Seven findings, all verified against the code before applying.
- The built-in backup system wrote nowhere. Migrations 029/030 seed
/backup/picpeak and /backup/database as destinations, and this image neither
created nor mounted /backup — so backups failed, and anything written there
would have died with the container. /backup is now a symlink into
/data/backup, so the seeded defaults work and the archives land on the volume
like everything else.
- Database backups need the sqlite3 CLI. DatabaseBackupService spawns it for
.backup and PRAGMA integrity_check; the npm module does not provide the
binary. The compose image omits it because it always runs Postgres — this one
defaults to SQLite, so it failed with ENOENT. Added.
- Every AIO install served literal ${BRAND_TITLE}. index.html carries
placeholders that frontend/docker-entrypoint.sh substitutes at start, and
this image runs no nginx and never invoked it. Rendered at build with the
same defaults that entrypoint applies, and the build now fails if any
${BRAND_*} token survives. Browser testing missed this because the SPA
rewrites document.title at runtime — the og:/twitter: cards and view-source
still showed the raw token.
- The SPA fallback swallowed backend file-route 404s. nginx gives /api,
/photos, /thumbnails and /health their own location blocks, so try_files
never applies to them; excluding only /api/ made the fallback strictly
broader than the behaviour it claimed parity with, turning a missing photo
into a 200 HTML body under an image URL. Now excludes the same set.
- Docs claimed DB_* alone switches the engine. It does not: the image declares
DATABASE_CLIENT=sqlite3 and the resolver treats a declared client as
explicit, so DATABASE_CLIENT=pg is required. Corrected, and /data/backup
added to the documented layout.
- The AIO Trivy upload reused the backend's SARIF category, so the two scans
replaced each other's results instead of both being retained.
- The AIO build reused the backend's buildx cache scope, so two concurrent jobs
wrote the same cache object from different Dockerfiles.
Verified on a rebuilt image: sqlite3 3.53.2 present, <title>PicPeak</title>,
/backup -> /data/backup with both seeded subdirectories, /photos + /thumbnails
+ /api back to 404 while /setup /impressum /gallery/x /admin/login stay 200.
5.3 KiB
PicPeak all-in-one (single container)
One docker run, one volume, working PicPeak. Built for NAS boxes (Synology,
UGREEN, QNAP) and small VPSes where standing up a four-service compose stack is
the thing that makes people give up and go back to a SaaS.
If you already run PostgreSQL, or you expect several photographers hitting the admin UI at once, use the compose stack instead. This image is the small end of the range, not a replacement for it.
Run it
docker run -d \
--name picpeak \
-p 3000:3000 \
-v picpeak:/data \
-e JWT_SECRET="$(openssl rand -base64 48)" \
ghcr.io/picpeak/picpeak/aio:stable
Open http://<host>:3000. The first visit lands on the setup wizard, which
asks for a one-time token:
docker exec picpeak cat /data/db/SETUP_TOKEN
The token is also printed to the container log on first start.
JWT_SECRET is the only variable you must set. Generate it once and keep it —
changing it invalidates every existing session and gallery link.
What is inside
One Node process. No supervisor, no nginx, no PostgreSQL, no Redis.
The backend serves the built frontend directly and applies the same security
headers the nginx container applies in the compose stack — same CSP, same
X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy and
Permissions-Policy, plus the same cache tiers (hashed assets immutable,
index.html never cached).
SQLite is the default, deliberately. It is a library inside the process
writing one file on your volume: no second daemon, no credentials, no startup
ordering, and no pg_upgrade dance when you pull a newer image. The engine is
resolved and logged at boot, so docker logs always tells you which database
you are actually on:
Database engine: sqlite (/data/db/picpeak.db)
Redis is absent — nothing in the backend needs it at runtime.
The volume
Everything that must survive a container replacement lives under /data:
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
/data/db |
picpeak.db (+ -wal/-shm) and SETUP_TOKEN |
/data/storage |
originals, thumbnails, archives |
/data/logs |
application logs |
/data/backup |
built-in backup output (/backup is symlinked here) |
One mount point is the whole point. Back up /data and you have backed up the
install.
Upgrades are docker pull + recreate the container; migrations run at start.
The volume is what carries your data across, so never bind-mount a directory
you are about to delete.
Environment
Only JWT_SECRET is required. Everything else has a working default.
| Variable | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
JWT_SECRET |
— | Required. Long random string. |
PORT |
3000 |
Listen port inside the container. |
FRONTEND_URL |
— | Public URL. Set it once you are behind a domain, so emails and share links point at the right host. |
SMTP_* |
— | Outbound email. Without it, PicPeak runs fine but sends nothing. |
DATABASE_CLIENT |
sqlite3 |
Set to pg to use an external PostgreSQL. Required — the image declares sqlite3, and the boot resolver treats a declared client as an explicit instruction, so DB_* alone will not switch engines. |
DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME |
— | Connection details, used when DATABASE_CLIENT=pg. |
Using an external PostgreSQL
docker run -d --name picpeak -p 3000:3000 -v picpeak:/data \
-e JWT_SECRET="…" \
-e DATABASE_CLIENT=pg \
-e DB_HOST=10.0.0.5 -e DB_USER=picpeak -e DB_PASSWORD=… -e DB_NAME=picpeak \
ghcr.io/picpeak/picpeak/aio:stable
The image waits for the database to accept connections before running migrations, exactly as the compose backend does.
TLS
None is included. Terminate TLS in front of it — your NAS's reverse proxy,
Caddy, nginx, or a Cloudflare Tunnel. Set FRONTEND_URL to the public
https://… address so generated links match.
NAS notes
Synology (Container Manager) and QNAP (Container Station) can both run
this from the registry UI: pull ghcr.io/picpeak/picpeak/aio:stable, map a
host port to container port 3000, and add one volume mapping to /data.
Set JWT_SECRET under Environment.
Point the volume at a folder on your data pool, not the system partition, and prefer a folder you own — the container starts as root only long enough to adopt the directory, then drops to UID 1001.
Outgrowing it
A single-container install is never a dead end. When you need the full stack:
- Settings → Backup → Export
.picpeak(include photos). - Stand up the compose stack with PostgreSQL and run its setup wizard.
- Settings → Backup → Restore the
.picpeakfile.
SQLite → PostgreSQL restore is supported (#1041); the reverse is not. Your galleries, settings, customers and photos come across.
Health
/health returns 200 when the database is reachable and 503 when it is not,
and the image's HEALTHCHECK uses it — so docker ps showing healthy
means the app can actually serve, not merely that a socket is open.
docker inspect --format='{{.State.Health.Status}}' picpeak
Limits
- SQLite means one writer. Fine for one photographer plus guests browsing; if several admins upload simultaneously all day, move to PostgreSQL.
- No built-in TLS or reverse proxy.
- No Redis, so nothing here scales horizontally — run one container.