DriverVault/Docker/README.md

DriverVault — Docker (multi-container stack)

Three containers — PocketBase, API Server, Web App — on one compose network. This is the deployment to use unless you specifically want everything in a single image; for that see ../Docker-AIO.

Browser ─► Web App BFF (:8090) ──/api/*──► API Server (:8080) ─► PocketBase (:8070)

Only the Web App port is meant to be public. The API Server and the PocketBase admin UI are published for convenience and, in the prod file, bound to 127.0.0.1 by default.

File	Use
docker-compose.yml	builds from source in this repo — for development and local testing
docker-compose.prod.yml	pulls prebuilt images from the registry — for deployment
.env.example / .env.prod.example	copy to .env for the matching compose file
pocketbase/	the PocketBase image (official release binary on alpine)

Run it

cd Docker
cp .env.example .env        # then edit — PB_ADMIN_* have no safe defaults
docker compose up -d --build

Production, from the registry:

cp .env.prod.example .env   # then edit
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

Then: web app on http://host:8090/, the API Server's superadmin panel on http://host:8080/, PocketBase admin on http://host:8070/_/.

First boot

Both steps are idempotent, so restarts and upgrades are safe:

1. PocketBase upserts its superuser from PB_ADMIN_EMAIL / PB_ADMIN_PASSWORD. This is the only way to create the first superuser — the REST API cannot bootstrap it. The API Server then authenticates with the same credentials.
2. The API Server creates any missing collections and reconciles existing ones, then creates the first app superadmin from DRIVERVAULT_SUPERADMIN_EMAIL / _PASSWORD if no such user exists.

Leave PB_BOOTSTRAP at true, including across upgrades. A release can add a collection the server needs — app_settings, which holds the plugin settings, is one — and a stack that skipped the bootstrap never gets it. The plugin panel then answers 503 indefinitely, because a missing collection is read as "the database is not ready yet", never as "no plugins configured". Turn it off only for a database you know already matches the release you are running.

No manual setup-pocketbase.mjs step is needed here — the server runs the same schema reconcile itself.

Volumes

Volume	Holds
pb_data	the PocketBase SQLite database and uploaded files
api_data	the .env the API Server panel rewrites when a superadmin retargets the PocketBase connection (plugin settings live in pb_data, with everything else)

Both default to Docker-managed named volumes. In the prod file, set PB_DATA / API_DATA to absolute host paths for bind mounts instead.

The API Server serves as the unprivileged app user, so /data has to be writable by it. Its entrypoint arranges that itself: it starts as root, takes ownership of /data if app does not already hold it, then drops privileges. So a bind mount to a root-owned host path needs no manual chown, and neither does a named volume left over from an image that ran as root. The one case it cannot fix is a container forced to another user (user: in compose, docker run --user), where the entrypoint has no privileges to chown with — prepare the host directory yourself there. PocketBase runs as root, so PB_DATA is unaffected either way.

Plugin enable-state and global config used to live in a plugins.json on this volume, which made them the one piece of configuration a lost volume could erase without anyone noticing. They are now in PocketBase, backed up with pb_data like everything else. An existing plugins.json is imported automatically on the first boot after the upgrade and renamed to plugins.json.migrated; keep the volume mounted for that boot.

Charger control (OCPP)

Chargers in own/proxy mode dial in to /ocpp/{serial} on the API Server port, authenticating with a per-charger control token in an OCPP Basic-auth header. A plaintext ws:// would put that token on the wire in the clear, so OCPP_REQUIRE_TLS defaults to true and non-TLS connections are rejected.

This stack serves plain HTTP, so to actually use charger control you need to terminate TLS in a reverse proxy in front of it and set OCPP_PUBLIC_URL to the public wss:// base (behind a proxy, deriving it from request headers is unreliable). OCPP_REQUIRE_TLS=false is for trusted networks only. You will also need API_BIND set so the proxy can reach the port.

Notes

• docker-compose.yml builds the API Server and Web App from ../API Server and ../Web App, so run it from this directory with the repo checked out.
• The Web App's Vue bundle is built with an empty VITE_API_BASE, so the browser uses same-origin /api and the BFF proxies it — no CORS in play.
• CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS therefore only matters if a browser calls the API Server directly. Native mobile apps are not subject to CORS at all.