tajniak81andClaude Opus 5
9a2a4ab72e
Every attachment — a document scan, a fuel receipt, a workshop invoice, a
photo of a part's box — has lived inside pb_data, in a directory beside the
SQLite file. One volume held both, so neither could be sized, backed up or
moved without the other. PocketBase can keep those bytes in an S3 bucket
instead, and now it is told to.
Nothing on the way to a client changes, because an attachment was never a
storage URL to begin with: it is fetched from GET /api/{records}/{id}/file,
which re-checks car access and asks PocketBase for the bytes as the service
account. PocketBase streams from the bucket through that same endpoint rather
than redirecting to it, so the web app, the phone and the plugin cannot tell
which side of the switch they are on.
The bootstrap that already creates the collections now writes PocketBase's
files-storage settings too, from PB_S3_*, on every boot and only when they
differ from what is already there — then asks PocketBase to prove it can reach
the bucket, and says so in the log either way. Two asymmetries are deliberate.
A read of the settings masks the stored secret, so a rotation of the secret
alone is invisible from here and needs another PB_S3_* to move with it. And it
never turns S3 back off: files already written to a bucket are reachable only
while PocketBase still points at it, so dropping the configuration would strand
them rather than undo anything.
Each deployment shape is one compose file with an .env example of the same
name, not a base plus an overlay to remember — six of each per folder, for
Docker and Docker-AIO alike: the plain one, .seaweedfs, .s3, and the three prod
twins. The SeaweedFS files run master, volume, filer and gateway as one process
and a one-shot init container beside it, because PocketBase never issues a
CreateBucket and SeaweedFS will not conjure one on first upload. The credentials
do double duty there — the gateway's only identity is also what PocketBase
authenticates with. In the all-in-one that gateway is a second container rather
than a fourth process under supervisord: keeping the object store inside the
image, on the volume the files are being moved off, would have defeated the
point and would have meant rebuilding.
Files uploaded before the switch are not carried across; PocketBase copies
nothing, and both READMEs say so where an operator will read it.
The TLS overlay and its Caddyfile go. The section they served stays, without
them: nothing in the stack terminates TLS any more, so it now names the four
variables to set in front of whichever proxy already does — TRUST_FORWARDED_PROTO
being the one that decides whether a charger is believed about how it arrived.
Unexercised: this was written on a machine without Docker, so the pinned
SeaweedFS image, the bucket-create and the settings write have not been run
against a live stack. The Go side builds, vets and tests clean.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
8.5 KiB
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:
- 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. - The API Server creates any missing collections and reconciles existing
ones, then creates the first app
superadminfromDRIVERVAULT_SUPERADMIN_EMAIL/_PASSWORDif no such user exists.
Leave
PB_BOOTSTRAPattrue, including across upgrades. A release can add collections or fields the server needs, and a stack that skipped the bootstrap never gets them. The API Server self-heals exactly one thing —app_settings, the collection holding the plugin settings, which it creates on demand because it cannot serve the plugin panel without it. Every other schema change still depends on this flag, so 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 — everything that persists |
One volume, because the API Server keeps no state on disk. Plugin enable-state
and global config live in the database like the rest of the settings, so backing
up pb_data backs up the whole stack. It defaults to a Docker-managed named
volume; set PB_DATA to an absolute host path in the prod file for a bind mount
instead. PocketBase runs as root, so a root-owned host directory is fine.
One thing does not persist: the API Server panel's Settings → PocketBase and Settings → Web App screens apply immediately but only for the life of the container. Set
POCKETBASE_URL,PB_ADMIN_EMAIL/PB_ADMIN_PASSWORD,WEBAPP_URLandCORS_ALLOW_ORIGINSin.envto change them permanently — in this stack the compose environment wins over anything the panel writes.
File storage (SeaweedFS / S3)
Uploaded files — document scans, service and refill receipts, workshop invoices,
part photos — live inside pb_data by default, next to the database. Two further
compose files put them in an S3 bucket instead, so the blobs and the database can
be sized, backed up and moved independently. Nothing else changes: an attachment has
always been fetched through the API Server (GET /api/service-records/{id}/file),
never from a storage URL, so the Web App, the phone app and the Home Assistant
plugin cannot tell the difference.
Each shape is one self-contained compose file — nothing to layer, nothing to
remember — with an .env example of the same name:
| Shape | From the registry | From source |
|---|---|---|
| Local storage — the default, unchanged | docker-compose.prod.yml |
docker-compose.yml |
| SeaweedFS in this stack | docker-compose.prod.seaweedfs.yml |
docker-compose.seaweedfs.yml |
| An S3 endpoint outside it | docker-compose.prod.s3.yml |
docker-compose.s3.yml |
So docker-compose.prod.seaweedfs.yml is configured from
.env.prod.seaweedfs.example, docker-compose.s3.yml from .env.s3.example,
and so on:
cp .env.prod.seaweedfs.example .env # then edit it — PB_S3_* have no defaults
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.seaweedfs.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.seaweedfs.yml up -d
Set PB_S3_ACCESS_KEY and PB_S3_SECRET first — both storage files refuse to
start without them. The SeaweedFS ones add a seaweedfs container (master,
volume, filer and S3 gateway in one process, on its own seaweed_data volume)
plus a one-shot seaweedfs-init that creates the bucket, because PocketBase never
issues a CreateBucket of its own. The external-S3 ones add no containers at
all: set PB_S3_ENDPOINT, and create the bucket yourself.
On every boot the API Server's bootstrap writes PocketBase's Files storage settings from those variables, then asks PocketBase to prove it can reach the bucket. Watch for it in the log:
[api] bootstrap: ✓ file storage → S3 (drivervault at http://seaweedfs:8333)
[api] bootstrap: ✓ S3 storage reachable
A boot that finds the settings already correct logs • file storage already on S3
and writes nothing.
Two things to know before turning it on:
- Existing files are not migrated. PocketBase copies nothing when the setting
flips, so attachments uploaded before the switch stop resolving. Copy
pb_data/storage/<collectionId>/<recordId>/<file>into the bucket root, keeping that layout, before enabling it — or start from a stack with no attachments. - Going back to the plain compose file is not an off switch. It leaves
PocketBase pointed at
the bucket, deliberately: files already written there are reachable only while
it is. Move them back and turn it off in PocketBase's own admin UI. For the same
reason a rotation of
PB_S3_SECRETalone is invisible to the bootstrap — PocketBase masks the stored secret on read — so change anotherPB_S3_*value alongside it, or set it in the admin UI.
Charger control (OCPP)
Chargers in own/proxy mode dial in to /ocpp/{serial}, authenticating with a
per-charger control token in an OCPP Basic-auth header. Two ports answer that
path: the API Server's own, and the Web App's, whose BFF proxies /ocpp/
through. The second one matters because it is the address the panel hands out —
the endpoint is derived from the host the panel itself was reached on, which is
the Web App, unless OCPP_PUBLIC_URL says otherwise.
A plaintext ws:// puts the control token on the wire in the clear, so
OCPP_REQUIRE_TLS defaults to true and non-TLS connections are rejected.
OCPP_REQUIRE_TLS=false is for a trusted network you own end to end.
With a public hostname and TLS
Nothing in this stack terminates TLS. Put your own reverse proxy in front of the Web App port, give it a certificate and a hostname, and set four things by hand:
# in .env
OCPP_PUBLIC_URL=wss://drivervault.example.com
OCPP_REQUIRE_TLS=true
CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS=https://drivervault.example.com
TRUST_FORWARDED_PROTO=true
TRUST_FORWARDED_PROTO is the easy one to miss: without it the Web App's BFF
overwrites the proxy's X-Forwarded-Proto with its own plaintext hop and every
charger is rejected as insecure. Only set it when that proxy really is the only
way in — otherwise a charger could claim wss over a plaintext connection.
Point the charger's OCPP backend at the endpoint the panel then shows, with the control token as its authorization key. The charger has to resolve that hostname too: behind NAT that usually means hairpin NAT, or a split-DNS entry pointing the name at the LAN address.
Notes
docker-compose.ymlbuilds the API Server and Web App from../API Serverand../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/apiand the BFF proxies it — no CORS in play. CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINStherefore only matters if a browser calls the API Server directly. Native mobile apps are not subject to CORS at all.