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Open Lounge Phone

Self-host with Docker

Open Lounge Phone runs on any machine with Docker (a spare PC, NAS, Raspberry Pi 4/5, or a small VPS). Nothing is sent to this project or any third party; calls go directly between your phone and your companion app, relayed by your own TURN server only when a direct path is impossible.

Quick start (Docker)

Section titled “Quick start (Docker)”

The Docker packaging has not been build-tested yet; please report issues.

Terminal window
git clone <this repo> openloungephone && cd openloungephone
cp .env.example .env        # edit PUBLIC_URL, TURN_URLS, TURN_SECRET
docker compose up -d
docker compose logs openloungephone   # shows the one-time setup link

Open the setup link, create your household, then pair a phone: lift its handset, and it shows a 6-digit code on its status strip and reads it aloud; enter the code in the companion app.

Without Docker

Section titled “Without Docker”

Requires Node 22+.

Terminal window
npm install
npm start          # builds the web apps and starts the server on :8787

Configuration is by environment variable:

Variable Default Meaning
PORT / HOST 8787 / 0.0.0.0 Listen address
PUBLIC_URL http://localhost:$PORT Base URL printed in the setup link
DATA_DIR ./data SQLite database location
STUN_URLS stun:stun.cloudflare.com:3478 Comma-separated; empty disables STUN
TURN_URLS, TURN_SECRET unset TURN relay with time-limited credentials (coturn use-auth-secret)
TRANSCRIBE_URL unset OpenAI-compatible /v1/audio/transcriptions endpoint for voicemail transcripts
TRANSCRIBE_MODEL, TRANSCRIBE_API_KEY whisper-1, unset Passed to that endpoint

Passkeys are tied to the site’s host name. If you reach the server through a reverse proxy or several names, set PUBLIC_URL to the one address people use.

HTTPS

Section titled “HTTPS”

Browsers only grant microphone access to secure pages (https://, or http://localhost). To use the companion app from phones, put the server behind HTTPS, for example with Caddy (reverse_proxy localhost:8787) or a Cloudflare Tunnel. WebSockets (/ws/*) must be proxied too.

Emulated phones

Section titled “Emulated phones”

Until hardware exists, open /device/ in a browser to get an emulated phone. Add ?profile=kitchen to run several phones in one browser.

Backups

Section titled “Backups”

Everything lives in DATA_DIR: the database openloungephone.sqlite and voicemail audio under blobs/ (the openloungephone-data volume with Docker).