Files
thoughtsync/docker-compose.yml
T
bvandeusen abe01da5f7 compose: say which of the three deployment shapes you're in
The operator asked why `THOUGHTSYNC_BIND` isn't just defaulted to the safe value.
Fair question, and the answer exposed that my own advice was incomplete: I told
them to set it to 127.0.0.1 without asking where their proxy runs, and for a
proxy inside Docker that is the wrong fix.

There are three shapes, not two:

1. **LAN, no proxy** — the default. Binds every interface so a phone and a desktop
   can reach the server. This is why the default is NOT the locked-down value: a
   server reachable only from the machine it runs on isn't hardened, it's broken,
   and that is the primary documented use of this app.
2. **Proxy in Docker** — delete the `ports:` block entirely. The proxy reaches the
   app over the compose network; publishing a host port is a second,
   unauthenticated way in that bypasses whatever the proxy does about TLS. Safer
   than 127.0.0.1, because there is no host port to reach even from the host.
3. **Proxy on the host** — `THOUGHTSYNC_BIND=127.0.0.1`.

The compose file now spells out all three where the decision is made, and
`docs/public-hosting.md` item 4 asks where your proxy runs before telling you what
to do, plus how to check: `curl http://<lan-ip>:5000/api/health` from another
machine should NOT answer once you're proxied.

No default changed. Changing it would silently break every LAN install on the next
`docker compose pull` — the phone would just stop syncing, with nothing saying why.
2026-08-23 15:30:01 -04:00

118 lines
5.3 KiB
YAML

# ThoughtSync — PRODUCTION stack (app + Postgres).
#
# This is the default compose file: `docker compose up -d` runs a real deployment
# from the published image. Development lives in docker-compose.dev.yml (hot-reload,
# builds from source).
#
# cp .env.example .env # then set POSTGRES_PASSWORD
# docker compose up -d
#
# Per family rule 12 the agent does NOT start this — run it yourself.
#
# Upgrades: docker compose pull && docker compose up -d
# Rollback: set THOUGHTSYNC_TAG to a commit sha in .env, then the same two commands.
# Every push publishes an immutable :<sha> image for exactly this.
#
# Schema migrations run automatically at container start (see the Dockerfile CMD),
# so an upgrade is just a pull and a restart. Take a backup first anyway:
#
# docker compose exec -T db pg_dump -U thoughtsync thoughtsync > backup.sql
#
# Attachments are files, not rows — they live in the `thoughtsync-data` volume and
# a pg_dump does NOT contain them. Back up both or you'll restore notes whose images
# are gone.
services:
db:
image: postgres:16-alpine
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER:-thoughtsync}
# No default on purpose. A production compose that ships a known password is
# how self-hosted databases end up in search engines; compose fails fast here
# instead, with the message below.
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD:?set POSTGRES_PASSWORD in .env — see .env.example}
POSTGRES_DB: ${POSTGRES_DB:-thoughtsync}
volumes:
# Volume names kept from the previous compose file so an existing deployment
# upgrades in place. Renaming them would silently start against an empty
# database while the old one sat there, orphaned and looking like data loss.
- thoughtsync-db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
# Deliberately NOT published to the host. The app reaches Postgres over the
# compose network; exposing 5432 only widens the attack surface. If you need
# psql, `docker compose exec db psql -U thoughtsync` gets you there without it.
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U ${POSTGRES_USER:-thoughtsync} -d ${POSTGRES_DB:-thoughtsync}"]
interval: 10s
timeout: 5s
retries: 10
start_period: 30s
logging: &logging
driver: json-file
options:
# Unbounded container logs are a slow-motion disk-full outage on a
# long-running self-hosted box.
max-size: "10m"
max-file: "3"
app:
# :latest tracks `main`. Set THOUGHTSYNC_TAG=dev in .env to follow the
# development line instead, or a commit sha to pin exactly.
image: git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/thoughtsync:${THOUGHTSYNC_TAG:-latest}
restart: unless-stopped
depends_on:
db:
condition: service_healthy
environment:
# The only required application setting. Everything else a person might want
# to tune lives in the admin Settings UI, backed by the database (rule 25).
THOUGHTSYNC_DATABASE_URL: postgresql+asyncpg://${POSTGRES_USER:-thoughtsync}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db:5432/${POSTGRES_DB:-thoughtsync}
volumes:
# Uploaded attachments. /var/thoughtsync is fixed in the app (Config.DATA_DIR),
# not configurable — mount it or lose every image on container recreation.
- thoughtsync-data:/var/thoughtsync
# WHERE THE APP IS REACHABLE FROM. Three shapes, and the right answer is
# different for each — the default serves the first.
#
# 1. LAN, no proxy (the default). Binds every interface so your phone and your
# desktop can reach the server. This is what makes a self-hosted install work
# out of the box, and it is why the default is NOT the locked-down value: a
# server only reachable from the machine it runs on is not hardened, it is
# broken.
#
# 2. Reverse proxy in Docker, on this network (Traefik discovering the container,
# an nginx container, etc). DELETE the `ports:` block below entirely. The proxy
# reaches the app over the compose network without any port being published,
# and publishing one is a second, unauthenticated way in that bypasses the
# proxy — including whatever the proxy is doing about TLS and auth.
#
# 3. Reverse proxy on the HOST (not in Docker). Set THOUGHTSYNC_BIND=127.0.0.1 in
# .env, so the port exists but only the host itself can reach it.
#
# If you are exposing this to the internet, you want 2 or 3. Leaving it at 1
# means the app is reachable directly on port 5000, past everything your proxy
# does.
ports:
- "${THOUGHTSYNC_BIND:-0.0.0.0}:${THOUGHTSYNC_PORT:-5000}:5000"
healthcheck:
# python rather than curl: the runtime image is python:3.12-slim and carries no
# HTTP client binary. Hits the app's own /api/health.
test:
- CMD
- python
- -c
- |
import sys, urllib.request
sys.exit(0 if urllib.request.urlopen("http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/health", timeout=5).status == 200 else 1)
interval: 30s
timeout: 10s
retries: 5
# Generous: the container waits for Postgres and runs migrations before it
# serves anything, and a first boot builds the whole schema.
start_period: 60s
logging: *logging
volumes:
thoughtsync-db:
thoughtsync-data: