Your own server

Any Linux machine with Docker can run Akter: a Droplet, a Hetzner server, an EC2 instance, a box under your desk. Docker Compose runs the server, and Caddy in front of it gets an HTTPS certificate and forwards requests, WebSockets included.

You need the src/server.ts, Dockerfile and .dockerignore from Deploying, a bucket and its keys (see Choose a bucket), and a domain name pointing at the machine.

Install Docker⁠

On a fresh Ubuntu or Debian machine:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

Configure⁠

Copy the project to the machine, with git clone or rsync. Next to the Dockerfile, create compose.yaml:

services:
  server:
    build: .
    restart: unless-stopped
    stop_grace_period: 15s
    env_file: .env

  caddy:
    image: caddy:2
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    command: caddy reverse-proxy --from api.example.com --to server:8080
    volumes:
      - caddy:/data

volumes:
  caddy:

Replace api.example.com with your domain. Then create .env with the server's settings, and keep it out of Git:

AKTER_STORAGE_BUCKET=my-app-store
AKTER_STORAGE_ENDPOINT=https://ACCOUNT_ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
AKTER_STORAGE_REGION=auto
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<access key id>
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<secret access key>
AUTH_ISSUER=https://login.example.com/
AUTH_AUDIENCE=my-app
AUTH_JWKS_URL=https://login.example.com/.well-known/jwks.json

• restart: unless-stopped brings the server back after a crash or a reboot.
• stop_grace_period gives it 15 seconds to drain. Docker's default is 10.
• The server has no ports. Only Caddy is reachable from outside.

Run⁠

docker compose up -d --build
curl https://api.example.com/ready

Caddy gets a certificate the first time it serves your domain, so the first request can take a few seconds.

Releases⁠

git pull
docker compose up -d --build

Compose builds the new image, stops the old container, waits for it to drain, and starts the new one, which is the order Akter needs. Clients retry through the gap.

Your own bucket⁠

To keep the store on your own hardware too, run MinIO next to the server and point AKTER_STORAGE_ENDPOINT at it. The self-host example in this repository does that, with Compose files for Bun and Node and a script that checks retries, refused credentials and restarts end to end:

export SELFHOST_SECRETS_DIR="$PWD/.local/self-host-secrets"
bash apps/self-host/credentials.sh "$SELFHOST_SECRETS_DIR"
docker compose -f apps/self-host/compose.yml up -d --wait runner
curl http://127.0.0.1:18080/ready