Raspberry Pi Setup (Crow OS)

Turn a Raspberry Pi into a dedicated Crow appliance. No SSH required after initial setup — everything is configured through a web browser.

Hardware Requirements

	Minimum	Recommended
Board	Raspberry Pi 4 (4 GB)	Raspberry Pi 5 (8 GB)
Storage	32 GB microSD	NVMe SSD via HAT
Network	Ethernet or Wi-Fi	Ethernet
Power	Official PSU	Official PSU

Resource usage: Gateway ~100 MB RAM, SQLite negligible, Docker ~200 MB base. Each bundle add-on varies (Ollama needs 2-4 GB for models, Nextcloud ~500 MB).

Step 1: Flash Raspberry Pi OS

1. Download Raspberry Pi Imager
2. Select Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) — the desktop environment is not needed
3. Click the gear icon to pre-configure:
   • Enable SSH with password authentication
   • Set username and password (e.g., crow / your-password)
   • Configure Wi-Fi if not using Ethernet
   • Set hostname to crow
4. Flash to your SD card or SSD

Step 2: First Boot and Connect

1. Insert the SD card, connect Ethernet (if using), power on
2. Wait ~2 minutes for first boot
3. Find your Pi on the network:

   # From another computer on the same network
   ping crow.local
   # Or check your router's DHCP client list

4. SSH in:

   ssh crow@crow.local

Step 3: Run the Installer

One command installs everything:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kh0pper/crow/main/scripts/crow-install.sh | bash

Prefer to inspect first?

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kh0pper/crow/main/scripts/crow-install.sh -o crow-install.sh
less crow-install.sh   # Review the script
bash crow-install.sh   # Run it

The installer takes 5-10 minutes and sets up:

• Node.js 20, Docker, Caddy, Avahi (mDNS)
• Crow platform with SQLite database
• Cryptographic identity (Crow ID)
• systemd service for auto-start
• HTTPS via self-signed certificate
• Firewall (UFW) + fail2ban

Step 4: Open the Setup Wizard

From any device on your network, open:

https://crow.local/setup

Browser Warning

You'll see a certificate warning because the self-signed cert isn't trusted by browsers. This is normal for local network access. Click "Advanced" → "Proceed" to continue. For valid certificates, set up Tailscale or add a domain.

The setup wizard walks you through:

1. Set dashboard password — required before accessing the dashboard
2. View your Crow ID — your cryptographic identity for P2P sharing
3. Configure integrations — add API keys for GitHub, Gmail, etc.

Step 5: Connect Your AI Platform

Your Crow instance is now running. Connect it from any AI platform:

Claude Web/Mobile: Settings → Integrations → Add Custom → https://crow.local/memory/mcp

ChatGPT: Settings → Apps → Create → https://crow.local/memory/sse

Claude Code: Add to ~/.claude/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crow-memory": {
      "url": "https://crow.local/memory/mcp"
    }
  }
}

See the Platforms guide for all supported AI clients.

Managing Your Crow

Useful Commands

# Platform status
crow status

# View gateway logs
sudo journalctl -u crow-gateway -f

# Restart gateway
sudo systemctl restart crow-gateway

# Install a bundle add-on
crow bundle install ollama
crow bundle start ollama

# Update Crow
bash ~/.crow/app/scripts/crow-update.sh

Dashboard

Access the visual dashboard at https://crow.local/dashboard — manage messages, blog posts, files, and settings from your browser.

Installing Add-ons

Install self-hosted services as bundle add-ons:

crow bundle install ollama      # Local AI models
crow bundle install nextcloud   # File sync
crow bundle install immich      # Photo library

Or ask your AI: "Install the Ollama add-on."

Optional: Remote Access with Tailscale

Access your Crow from anywhere with Tailscale (free for personal use):

# Install Tailscale
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
sudo tailscale up

# Get your Tailscale hostname
tailscale status

Then update Caddy for automatic valid HTTPS certificates:

sudo tee /etc/caddy/Caddyfile > /dev/null << EOF
crow.your-tailnet.ts.net {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3001
}
EOF
sudo systemctl restart caddy

See the Tailscale Setup Guide for detailed instructions.

Optional: Custom Domain

If you have a domain, point it at your Pi's IP and update the Caddyfile:

sudo tee /etc/caddy/Caddyfile > /dev/null << EOF
crow.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3001
}
EOF
sudo systemctl restart caddy

Caddy automatically provisions Let's Encrypt certificates.

Troubleshooting

Can't find crow.local

• Make sure Avahi is running: sudo systemctl status avahi-daemon
• mDNS may not work across VLANs — use the IP address directly
• On Windows, install Bonjour Print Services for mDNS support

Gateway won't start

sudo systemctl status crow-gateway
sudo journalctl -u crow-gateway --no-pager -n 50

Out of disk space

# Check disk usage
df -h

# Clean Docker images
docker system prune -a

# Check Crow data size
du -sh ~/.crow/data/

Performance

• Use an NVMe SSD instead of microSD for dramatically better I/O performance
• The Pi 5 is ~2-3x faster than the Pi 4 for Node.js workloads
• If running Ollama, use the smallest models (llama3.2:1b, phi3:mini) — larger models will be very slow on ARM