Docker

WollyCMS publishes a multi-architecture image to GitHub Container Registry and also ships with a multi-stage Dockerfile. Docker is the recommended deployment method for self-hosted environments.

Quick start

# Create a project and enter it
npx create-wolly@latest my-cms
cd my-cms

# Create your .env file
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and set a strong JWT_SECRET

Generate a JWT secret:

openssl rand -base64 32

Add it to .env:

JWT_SECRET=your-generated-secret-here
SITE_URL=https://your-site.example.com
CORS_ORIGINS=https://your-site.example.com

Start the containers:

docker compose up -d

WollyCMS is now running at http://localhost:4321.

docker-compose.yml

services:
  wollycms:
    image: ghcr.io/wollycms/wollycms:0.3.0
    ports:
      - "4321:4321"
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - PORT=4321
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - DATABASE_URL=sqlite:./data/wolly.db
      - MEDIA_DIR=./uploads
      - JWT_SECRET=${JWT_SECRET:?Set JWT_SECRET in .env}
      - CORS_ORIGINS=${CORS_ORIGINS:-*}
      - RATE_LIMIT_AUTH=${RATE_LIMIT_AUTH:-10}
      - RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS=${RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS:-900000}
      - SITE_URL=${SITE_URL:-http://localhost:4322}
    volumes:
      - wolly-data:/app/data
      - wolly-uploads:/app/uploads
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "node", "-e", "fetch('http://localhost:4321/api/health').then(r => r.ok ? process.exit(0) : process.exit(1)).catch(() => process.exit(1))"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 5s
      start_period: 10s
      retries: 3

volumes:
  wolly-data:
  wolly-uploads:

Volumes

Volume	Container path	Purpose
wolly-data	/app/data	SQLite database file
wolly-uploads	/app/uploads	Uploaded media files

Caution

Always use named volumes (or bind mounts to a backed-up directory). Losing the wolly-data volume means losing your database.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
NODE_ENV	production	Environment mode
PORT	4321	Server port
HOST	0.0.0.0	Bind address
DATABASE_URL	sqlite:./data/wolly.db	Database connection string
MEDIA_DIR	./uploads	Local media storage directory
JWT_SECRET	required	Secret for JWT signing
CORS_ORIGINS	*	Allowed CORS origins
SITE_URL	http://localhost:4322	Frontend URL (for sitemaps)
RATE_LIMIT_AUTH	10	Max auth attempts per window
RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS	900000	Rate limit window (15 min)

Using PostgreSQL

To use PostgreSQL instead of SQLite, set the DATABASE_URL to a PostgreSQL connection string:

services:
  wollycms:
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://wolly:password@db:5432/wollycms
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: wolly
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: password
      POSTGRES_DB: wollycms
    volumes:
      - pg-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U wolly"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

volumes:
  wolly-data:
  wolly-uploads:
  pg-data:

Using S3/R2 for media

For production deployments, store media in S3-compatible storage instead of local volumes:

environment:
  - MEDIA_STORAGE=s3
  - S3_ENDPOINT=https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
  - S3_BUCKET=wollycms-media
  - S3_REGION=us-east-1
  - S3_ACCESS_KEY=${S3_ACCESS_KEY}
  - S3_SECRET_KEY=${S3_SECRET_KEY}
  - S3_PUBLIC_URL=https://cdn.example.com

Reverse proxy

Put WollyCMS behind a reverse proxy (Caddy, Nginx, Traefik) for TLS and custom domains:

# Caddyfile
cms.example.com {
    reverse_proxy wollycms:4321
}

Health check

The health endpoint is available at /api/health:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "version": "0.3.0",
  "uptime": 3600,
  "timestamp": "2025-01-15T12:00:00.000Z",
  "cache": { "entries": 42 }
}

Updating

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

The container runs database migrations automatically on startup.