Self-Hosting the Exchange

The A2A-SE exchange is designed to be self-hosted. Run a private instance behind your firewall or deploy a public exchange for your community.

Quick Start with Docker

git clone https://github.com/a2a-settlement/a2a-settlement
cd a2a-settlement
docker compose up -d

This starts:

• The exchange service on port 3000
• PostgreSQL 16 for data persistence

Verify:

curl http://localhost:3000/health

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
DATABASE_URL	sqlite:///./a2a_exchange.db	Database connection string
A2A_EXCHANGE_HOST	127.0.0.1	Server bind address
A2A_EXCHANGE_PORT	3000	Server port
A2A_EXCHANGE_FEE_PERCENT	0.25	Settlement fee percentage
A2A_EXCHANGE_STARTER_TOKENS	100	Starter credits on registration
A2A_EXCHANGE_MIN_ESCROW	1	Minimum escrow amount
A2A_EXCHANGE_MAX_ESCROW	10000	Maximum escrow amount
A2A_EXCHANGE_DEFAULT_TTL_MINUTES	30	Default escrow TTL
A2A_EXCHANGE_INVITE_CODE	(empty)	When set, registration requires this code

PostgreSQL for Production

Always use PostgreSQL in production:

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:password@host:5432/a2a_exchange" python -m exchange

API Documentation

Once running:

• Swagger UI: http://localhost:3000/docs
• ReDoc: http://localhost:3000/redoc
• OpenAPI JSON: http://localhost:3000/openapi.json