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Self-host Mattermost with Docker Compose

Secure team collaboration for air-gapped, on-prem, and private cloud environments.

mattermost

postgres

postgres:18.3-alpine3.23

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 Mattermost needs.
  3. Start Mattermost 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 Mattermost 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 Mattermost and save the file below into it as docker-compose.yml. It describes every container the stack needs — Mattermostitself 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:
  mattermost:
    image: mattermost/mattermost-team-edition:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 8065:8065
    environment:
      MM_CONFIG: postgres://app:${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}@localhost:5432/app?sslmode=disable
      MM_SERVICESETTINGS_SITEURL: http://localhost
      MM_SQLSETTINGS_DATASOURCE: postgres://app:${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}@localhost:5432/app?sslmode=disable
      MM_SQLSETTINGS_DRIVERNAME: postgres
      RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - data:/mattermost/data
      - var-tmp:/var/tmp
      - tmp:/tmp
      - logs:/mattermost/logs
      - plugins:/mattermost/plugins
      - client-plugins:/mattermost/client/plugins
    healthcheck:
      test:
        - CMD
        - curl
        - -f
        - http://localhost:8065/api/v4/system/ping
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
  postgres:
    image: postgres:18.3-alpine3.23
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: service:mattermost
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: app
volumes:
  client-plugins: null
  data: null
  logs: null
  plugins: null
  tmp: null
  var-tmp: null

Volumes

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

  • data mounted at /mattermost/data
  • var-tmp mounted at /var/tmp
  • tmp mounted at /tmp
  • logs mounted at /mattermost/logs
  • plugins mounted at /mattermost/plugins
  • client-plugins mounted at /mattermost/client/plugins

2. Secret generation

Mattermost 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 Mattermost with Docker Compose

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

Terminal

Start Mattermost 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:8065 in your browser.