Getting started with Neo4j in Docker

Docker can be downloaded for macOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems from https://www.docker.com/get-started/. DockerHub hosts an official Neo4j image that provides a standard, ready-to-run package of Neo4j Community Edition and Enterprise Edition for a variety of versions.

Getting the Neo4j image

Variants of the Neo4j image are tagged according to Community/Enterprise Edition and the operating system used as the base image.

Neo4j editions

Tags are available for both Community Edition and Enterprise Edition. Version-specific Enterprise Edition tags have an -enterprise suffix after the version number, for example: neo4j:2026.09.0-enterprise. Community Edition tags have no suffix, for example neo4j:2026.09.0. The latest Neo4j Enterprise Edition release is available as neo4j:enterprise.

Neo4j Enterprise Edition license

To use Neo4j Enterprise Edition, you must accept the license agreement by setting the environment variable NEO4J_ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENT=yes.

© Network Engine for Objects in Lund AB. 2023. All Rights Reserved. Use of this Software without a proper commercial license with Neo4j, Inc. or its affiliates is prohibited.

Email inquiries can be sent using the form Contact Neo4j.

More information is also available at: https://neo4j.com/licensing/

Base operating system

The Neo4j image is available with either debian:trixie-slim or redhat/ubi10-minimal:latest as the base image.

debian:bullseye-slim and redhat/ubi9-minimal:latest are not supported starting with Neo4j 2026.05.

Starting with Neo4j 2026.01, the default is debian:trixie-slim (updated from debian:bullseye-slim).

If you are unsure which base image to use or have no preference, just use the default of neo4j:2026.09.0.

To specify which base image to use, the image tags optionally have a -trixie or -ubi10 suffix.

For example:

neo4j:2026.09.0-trixie              # debian 13 community
neo4j:2026.09.0-enterprise-ubi10   # redhat UBI10 enterprise
neo4j:2026.09.0                    # debian 13 community
neo4j:2026.09.0-enterprise         # debian 13 enterprise
Table 1. Base images and the corresponding tag suffix.
tag suffix Base Image

-trixie

debian:trixie-slim

-ubi10

redhat/ubi10-minimal:latest

unspecified

debian:trixie-slim

The Red Hat UBI10 variant images are only available from 2026.01.0 and onwards. The Debian 13 variant images are only available from 2026.01.0 and onwards.

Using the Neo4j Docker image

You can start a Neo4j container by using the following command. Note that this Neo4j container will not persist data between restarts and will have the default username/password.

docker run \
    --restart always \
    --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
    neo4j:2026.09.0

You can try out your Neo4j container by opening http://localhost:7474/ (the Neo4j’s Browser interface) in a web browser. By default, Neo4j requires authentication and prompts you to log in with a username/password of neo4j/neo4j at the first connection. You are then prompted to set a new password.

The default minimum password length is 8 characters.

Use the dbms.security.auth_minimum_password_length configuration setting to change the default minimum value.

The following sections provide more information about how to set an initial password, configure Neo4j to persist data between restarts, and use the Neo4j Docker image.

Persisting data between restarts

The --volume option maps a local folder to the container, where you can persist data between restarts. To persist the contents of the database between containers, mount a volume to the /data directory on starting the container:

docker run \
    --restart always \
    --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
    --env NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/your_password \
    --volume=/path/to/your/data:/data \
    neo4j:2026.09.0

The folders that you want to mount must exist before starting Docker, otherwise, Neo4j fails to start due to permissions errors.

For more information about mounting volumes, see Persisting data with Docker volumes.

Using NEO4J_AUTH to set an initial password

When using Neo4j in a Docker container, you can set the initial password for the database directly by specifying the NEO4J_AUTH in your run directive:

docker run \
    --restart always \
    --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
    --env NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/your_password \
    neo4j:2026.09.0

Alternatively, you can disable authentication by specifying NEO4J_AUTH to none:

--env NEO4J_AUTH=none

Note that there is currently no way to change the initial username from neo4j.

Setting NEO4J_AUTH does not override the existing authentication.

If you have mounted a /data volume containing an existing database, setting NEO4J_AUTH will have no effect because that database already has authentication configured. The Neo4j Docker service will start, but you will need a username and password already associated with the database to log in.

Useful docker run options

This table lists some of the options available:

Table 2. Options for docker run
Option Description Example

--name

Name your container to avoid generic ID.

docker run --name myneo4j neo4j

-p

Specify which container port to expose.

docker run -p7687:7687 neo4j

-d

Detach container to run in the background.

docker run -d neo4j

-v

Bind mount a volume.

docker run -v $HOME/neo4j/data:/data neo4j

--env

Set config as environment variables for the Neo4j database.

docker run --env NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/your_password neo4j

--user

Run neo4j as the given user, instead of neo4j.

docker run --user="$(id -u):$(id -g)" neo4j

--restart

Control whether Neo4j containers start automatically when they exit, or when Docker restarts.

docker run --restart always

--help

Output full list of docker run options

docker run --help

The --restart always option sets the Neo4j container (and Neo4j) to restart automatically whenever the Docker daemon is restarted.

If you no longer want to have the container auto-start on machine boot, you can disable this setting using the flag no, for example, docker update --restart=no <containerID>.
For more information on Docker restart policies, see the official Docker documentation.

Offline installation of Neo4j Docker image

Docker provides the docker save command for downloading an image into a .tar package so that it can be used offline, or transferred to a machine without internet access.

This is an example command to save the neo4j:2026.09.0 image to a .tar file:

docker save -o neo4j-2026.09.0.tar neo4j:2026.09.0

To load a docker image from a .tar file created by docker save, use the docker load command. For example:

docker load --input neo4j-2026.09.0.tar

For complete instructions on using the docker save and docker load commands, refer to:

Glossary

allocator

A component in the cluster that allocates databases to servers according to the topology constraints specified and an allocation strategy.

asynchronous replication

Asynchronous replication is used by secondary copies to poll for new transactions, which means they cannot be guaranteed to have received the most recent transactions. This enables efficient scale-out of read-performance.

Aura instance

A fully-managed DBMS represented by a single instance ID, that is running in the Neo4j Aura cloud.

auto-commit transaction

An automatically committed transaction that contains a single query.

Bolt protocol

Bolt is a protocol used for interaction between Neo4j instances and drivers.

bookmark

A marker the client can request from the cluster to ensure that it is able to read its own writes so that the application’s state is consistent and only databases that have a copy of the bookmark are permitted to respond.

category (Bloom)

A category is based on a node label and is defined in a Perspective as a way of visually distinguishing nodes with the same label(s).

causal consistency

All servers in a cluster agree on the order in which transactions take place. The position of a server on the causal chain can be guaranteed using a bookmark.

cluster

A Neo4j DBMS that spans multiple servers working together to increase fault tolerance and/or read scalability. Databases on a cluster may be configured to replicate across servers in the cluster thus achieving read scalability or high availability.

client application

Software that interacts with a Neo4j server.

commit

A commit is the successful completion of a transaction, which ensures durability of any changes made. For more details, visit Operations Manual → Transaction management.

composite database

Composite databases are the means to access partitioned graph data with a single Cypher query.

constraint

Constraints are sets of data modeling rules that ensure the data is consistent and reliable.

Cypher®

Neo4j’s graph query language.

data model

A data model defines how information is organized in a database. A good data model will make querying and understanding your data easier. In Neo4j, the data models have a graph structure.

database

A database is a container used by the DBMS to manage and store graph data. The physical structure of data is controlled by the database.

database vs graph

Databases are the physical containers of graph data. Graphs are the logical structure of data in Neo4j.

Database Management System

Database Management System, or DBMS, capable of managing multiple databases. A DBMS may run on a single server, or span several servers configured as a cluster.

database schema

The prescribed property existence and datatypes for nodes and relationships.

deallocate

An act of removing a database from a server or a server from a cluster without loss of data or reduced fault tolerance.

degree (of a node)

The number of relationships of a specific node; loops are counted twice.

disaster recovery

A manual intervention to restore availability of a cluster, or databases within a cluster.

driver

A software library that provides access to Neo4j from a particular programming language.

election

In the event that the Raft leader becomes unresponsive, followers automatically trigger an election and vote for a new leader.

entity

A node or a relationship.

expression (Cypher)

A component of a Cypher query which produces values. It may be used in projections, as a predicate, or when setting properties on graph elements.

fabric

Fabric is the architectural design of a unified system that provides a single access point to local or distributed graph data.

fault tolerance

A guarantee that a cluster can maintain a database’s persistence and availability in the event of one or more servers failing.

follower

A primary copy of a database acting as a follower, receives and acknowledges synchronous writes from the leader.

Generative AI (GenAI)

A type of artificial intelligence (AI) system that generates text, images, or other media in response to prompts.

graph

A logical representation of a set of nodes where some pairs are connected by relationships.

index

Data structure that improves read performance of a database.

knowledge graph

A specific type of graph that has an organizing principle so that a user (or a computer system) can reason about the underlying data. The organizing principle provides an additional layer of structure that adds context to support knowledge discovery.

label

Marks a node as a member of a named and indexed subset. A node may be assigned zero or more labels.

leader

A single primary copy of a database is designated as the leader. It receives all write transactions from clients and replicates writes synchronously to followers and asynchronously to secondary copies of the database.

main database

In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database(s) containing the user’s data. Can exist in the same Neo4j deployment as the tool asset database.

motif

A description of a specific pattern within a graph.

node

A node represents an entity or discrete object in your graph data model. Nodes can be connected by relationships, hold data in properties, and are classified by labels.

operator

A symbol representing a mathematical or logical operation.

parameter

Named value provided when running a Cypher statement.

path

A sequence of nodes and the relationships connecting them, that does not contain duplicate relationships. Several paths can match a pattern.

pattern

A specific arrangement of nodes and relationships that can be matched in a graph. A pattern follows a motif.

perspective (Bloom)

A Perspective defines a certain business view or domain that can be found in the target Neo4j graph. A single Neo4j graph can be viewed through different Perspectives, each tailored for a different business purpose.

primary

A copy of the database that is able to process write transactions and is eligible to be elected as a leader. It participates in fault tolerant writes as it is part of the majority required to acknowledge and commit write transactions.

primary vs secondary

In a cluster, databases can operate in either primary or secondary mode. Primary databases are able to process write and read transactions, ensuring fault tolerance. Secondary databases are replicated asynchronously from primaries, and their main purpose is to provide read scaling within the cluster.

project (Aura)

An isolated environment in the unified Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Preceded by tenant in the classic Aura console.

property

Properties are key-value pairs that are used for storing data on nodes and relationships.

query (Cypher)

A statement that retrieves or writes information to a database.

Raft group

A group of servers that are participating in hosting a particular database in primary mode.

Raft group member

A server that is participating in a Raft group. A server can be a member of one or more groups.

Raft log

A shared log between all Raft group members that is guaranteed to be consistently updated and viewed by those members. The log contains both database data and operational state of the Raft group.

Raft protocol

The networking mechanism that enables a database to replicate its data across multiple servers to give high availability for accessing the data and high durability to the data stored.

read scaling

Distributing query load by creating additional database copies hosted in secondary mode (read-only).

relationship

A relationship represents a connection between nodes in your graph data model. Relationships connect a source node to a target node, hold data in properties, and are classified by type.

secondary

An asynchronously replicated copy of the database that provides read scaling within the cluster.

seed

A seed is a database dump or a full backup used to create a database on a cluster. This is sometimes called seeding.

server

A physical machine, a virtual machine, or a container running an instance of Neo4j. Servers can be standalone or part of a cluster.

session

A causally linked sequence of transactions.

session consistency

An alternative name for Neo4j’s causal consistency.

standalone

A single server running Neo4j and not part of a cluster.

synchronous replication

Synchronous replication requires the leader primary to replicate a transaction and block the commit until a quorum of the follower primaries acknowledges that the transaction is successfully replicated. Once the transaction is replicated, the commit is allowed to proceed. This ensures data durability and consistency within the cluster.

system database

A database used by Neo4j to store system information.

tenant (Aura)

An isolated environment in the classic Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Replaced by project in the unified Aura console.

tool asset database

In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database where tools' assets are stored. This can be in the same Neo4j deployment as the main database(s) or in a separate deployment.

topology

A configuration that describes how the copies of a database should be spread across the servers in a cluster, see primary mode and secondary mode.

transaction

A transaction comprises a unit of work performed against a database. It is treated in a coherent and reliable way, independent of other transactions. Transactions comply with the ACID consistency model (atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable).