Docker Deployment

The repository includes a production-ready Docker Compose setup with:

• Multi-stage Dockerfile — builds the dashboard, embed widget, and Go binary in a single docker compose up --build
• Caddy — automatic HTTPS via Let’s Encrypt
• Litestream — optional continuous SQLite backup to S3 or any S3-compatible bucket (Cloudflare R2, MinIO, etc.)

Quick start

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/quipthread/quipthread
cd quipthread

2. Create your .env

cp .env.docker.example .env

Open .env and fill in at minimum:

JWT_SECRET=<output of: openssl rand -hex 32>
BASE_URL=https://comments.example.com
ALLOWED_ORIGINS=https://comments.example.com

# At least one auth provider
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=...
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=...

See Environment Variables for the full list. For OAuth setup, see OAuth Setup.

3. Update the Caddyfile

Edit deploy/Caddyfile and replace example.com with your domain:

comments.example.com {
    reverse_proxy app:8080
    encode zstd gzip
}

Caddy automatically obtains and renews a TLS certificate from Let’s Encrypt. Your server needs ports 80 and 443 open.

4. Deploy

docker compose up -d --build

The first build takes a few minutes (installs npm deps, compiles the dashboard and embed widget, builds the Go binary). Subsequent builds are fast thanks to layer caching.

Navigate to https://comments.example.com/login. The first user to sign in is promoted to admin automatically.

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Local testing (no domain required)

To test the full Docker build locally without a domain or TLS:

1. Start only the app service and expose port 8080 directly:

docker compose run --service-ports -e DATABASE_URL=/data/db.sqlite app

2. Or add a docker-compose.override.yml (gitignored) to expose the port:

services:
  app:
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"

Then docker compose up --build app and access http://localhost:8080.

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Litestream backup (optional)

Litestream replicates your SQLite database to an S3-compatible bucket in near real-time. If your server loses its volume, you restore from the replica with no data loss beyond the last few seconds.

Add to your .env:

LITESTREAM_REPLICA_URL=s3://your-bucket/quipthread/db.sqlite
LITESTREAM_ACCESS_KEY_ID=...
LITESTREAM_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...

The entrypoint script automatically detects these variables and starts Litestream replication. Leave them unset to run without backup.

Using Cloudflare R2:

Add to deploy/litestream.yml:

access-key-id: ${LITESTREAM_ACCESS_KEY_ID}
secret-access-key: ${LITESTREAM_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}

dbs:
  - path: /data/db.sqlite
    replicas:
      - url: ${LITESTREAM_REPLICA_URL}
        endpoint: https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
        force-path-style: true

Local dev with MinIO:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml up

This overlay starts a MinIO container so you can test Litestream replication locally without a real S3 bucket.

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Upgrading

git pull
docker compose up -d --build

The Go binary runs database migrations automatically on startup — no manual schema changes needed.