Pholid is a Docker-native render orchestration platform for GPU-accelerated Blender workloads. It handles job submission, GPU worker coordination, and real-time observability in a single deployable stack.
Free and open source, forever.
cp .env.example .env # fill in your values
docker compose up -d --buildDeployment completes in under one minute.
| Service | URL |
|---|---|
| Pholid | http://localhost |
| Flamenco manager | http://localhost:88 |
| Grafana | http://localhost:3000 |
| Prometheus | http://localhost:9090 |
Ports are configurable in
.env. Initial Grafana database creation may take a short moment on first boot.
Pholid separates responsibilities cleanly across distinct services:
- Control plane - Spring Boot backend handles job submission and the UI
- Job distribution - Flamenco, extended with custom GPU-aware job types for CUDA and OptiX workflows
- Worker nodes - Disposable containerised Blender workers. As long as the manager stays up, job orchestration continues without intervention.
- Observability - Prometheus + Grafana with custom Python exporters for Flamenco job metrics and NVIDIA GPU metrics
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Containerisation | Docker, Docker Compose |
| Backend | Spring Boot |
| Rendering | Blender, Flamenco |
| Observability | Prometheus, Grafana, cAdvisor, custom Python exporters |
| GPU | NVIDIA CUDA / OptiX (Linux + WSL2) |
-
CUDA (Linux + WSL2): Adapted from the Flamenco community OptiX job type (GPL v3) for CUDA rendering. Issues → Pholid tracker.
-
OptiX (Linux): Original community contribution by Sybren Stüvel (GPL v3), integrated into Pholid. Issues → Flamenco tracker.
- Docker Desktop (Windows/macOS) or Docker Engine (Linux)
- NVIDIA GPU with drivers installed
- NVIDIA Container Toolkit (
nvidia-docker2) for GPU workers - WSL2 with GPU passthrough enabled (Windows only)
Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
Have ideas for v2? Join the discussion.
Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
See THIRD_PARTY_SOFTWARE.md for third-party licenses.
Special thanks to yeezygambino for consistently testing releases and providing valuable feedback.
Looking for multi-user auth and HTTPS support? See the v2 branch.