle on a 2 vCPU / 4 GB server by leaving out the parts a small box cannot carry.

Keeps	Leaves out
The owner UI, the HTTP API, MCP and share pages	The email, Telegram, Microsoft, calendar and push workers
File and documentation ingest, search and memory	The doc helpers: Tika (rare formats such as .odt, .pptx, .doc, .rtf) and the PDF-export browser
Reminders, scheduled backups, nightly maintenance	CLI sandboxes (off by default, can be turned on)

PDF, Word, text and Markdown files still read without the doc helpers. A core box uses online embeddings: the local embedder does not fit in 4 GB.

Before you start

2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM, 40 GB of disk. Add 2 GB of swap as a safety margin.
Everything in Install on a server except the RAM.

Install

Run the server install one-liner.
When it asks Install the SMALL core shape instead of the full stack?, answer yes. On a box with less than 6 GB of RAM, yes is the default.
Answer Add the doc helpers to the core? with no, unless you need rare file formats or PDF export.

For a silent install:

MANTLE_YES=1 MANTLE_CORE=1 MANTLE_DOMAIN=brain.example.com \
  bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/crossworks-engineering/mantle/main/install.sh)"

To switch a box that is already installed, run bash scripts/install.sh --core in its install directory. The installer keeps how the brain is reached.

Lower the memory caps

The two largest services are capped at 3 GB each, which is too much for a 4 GB box. Add these lines to mantle/.env:

WEB_MEM_LIMIT=1.5g
API_MEM_LIMIT=1.5g

Then apply them:

cd mantle && docker compose up -d

Check it worked

cd mantle && bash scripts/install.sh --check

The review table at install time also shows Shape: core.

Change it later

Doc helpers: switch Helpers in Settings > Services, or run bash scripts/install.sh --helpers with your access flag as above.
Back to the full stack: bash scripts/install.sh --no-core, with your access flag.