Palace Server is distributed as a Docker image and a static binary. No cloud lock-in, no telemetry, no surprise egress fees.
Confirm PALACE_LICENSE_KEY is set with no surrounding quotes or whitespace. Keys are Ed25519-signed and verified on startup; an "expired" error means the embedded expiry has passed — check your subscription status in the billing portal, which re-issues a fresh key.
Verify DATABASE_URL points at a reachable Postgres with the pgvector extension available. Use only ASCII characters in the password (the URL is parsed as UTF-8), and make sure the database accepts connections from the server's host.
Another process is bound to :8080. Stop it, or override the bind address via env (for the binary) / remap the published port in your docker-compose.yml.
Migrations run automatically and are forward-only (IF NOT EXISTS). If startup fails mid-migration, check that the database user owns the schema and has permission to create tables and extensions.
The Docker image and binary support Linux, macOS, and ARM64. On Apple Silicon, ensure Docker pulls the matching architecture and that your Postgres image is also ARM-compatible.
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Palace Server is designed for engineering teams that cannot let agent memory become another uncontrolled cloud data store. The deployment stays in your network, embeddings run locally, and licenses verify cryptographically on the server.
Paid tiers use flat team pricing, signed license keys, and standard infrastructure primitives: Postgres with pgvector, environment-variable configuration, Docker or a static binary, and backups you already understand.
Free and local in two minutes. Shared across your whole team in ten. No cloud, no lock-in.