---
url: https://lookingglass.kloudkit.com/guide/building-from-source.md
description: >-
  Run Looking Glass from source while you work on it, or build the image
  yourself.
---

# Building From Source

Run Looking Glass straight from a checkout while you change it, or build the image yourself.

## At a Glance

* A clone of [kloudkit/looking-glass](https://github.com/kloudkit/looking-glass).
* Go 1.27.2 or later to run from source, Docker to build the image.

## Run From Source

```sh
go run .
# in another shell
curl -X DELETE 'localhost:8080/anything/here'
```

## Build the Image

```sh
docker build -t looking-glass --build-arg version=v1.2.3 .
docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 looking-glass
```

The `version` build argument is what `--version` reports; without it, the build reports
`dev`.
The image is a single static binary on a [distroless](https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/distroless)
base, without a shell, running as a non-root user.

## Next Steps

* [Configuration](../reference/configuration): flags and environment variables.
* [Activity Log](./activity-log): what the server prints while you test it.