# Run Bee as a light node with docker compose

In this article, we'll walk you through the steps to set up and run Bee as a light node using Docker Compose. By running Bee as a light node, you can reduce the storage and bandwidth requirements for your node, which can be especially helpful if you're running Bee on a device with limited resources.

## Prerequisites

- latest `docker` cli must be installed
- The following ports must be free and available
- **1633**
- **1634**
- **1635**
- **8080**

### Step 1: Create a project directory

mkdir bee-light
cd bee-light

## Bee Setup

### Step 2: Create a home directory that will be host-mounted and used by Bee to store keys and data

mkdir bee-home-dir

### Step 3: Create a data directory for bee

mkdir ./bee-home-dir/.bee

### Step 4: Generate a random string and save it to a file.
This will be used as the password for Bee.
Keep a copy of this password somewhere safe. It will be required for importing/exporting wallets (into Metamask for instance)

openssl rand -base64 24 > ./bee-home-dir/password

### Step 5: Copy the relevant bee config file from the quickstart repository into this directory

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rampall/docker-compose-bee-quickstart/main/bee/light-node/bee-config.yml -O ./bee-home-dir/.bee.yml

## Docker Compose Setup

### Step 6: Copy the relevant docker compose file from the quickstart repository into this directory

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rampall/docker-compose-bee-quickstart/main/bee/light-node/docker-compose.yml -O ./docker-compose.yml

Our project folder setup should now look like this:


tree -a .

.
├── bee-home-dir
│   ├── .bee
│   ├── .bee.yml
│   └── password
└── docker-compose.yml

## Run Bee

### Step 7: Run bee node with docker compose:

docker compose up

The bee node will now fire up and then request for funds to be added to the node's wallet address. Something like this:

bee        | "time"="2023-05-23 14:59:16.210262" "level"="warning" "logger"="node/chequebook" "msg"="cannot continue until there is at least min xDAI (for Gas) available on address" "min_xdai_amount"="0.000698400544" "address"="0xcde7Db709fa16aaE6f5e94042026453AC2b1A3DF"

## Fund your node's wallet

Copy your node's wallet address from the logs.

Visit https://www.gnosisfaucet.com/ and paste the address in the **Wallet** field to request 0.025 DAI.


The bee node's wallet should be now funded and the bee light node will proceed to sync with the Swarm network.

## Check Bee Dashboard

### Step 8: You can visit the Bee Dashboard at - http://localhost:8080/

## Resources

- [Bee Light Node Quickstarter](https://github.com/rampall/docker-compose-bee-quickstart/tree/main/bee/light-node)
- [All Quickstarters](https://github.com/rampall/docker-compose-bee-quickstart)