Self-Hosting with Docker/Podman with Compose

Stack

service	Image	Description
client	from ../Dockerfile	readest frontend
db	supabase/postgres	psql db with supabase extensions
kong	kong:2.8.1	api gateway routing requests to supabase services
auth	supabase/gotrue:v2.185.0	auth service (email, JWT)
rest	postgrest/postgrest:v14.3	psql rest api
minio	minio/minio	s3 storage
minio-setup	minio/mc	helper container to create s3 buckets

Exposed ports

Port	Service
3000	readest
7000	kong API gateway
9000	MinIO S3 API
9001	MinIO console UI

---

Running with Docker/Podman Compose

1. setup .env

cp docker/.env.example docker/.env

update docker/.env:

• update POSTGRES_PASSWORD to a strong password (32+ chars)
• update JWT_SECRET to a random secret (32+ chars)
• regenerate ANON_KEY and SERVICE_ROLE_KEY as HS256 JWTs signed with your JWT_SECRET (use jwt.io or a similar tool):
  • ANON_KEY payload: {"role": "anon"}
  • SERVICE_ROLE_KEY payload: {"role": "service_role"}
• set MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD to a strong password

2. Start the Stack

run from the docker/ directory:

cd docker
docker compose up --build -d

the client image is built locally on first run. subsequent starts reuse the cached image.

3. Access

• Readest app: http://localhost:3000
• MinIO console: http://localhost:9001 (login with MINIO_ROOT_USER / MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD)

Hot Reload (development)

to develop using the compose stack, set the build target on client to development-stage, which'll runs the next.js dev server. to enable hot reload, uncomment the volumes block in the client service in compose.yaml:

volumes:
  - ../:/app
  - /app/node_modules
  - /app/apps/readest-app/node_modules
  - /app/apps/readest-app/public/vendor
  - /app/apps/readest-app/.next
  - /app/packages/foliate-js/node_modules

the first mount overlays your local repo into the container. the remaining anonymous volumes shadow the directories that were pre-built inside the image, so the container's installed deps and vendor assets are used instead of what's on your host.

Stop the Stack

cd docker
docker compose down

to also remove volumes (database and storage data):

cd docker
docker compose down -v

---

Building the Dockerfile standalone

the Dockerfile requires Build args for the next.js public env vars (they are inlined at build time)

docker build \
  --target production-stage \
  --build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=http://localhost:7000 \
  --build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=<anon-key> \
  --build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_PLATFORM=web \
  --build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000 \
  --build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_OBJECT_STORAGE_TYPE=s3 \
  --build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_STORAGE_FIXED_QUOTA=1073741824 \
  --build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_TRANSLATION_FIXED_QUOTA=50000 \
  -t readest-client \
  .

run the built image:

docker run -p 3000:3000 \
  -e SUPABASE_URL=http://kong:8000 \
  -e SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=<anon-key> \
  -e SUPABASE_ADMIN_KEY=<service-role-key> \
  -e S3_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:9000 \
  -e S3_REGION=us-east-1 \
  -e S3_BUCKET_NAME=readest-files \
  -e S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<minio-user> \
  -e S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<minio-password> \
  readest-client