Installation

Dosh runs as a single Docker container. There is no separate database server — everything is stored in a SQLite file on a named volume.

Requirements

• Docker and Docker Compose
• A machine with at least 256 MB RAM
• Supported architectures: amd64, arm64

docker-compose.yml

services:
  dosh:
    image: grumnuts/dosh:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - dosh_data:/data
    environment:
      SECRET_KEY: your-secret-key-here
      TZ: Australia/Sydney

volumes:
  dosh_data:

Start with:

docker compose up -d

Then open http://localhost:3000.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
SECRET_KEY	—	Required. Used to sign session cookies. Use a long, random string.
TZ	System default	Timezone for week boundaries and transaction dates. E.g. Australia/Sydney, America/New_York, Europe/London.
PORT	3000	Port the server listens on inside the container.
HOST	0.0.0.0	Interface the server binds to.
DB_PATH	/data/dosh.db	Path to the SQLite database file.
LOG_LEVEL	info	Fastify log level: fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace.

Important: Set TZ to your local timezone. Week boundaries (Sunday–Saturday) and monthly/quarterly period calculations depend on it.

Generating a SECRET_KEY

openssl rand -hex 32

Updating

Pull the latest image and recreate the container:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Database migrations run automatically on startup — no manual steps needed.

Backups

The database is a single file. Back it up by copying it from the volume:

docker run --rm -v dosh_data:/data -v $(pwd):/backup alpine \
  cp /data/dosh.db /backup/dosh-backup.db

Or, if you know the volume path on your host:

cp /var/lib/docker/volumes/dosh_data/_data/dosh.db ./dosh-backup.db

Reverse Proxy

Dosh works behind any reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, Traefik). Example Caddy config:

dosh.example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

Ensure your proxy forwards the X-Forwarded-For header if you want accurate IP logging.