Run Yans on your computer

Install

1. Install Docker Desktop and open it once so it is running.
2. Open a terminal and run (this is the whole install):

docker run -d --name yans -p 127.0.0.1:7377:7377 -v ~/.yans:/data --restart unless-stopped ghcr.io/wavekat/yans:latest

Check it works: open localhost:7377/healthz. You should see {"ok":true,...}.

Your data lives in the ~/.yans folder. Keep 127.0.0.1: in the port mapping: without it, Docker shows Yans to your whole network.

Connect your AI

Add Yans to your AI app as an MCP server at http://localhost:7377/mcp.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --scope user --transport http yans http://localhost:7377/mcp

Claude desktop app: open ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS, or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows (create it if it does not exist). Add Yans, keeping any servers already listed:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "yans": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["exec", "-i", "yans", "yans-stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Then restart the Claude desktop app. The yans container must be running.

Then ask your AI to start a practice session, or to fix a draft.

Upgrade

Get the newest version and start it again:

docker pull ghcr.io/wavekat/yans:latest
docker stop yans && docker rm yans
docker run -d --name yans -p 127.0.0.1:7377:7377 -v ~/.yans:/data --restart unless-stopped ghcr.io/wavekat/yans:latest

Your data is kept. Yans makes a backup before it upgrades its database; the last 5 backups are in ~/.yans/backups.

Troubleshooting

• Check the container is up with docker ps, and see errors with docker logs yans.
• “spawn docker ENOENT” in the Claude desktop app: it cannot find docker. Run which docker in a terminal and use that full path as command.

Delete everything

docker stop yans && docker rm yans
rm -rf ~/.yans

You can also ask your AI to delete a single entry, or all your Yans data.