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setupsetup-with-docker

Last Updated: 4/8/2026

Setup with Docker

Table of Contents

Working with Docker is pretty straight forward, but you should be familiar with Docker. To make things easier, we provide Docker Compose files in the repository which contain all needed services, configured to just run the application right away.

All images are available on the Docker Hub and on the GitHub Registry and support amd64, arm64 and amd/v7.

Base Requirements

  • Command-line access to your server
  • Docker version 19 or greater
  • Docker Compose is recommended for the setup, must support at least compose version 3

2-Minute Test Setup

You can run LinkAce within a couple of minutes, using a SQLite database to try out the application. Please note that this is not recommended for production use and migrating from this test setup to another database is not supported.

touch database.sqlite
chmod 0766 database.sqlite
docker run -p "8080:80" -v "./database.sqlite:/app/database/database.sqlite" linkace/linkace

Then open http://localhost:8080 in your browser and follow the setup steps.

If the LinkAce container is not starting, this might be caused by OS-specific permissions for Docker. In that case, try to run LinkAce on another internal port:

docker run -p "8080:8080" -e "PORT=8080" -v "./database.sqlite:/app/database/database.sqlite" linkace/linkace

Stable Setup

It is recommended to follow these setup steps to ensure that LinkAce is running smoothly. This setup method is the only supported one for Docker.

1. Copy the needed files

Download the Docker setup package from the LinkAce repository: linkace-docker.zip

Alternatively, you can take a look at the docker-compose.yml  and .env  files directly and adopt it to your own setup.

2. Edit the base configuration

You should change the following settings in the .env file before starting the setup:

  • DB_PASSWORD - Please set a secure password here
  • REDIS_PASSWORD - Please set a secure password here

If you are unsure if the .env file is writable inside Docker, please make it writable for anybody (-rw-rw-rw- or 666). You can switch back to read only after the setup.

Your directory should look like this now:

/my-user-directory/linkace
├╴ .env
├╴ docker-compose.yml
├╴ LICENSE.md
└╴ README.md

Using environment variables instead of an .env file

You might move the configuration variables from the .env file into your docker-compose.yml file or Docker setup. If you do this, you must generate your own application key.

$ docker run --rm -it linkace/linkace php artisan key:generate --show
base64:Il/5KRDENz2TiCYjKweDAkI93Q4D5ZWmP3AORXgReNo=

Put this key into your environment variables. This is how it might look like in the provided docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  # --- LinkAce
  app:
    image: docker.io/linkace/linkace:latest
    environment:
      APP_KEY: base64:Il/5KRDENz2TiCYjKweDAkI93Q4D5ZWmP3AORXgReNo=
      DB_CONNECTION: mysql
      # ...

3. Start the application

After you completed the above steps, run the following command to start up the container setup:

docker compose up -d

4. Start the built-in setup

Open the URL which points to your Docker container in your browser now. If you started LinkAce on your local machine, for example, the URL should be http://localhost or your domain pointing to LinkAce.

You can configure the database and your user account in the following process.

5. Follow the post-installation steps

Please make sure to follow the post-installation steps now to fully enable all features.

Advanced Configuration

Completing the installation without the built-in setup

If you run into issues with the built-in setup via the web, you may try to complete the installation via the command line.

Follow the instructions above until step 4. Then run the following commands. Please note that the database configuration must be done in the .env file BEFORE running the following commands.

docker exec -it linkace_app_1 php artisan migrate
docker exec -it linkace_app_1 php artisan setup:complete
docker exec -it linkace_app_1 php artisan registeruser --admin

The last command lets you create your first admin user. After all commands were successful, you can login right away at http://localhost or your domain pointing to LinkAce.

Running Linkace behind a proxy / load balancer

If you are using a proxy / load balancer with HTTPS, please make sure it sends the X-Forwarded-Proto and X-Forwarded-For headers to LinkAce. Otherwise, LinkAce won’t be able to correctly generate URLs.

Nginx configuration example:

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_set_header Host $host;

Apache configuration example:

ProxyPreserveHost on
RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Port "443"
RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Proto "https"

LinkAce 2 accepts a $PORT environment variable to listen on the specified port for incoming connections. This might be useful for restricted Docker hosting environments such as Heroku.

Compatibility with other Tools

  • Watchtower: Several users reported broken LinkAce installations after Watchtower ran updates. Please exclude LinkAce from Watchtower and only update manually to properly run all update steps.
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