Raspberry Pi Install Guide

Install the ɳSelf CLI on Raspberry Pi (armv7 32-bit or arm64 64-bit). Tested on Raspberry Pi 4B and Pi 5.

Prerequisites

• Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit (recommended) or Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit
• Docker Engine 20.10+ installed (official Docker install guide for Raspberry Pi)
• Docker Compose v2.0+
• At least 2 GB RAM (Pi 4B 4GB or 8GB recommended for a full stack)
• 8 GB+ storage on the SD card or SSD

Step 1: Install Docker

curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

Verify:

docker --version
docker compose version

Step 2: Download the ɳSelf CLI Binary

64-bit (arm64, Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit, Pi 4/5):

curl -L https://github.com/nself-org/cli/releases/download/v1.0.9/nself-linux-arm64.tar.gz -o nself.tar.gz
tar -xzf nself.tar.gz
sudo mv nself-linux-arm64 /usr/local/bin/nself
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/nself

32-bit (armv7, Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit):

curl -L https://github.com/nself-org/cli/releases/download/v1.0.9/nself-linux-arm.tar.gz -o nself.tar.gz
tar -xzf nself.tar.gz
sudo mv nself-linux-arm /usr/local/bin/nself
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/nself

Step 3: Verify Installation

nself version
# nself v1.0.9

nself doctor

Step 4: Start a Project

mkdir my-project && cd my-project
nself init
nself build
nself start

Raspberry Pi-Specific Notes

Memory limits: A full ɳSelf stack (Postgres + Hasura + Auth + Nginx) uses approximately 600-900 MB RAM at idle. A Pi 4B 2GB can run the stack but leaves little headroom. Recommended: 4GB or 8GB model.

SD card speed: SD cards are slow for database I/O. For production-style workloads, boot from USB SSD for better Postgres performance.

Avoid swap on SD: Heavy swap on an SD card degrades quickly. Add vm.swappiness=10 to /etc/sysctl.conf to reduce swap usage.

Temperature: Under sustained Docker load, Pi can throttle at high temperatures. Use a heatsink and fan for server use.

Not supported: Monitoring bundle (10 services) is not recommended on Pi due to memory constraints. Install only what your project needs.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
exec format error	Wrong binary architecture , use arm64 for 64-bit OS, armv7 for 32-bit OS
Docker pull fails	Ensure Docker has arm64/armv7 multi-arch support; run docker buildx ls
Stack OOM killed	Reduce memory: nself init --no-monitoring and use minimal services
Slow startup	Normal on first run , images need pulling. Subsequent starts are fast.

Community Verified

This guide is community-verified for Raspberry Pi 4B and Pi 5 running Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit (Debian Bookworm base). Report issues at github.com/nself-org/cli/issues.

---

Related: [Installation]] ](/nself-org/cli/wiki/[[install-aws-graviton|AWS-Graviton) | macos-apple-silicon | Home