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Self-host Chatwoot with Docker Compose

Open-source customer support platform for live chat, email, and social messaging.

chatwoot

postgres

pgvector/pgvector:pg16

redis

redis:7

sidekiq

chatwoot/chatwoot:latest

The steps below take a few minutes end to end.

  1. Docker compose setup and file
    save the generated compose and env files.
  2. Secret generation
    create the random passwords Chatwoot needs.
  3. Start Chatwoot with Docker Compose
    bring the stack up and check it's healthy.

Requirements

You'll need these installed on the machine you're deploying to:

Docker

Packages Chatwoot and everything it depends on into an isolated container, so it runs the same way on your machine as it does everywhere else.

Install guide

Docker Compose

Reads docker-compose.ymland starts everything in it together. Ships with Docker Desktop. On Linux servers it's usually a separate install.

Install guide

1. Docker compose setup and file

Create a folder for Chatwoot and save the file below into it as docker-compose.yml. It describes every container the stack needs — Chatwootitself and any supporting services, such as its database — along with the ports, volumes and environment variables each one uses. You'll also need an empty .env file in the same folder; Docker Compose reads it automatically and uses it to fill in the ${VARIABLE}references you'll see in the file below.

docker-compose.yml

version: "3.9"
services:
  chatwoot:
    image: chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
    environment:
      DEFAULT_LOCALE: en
      ENABLE_ACCOUNT_SIGNUP: "true"
      FRONTEND_URL: http://localhost
      INSTALLATION_ENV: docker
      NODE_ENV: production
      POSTGRES_DATABASE: chatwoot
      POSTGRES_HOST: localhost
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_CHATWOOT_PG_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_PORT: "5432"
      POSTGRES_STATEMENT_TIMEOUT: 600s
      POSTGRES_USERNAME: postgres
      RAILS_ENV: production
      RANDOM_REDIS_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_REDIS_PASSWORD}
      REDIS_URL: redis://:${RANDOM_REDIS_PASSWORD}@localhost:6379/0
      SECRET_KEY_BASE: ${RANDOM_SECRET_KEY_BASE}
    volumes:
      - storage:/app/storage
      - app-tmp:/app/tmp
      - tmp:/tmp
    command:
      - docker/entrypoints/rails.sh
      - /bin/sh
      - -c
      - bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare && bundle exec rails s -p 3000 -b 0.0.0.0
    healthcheck:
      test:
        - CMD
        - curl
        - -f
        - http://localhost:3000/health
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
  postgres:
    image: pgvector/pgvector:pg16
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: service:chatwoot
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: chatwoot
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_CHATWOOT_PG_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: postgres
    depends_on:
      chatwoot:
        condition: service_started
  redis:
    image: redis:7
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: service:chatwoot
    environment:
      REDIS_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_REDIS_PASSWORD}
    entrypoint:
      - sh
      - -c
    command:
      - redis-server --requirepass $$REDIS_PASSWORD
  sidekiq:
    image: chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: service:chatwoot
    environment:
      DEFAULT_LOCALE: en
      ENABLE_ACCOUNT_SIGNUP: "true"
      FRONTEND_URL: http://localhost
      INSTALLATION_ENV: docker
      NODE_ENV: production
      POSTGRES_DATABASE: chatwoot
      POSTGRES_HOST: localhost
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_CHATWOOT_PG_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_PORT: "5432"
      POSTGRES_STATEMENT_TIMEOUT: 600s
      POSTGRES_USERNAME: postgres
      RAILS_ENV: production
      RANDOM_REDIS_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_REDIS_PASSWORD}
      REDIS_URL: redis://:${RANDOM_REDIS_PASSWORD}@localhost:6379/0
      SECRET_KEY_BASE: ${RANDOM_SECRET_KEY_BASE}
    volumes:
      - sidekiq-app-tmp:/app/tmp
      - sidekiq-tmp:/tmp
    command:
      - docker/entrypoints/rails.sh
      - bundle
      - exec
      - sidekiq
      - -C
      - config/sidekiq.yml
volumes:
  app-tmp: null
  sidekiq-app-tmp: null
  sidekiq-tmp: null
  storage: null
  tmp: null

Volumes

Chatwoot stores its data in named Docker volumes, so it survives container restarts and updates:

  • storage mounted at /app/storage: Attachments, avatars, and other uploaded files (the image expects this path to be mounted, per the official storage_data volume)
  • app-tmp mounted at /app/tmp: Rails runtime tmp dir (pids/cache/sockets) — required writable for `rails s` to boot under readOnlyRootFilesystem.
  • tmp mounted at /tmp: System temp dir for Ruby Tempfile / rubygems under readOnlyRootFilesystem.

2. Secret generation

Chatwoot needs a few randomly generated secrets — for example, database passwords or an internal session key — before it can start. These are referenced from docker-compose.ymlabove but don't live in it, so they need to end up in your .env file. Pick one of the two options below.

Generating secrets…

3. Start Chatwoot with Docker Compose

From the folder with docker-compose.yml and .env, run:

Terminal

Start Chatwoot and all its supporting services in the background.

docker compose up -d

The -d flag runs the stack in the background so it keeps running after you close the terminal. Docker will pull the images the first time, which can take a minute or two.

To check on it afterwards: docker compose ps shows whether containers are healthy, and docker compose logs -f follows their logs if something looks wrong. Once it's running, open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.