Docker

Run the published Defend container with a mounted defend.config.yaml and required API keys.

Two images are published on Docker Hub. Tags are fixed (latest and local); there are no versioned tags like :1.2.3.

Image	Use when
`adxzer/defend:latest`	Slim runtime: `claude` or `openai` as `provider`, or any setup that does not load the local Hugging Face Defend classifier.
`adxzer/defend:local`	`provider: defend` — includes CPU PyTorch and `transformers` so the local model can load.

Working directory

The process expects defend.config.yaml at /app/defend.config.yaml when you mount it to that path (as in the examples below).

Run the container (slim — latest)

Use adxzer/defend:latest when your config does not require the local Defend HF classifier.

Shell

docker pull adxzer/defend:latest
docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 \
  -v "$PWD/defend.config.yaml:/app/defend.config.yaml:ro" \
  -e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY="$OPENAI_API_KEY" \
  adxzer/defend:latest

PowerShell

docker pull adxzer/defend:latest
docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 `
  -v "${PWD}\defend.config.yaml:/app/defend.config.yaml:ro" `
  -e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY `
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY=$env:OPENAI_API_KEY `
  adxzer/defend:latest

Run the container (local classifier — local)

If provider: defend, pull and run adxzer/defend:local instead:

Shell

docker pull adxzer/defend:local
docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 \
  -v "$PWD/defend.config.yaml:/app/defend.config.yaml:ro" \
  -e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY="$OPENAI_API_KEY" \
  adxzer/defend:local

PowerShell

docker pull adxzer/defend:local
docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 `
  -v "${PWD}\defend.config.yaml:/app/defend.config.yaml:ro" `
  -e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY `
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY=$env:OPENAI_API_KEY `
  adxzer/defend:local

API keys

With provider: defend on the local image, external API keys are only required if you enable output guarding with claude/openai or otherwise call those providers.
With claude / openai as the provider, or output guarding enabled, set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY in the container environment.

Next steps

Verify the service with Health and readiness and send a test request from Quick start.

Docker

Run the container (slim — latest)

Run the container (local classifier — local)

API keys

Next steps

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