---
title: "Introduction"
---

## About Dograh

**Dograh is an open-source alternative to platforms like Vapi and Retell** - Dograh helps you build voice AI agents with an easy drag-and-drop workflow builder. Unlike proprietary solutions like Vapi, Dograh gives you:
- **100% open source** - no vendor lock-in, full transparency
- **Self-hostable** - deploy anywhere, own your infrastructure  
- **Complete control** - every line of code is open and customizable
- **2-minute setup** - from zero to working voice bot in under 2 minutes

## Overview
Watch the following video to learn about Dograh’s capabilities.

<iframe
  className="w-full aspect-video rounded-xl"
  src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sxiSp4JXqws"
  title="Dograh Overview"
  allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"
  allowFullScreen
></iframe>


## Setting up

Get the platform up and running using Docker with a small startup script on your local computer. If you are looking to deploy the platform on a server different than your local machine, please check the [Deployment](deployment/introduction) section.

<Note>We collect anonymous usage data to improve the product. You can opt out by setting `ENABLE_TELEMETRY=false` before running the startup script.</Note>

<CodeGroup>
```bash macOS/Linux
curl -o docker-compose.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dograh-hq/dograh/main/docker-compose.yaml && curl -o start_docker.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dograh-hq/dograh/main/scripts/start_docker.sh && chmod +x start_docker.sh && ./start_docker.sh
```
```powershell Windows
Invoke-WebRequest -OutFile docker-compose.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dograh-hq/dograh/main/docker-compose.yaml
Invoke-WebRequest -OutFile start_docker.ps1 https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dograh-hq/dograh/main/scripts/start_docker.ps1
.\start_docker.ps1
```
</CodeGroup>

<Tip>
**Using an AI coding agent?** If you work in **Claude Code** or **Codex**, install the official Dograh setup skill and let your agent handle installation, configuration, and troubleshooting for you. It orients to your OS, picks the right deploy path, runs Dograh's own setup scripts, and verifies the result. Install it once:

<CodeGroup>
```text Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add dograh-hq/dograh-plugins
/plugin install dograh@dograh
```
```text Codex
codex plugin marketplace add dograh-hq/dograh-plugins
codex plugin add dograh@dograh
```
</CodeGroup>

Then start a new session and ask it to *"set up Dograh"* (in Claude Code you can also run `/dograh-setup`). See [dograh-hq/dograh-plugins](https://github.com/dograh-hq/dograh-plugins) for details.
</Tip>

Please check [Prerequisites](getting-started/prerequisites) for the system requirements and [Troubleshooting](getting-started/troubleshooting) for common issues.

## Next Steps

You can see how to configure the inference provider in [Inference Provider](/configurations/inference-providers).
