Docker

The image is published to docker.io/flexcal/flexcal, built for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. Use the dev tag for the current default branch, or a semver tag such as vX.Y.Z for a release.

docker pull docker.io/flexcal/flexcal:<version>

Requirements

docker and docker compose must be installed on the host. docker compose (no hyphen) is the current form of the command.

Running with Docker Compose

The docker-compose.yml lives in the flexcal repository, so start by cloning it:

git clone https://codefloe.com/flexcal/flexcal.git
cd flexcal

Copy the example environment file:

cp .env.example .env

Pick a version

docker-compose.yml runs docker.io/flexcal/flexcal:${FLEXCAL_VERSION:-dev}, so the tag comes from your .env:

FLEXCAL_VERSION=<version>

dev tracks the default branch and moves under you. Pin a release for anything you care about.

Generate the required secrets

Do not ship the placeholder secret values to production.

Generate NEXTAUTH_SECRET, the cookie encryption key:

openssl rand -base64 32

Generate CALENDSO_ENCRYPTION_KEY, which must be 32 bytes for AES256:

openssl rand -base64 24

Put both into .env:

NEXTAUTH_SECRET=<your_generated_secret>
CALENDSO_ENCRYPTION_KEY=<your_generated_key>

Web push may go away

Whether flexcal keeps web push notifications is undecided, so this step may disappear in a future release.

Web push notifications need a VAPID key pair. Without them you will see Error: No key set vapidDetails.publicKey:

npx web-push generate-vapid-keys

NEXT_PUBLIC_VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY=<your_public_key>
VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY=<your_private_key>

Everything else can usually stay as shipped, see Configuration for the full list.

Start the stack

Optionally pre-pull the images:

docker compose pull

The full stack (Postgres, the flexcal web app and Prisma Studio):

docker compose up -d

The web app and Prisma Studio against an external database, with DATABASE_URL pointing at it:

docker compose up -d flexcal studio

Only the web app:

docker compose up -d flexcal

Drop -d to run attached when debugging.

Caution

The studio service exposes Prisma Studio on port 5555 with full read/write access to the database. Comment it out or remove it in production.

First run

Open http://localhost:3000, or whatever NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL points at. A setup wizard runs the first time and creates your first user.

The wizard’s “Connect your Calendar” step looks mandatory but is not: navigate straight to <NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL>/event-types to skip it. Calendar integrations can be added later under Settings → Integrations.

Updating

docker compose down
docker compose pull

Reconcile your .env against the current .env.example, then:

docker compose up -d

Migrations and app-store seeding on boot

By default, the container applies database migrations and seeds the app store every time it starts. That is correct for Docker Compose, which has nowhere else to run them.

For deployments that migrate once per release (the Helm chart does this in a pre-upgrade Job), set both flags so replicas do not race each other:

SKIP_DB_MIGRATIONS=1
SKIP_APP_STORE_SEED=1

Building the image yourself

See Container images.