Self-host Element with Docker Compose

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element

matrix

ghcr.io/matrix-construct/tuwunel:latest

This is still a work in progress.

The generated compose file and instructions may not be complete or correct for every app yet. Please report any issues you encounter to contact@bitflake.com.

The steps below take a few minutes end to end.

Docker compose setup and file
save the generated compose and env files.
Secret generation
create the random passwords Element needs.
Start Element 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 Element 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 Element and save the file below into it as docker-compose.yml. It describes every container the stack needs — Elementitself 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:
  element:
    image: vectorim/element-web:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    environment:
      ELEMENT_BASE_URL: http://element.localhost:8080
      MATRIX_PUBLIC_HOSTNAME: element-matrix.localhost:8008
    volumes:
      - tmp:/tmp
    configs:
      - source: element-default.conf
        target: /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
    command:
      - /bin/sh
      - -c
      - 'mkdir -p /tmp/element-web-config && jq --arg url "$${ELEMENT_BASE_URL%%:*}://$${MATRIX_PUBLIC_HOSTNAME}" --arg name "$${MATRIX_PUBLIC_HOSTNAME}" ''.default_server_config = {"m.homeserver": {"base_url": $$url, "server_name": $$name}} | .room_directory = {"servers": [$$name]}'' /app/config.json > /tmp/element-web-config/config.json && exec nginx -g "daemon off;"'
  matrix:
    image: ghcr.io/matrix-construct/tuwunel:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: service:element
    environment:
      TUWUNEL_ADDRESS: 0.0.0.0
      TUWUNEL_ADMIN_EXECUTE: '["users create-user demo Admin123"]'
      TUWUNEL_ADMIN_EXECUTE_ERRORS_IGNORE: "true"
      TUWUNEL_ALLOW_FEDERATION: "false"
      TUWUNEL_ALLOW_REGISTRATION: "true"
      TUWUNEL_DATABASE_PATH: /var/lib/tuwunel
      TUWUNEL_PORT: "8008"
      TUWUNEL_REGISTRATION_TOKEN: ${SETUP_ADMIN_KEY}
      TUWUNEL_SERVER_NAME: element-matrix.localhost:8008
    volumes:
      - data:/var/lib/tuwunel
volumes:
  data: null
  tmp: null
configs:
  element-default.conf:
    content: |
      server {
          listen       8080;
          server_name  localhost;

          root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
          index  index.html;

          location = /index.html {
              add_header Cache-Control "no-cache";
          }
          location = /version {
              add_header Cache-Control "no-cache";
          }
          location /i18n/ {
              add_header Cache-Control "no-cache";
          }
          location /config {
              root /tmp/element-web-config;
              add_header Cache-Control "no-cache";
          }
          location /modules {
              alias /modules;
          }
          error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
      }

Volumes

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

tmp mounted at /tmp: The generated config.json and nginx's temporary paths. Nothing here needs to survive a restart.

2. Secret generation

Element 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 Element with Docker Compose

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

Terminal

Start Element 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:8080 in your browser.