Install

Ident runs as one service, identd, beside the decoder and feeder software you already run. It reads the live aircraft.json your decoder writes and serves a display from it. The simplest way to install it depends on what you are already running, so start by finding your setup below.

Set up with an AI assistant

If you would rather be walked through it, an AI assistant can guide the install for your setup. It does not know what Ident is on its own, so the prompt below points it at these docs. If your assistant can open links, paste the prompt as is; if it cannot, use the "Copy as Markdown" control near the top of the page to paste the install and Configuration pages in alongside it.

I want to install Ident. Read these docs first:

/Ident/docs/getting-started/install.md
/Ident/docs/architecture.md
/Ident/docs/getting-started/configuration.md

Then, before giving me any steps, ask me what you need to know about my setup, one thing at a time. I may not know all the technical details, so ask in plain terms and help me work them out instead of assuming I already know them. Then give me step-by-step instructions tailored to my answers.

LLMs make mistakes. Review what it tells you to run, especially anything destructive.

Docker Compose is the tested path

The maintainers run and test Ident with Docker Compose, so it is the recommended way to install it. The Debian package and the standalone binary are built and published too, and they should work, but the project is small and does not have the capacity to test every install route on every receiver setup. Treat those two as best effort. Automatically testing the recommended Compose setup is something we want to add later.

Find your setup

Ident needs one thing from your stack: read-only access to the directory where a decoder writes aircraft.json. The wiring is always the same: share that directory with Ident and point IDENT_DATA_DIR at it. What changes between stacks is the path, and which component produces the JSON.

The recipes below were checked against each project's documentation, but paths move between versions, so treat them as a starting point and confirm where your decoder actually writes aircraft.json.

Decoders normally keep this JSON on tmpfs, in RAM, to avoid writing to a flash card about once a second. The container recipes use a tmpfs-backed Docker volume so the files stay in RAM while still being visible to Ident. See Aircraft trails for why that matters on flash-backed hosts.

balena-ads-b (Ident already included)

The balena-ads-b project ships Ident as a first-class service you turn on through its ENABLED_SERVICES setting. As far as we know it is the only third-party stack that integrates Ident directly, so there you enable Ident rather than wiring it up yourself.

ultrafeeder

ghcr.io/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-adsb-ultrafeeder bundles readsb and writes aircraft.json to /run/readsb, which is also Ident's default, so no IDENT_DATA_DIR change is needed. Share that directory with Ident:

services:
  ultrafeeder:
    image: ghcr.io/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-adsb-ultrafeeder:latest
    # ...your existing ultrafeeder configuration...
    volumes:
      - receiver-json:/run/readsb

  ident:
    image: ghcr.io/ident-1090/ident:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - receiver-json:/run/readsb:ro

volumes:
  receiver-json:
    driver_opts:
      type: tmpfs
      device: tmpfs

PiAware (FlightAware install)

A PiAware install is a package on Raspberry Pi OS, running on the bare-metal Pi rather than in Docker. Its decoder, dump1090-fa, writes the live JSON to /run/dump1090-fa.

The natural fit here is to install Ident on the same Pi instead of running a container. Use the Debian package from Other install methods, then point it at that directory in /etc/ident/identd.env:

IDENT_ADDR=:8090
IDENT_DATA_DIR=/run/dump1090-fa

PiAware's own SkyAware page already uses port 8080, so this moves Ident to 8090; open it at http://receiver.local:8090/. The Debian package is a best-effort install path rather than the tested one (that is Docker Compose), but it is what suits a bare-metal PiAware box.

Any other stack

If your decoder is not listed above, the wiring is the same; only the path differs. When the decoder runs in Compose, share the directory it writes aircraft.json to with Ident over a tmpfs-backed volume:

services:
  receiver:
    # Your existing decoder service.
    volumes:
      - receiver-json:/run/readsb   # the path this decoder writes aircraft.json to

  ident:
    image: ghcr.io/ident-1090/ident:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      IDENT_DATA_DIR: "/run/readsb"  # match the decoder's path
    volumes:
      - receiver-json:/run/readsb:ro

volumes:
  receiver-json:
    driver_opts:
      type: tmpfs
      device: tmpfs

When the decoder writes its JSON on the host instead of in Compose, bind-mount that directory into Ident read-only at the same path and set IDENT_DATA_DIR to match.

Start it and open http://receiver.local:8080/ from another device on the network (use the host's name or IP if it is not receiver.local):

docker compose up -d

Point Ident at your receiver data

If you are not sure where your decoder writes aircraft.json, the common paths are /run/readsb, /run/dump1090-fa, and /run/skyaware978. Check the host:

ls /run/readsb/aircraft.json
ls /run/dump1090-fa/aircraft.json
ls /run/skyaware978/aircraft.json

Use the path that exists as IDENT_DATA_DIR. When it is unset, identd looks in those common paths. The rest of the settings are in Configuration.

Other install methods

These are published and should work, but are not part of the regularly tested path. If you can use Compose, prefer it.

Debian package

For a Debian-based receiver host. The script reads the host architecture and downloads the matching .deb, covering amd64, arm64, and 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS armhf installs.

set -eu
case "$(dpkg --print-architecture)" in
  amd64) ident_arch=linux-amd64 ;;
  arm64) ident_arch=linux-arm64 ;;
  armhf) ident_arch=linux-armv7 ;;
  *)
    echo "Unsupported Debian architecture: $(dpkg --print-architecture)" >&2
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

curl -fL \
  "https://github.com/Ident-1090/Ident/releases/latest/download/identd-${ident_arch}.deb" \
  -o identd.deb
sudo apt install ./identd.deb

Start it:

sudo systemctl enable --now identd

The package binds to localhost by default, reachable at http://localhost:8080/ on the receiver itself. To reach Ident from another device, and to point it at the receiver data if it is not auto-detected, edit /etc/ident/identd.env:

IDENT_ADDR=:8080
IDENT_DATA_DIR=/run/readsb

Then restart and open http://receiver.local:8080/ from another device:

sudo systemctl restart identd

Standalone binary

For manual installs, non-Debian systems, and testing. The script reads the current OS and CPU, downloads the matching archive, and runs the binary directly.

set -eu

case "$(uname -s)" in
  Linux) ident_os=linux ;;
  Darwin) ident_os=darwin ;;
  FreeBSD) ident_os=freebsd ;;
  *)
    echo "Unsupported OS: $(uname -s)" >&2
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

case "$(uname -m)" in
  x86_64|amd64) ident_arch=amd64 ;;
  aarch64|arm64) ident_arch=arm64 ;;
  armv7l|armv7*) ident_arch=armv7 ;;
  *)
    echo "Unsupported CPU: $(uname -m)" >&2
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

curl -fL \
  "https://github.com/Ident-1090/Ident/releases/latest/download/identd-${ident_os}-${ident_arch}.tar.gz" \
  -o identd.tar.gz
tar -xzf identd.tar.gz

./identd \
  --addr 0.0.0.0:8080 \
  --data-dir /run/readsb

Use --addr 127.0.0.1:8080 when Ident is behind a same-host reverse proxy, and --addr 0.0.0.0:8080 when other devices on the LAN should connect directly.