Building a Lowdefy app image
A Lowdefy app can be self-hosted or deployed to many hosting providers using Docker containers. The app needs to build into a Docker image, containing all the app configuration and a Next.js Docker server.
The init-docker CLI command can be used to create a Dockerfile, or the following Dockerfile can be used:
FROM node:18-buster AS builder
WORKDIR /lowdefy
COPY . .
# Configure standalone next build
ENV LOWDEFY_BUILD_OUTPUT_STANDALONE 1
# Enable pnpm using corepack
RUN corepack enable
# Build lowdefy app
RUN pnpx lowdefy@4 build --log-level=debug
FROM node:18-alpine AS runner
ENV NODE_ENV production
ENV NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED 1
WORKDIR /lowdefy
RUN addgroup --system --gid 1001 nodejs
RUN adduser --system --uid 1001 lowdefy
COPY --from=builder --chown=lowdefy:nodejs /lowdefy/.lowdefy/server/public ./public
COPY --from=builder --chown=lowdefy:nodejs /lowdefy/.lowdefy/server/.next/standalone ./
COPY --from=builder --chown=lowdefy:nodejs /lowdefy/.lowdefy/server/.next/static ./.next/static
USER lowdefy
EXPOSE 3000
ENV PORT 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]
with a .dockerignore file:
Dockerfile
.dockerignore
.env
node_modules
README.md
.lowdefy
.next
.git
An image can be built by running:
docker build -t <tag> .
The container can be run by:
docker run -p 3000:3000 <tag>
Docker compose can also be used. Add a docker-compose.yaml file:
version: "3.9"
services:
lowdefy:
build: .
ports:
- "3000:3000"
To build the image, run:
docker compose build
To run the app, run:
docker compose up
Secrets and Environment Variables
When running you app in production we recommend using your hosting provider's preferred method for setting environment variables and secrets. This can often be configured using their admin interface, and secrets are usually encrypted.
When running locally, you can use the --env-file Docker CLI option to load a .env file into your container:
docker run -p 3000:3000 --env-file ./.env <tag>
If using Docker compose:
version: "3.9"
services:
lowdefy:
build: .
ports:
- "3000:3000"
env_file: ./.env # Path to env file
Config files or plugins outside the config directory
For security reasons, only files inside the directory of the Dockerfile can be accessed by the Dockerfile during the build process.
Sometimes files outside of the config directory need to be accessed by the Lowdefy app during build - for example using the _ref operator on shared config files, or when using pnpm local workspace plugins. In this case, the Dockerfile needs to be moved to a directory that includes all the files that need to be accessed and the Dockerfile needs to be modified to take this into account.
In pnpm monorepo with plugins
FROM node:18-buster AS builder
WORKDIR /lowdefy
COPY . .
# Configure standalone next build
ENV LOWDEFY_BUILD_OUTPUT_STANDALONE 1
# Enable pnpm using corepack
RUN corepack enable
# TODO: Change config-directory (./app) as appropriate here
RUN pnpx lowdefy@4 build --config-directory ./app --log-level=debug
RUN pnpm --filter=@lowdefy/server --prod deploy ./deploy
FROM node:18-alpine AS runner
ENV NODE_ENV production
ENV NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED 1
WORKDIR /lowdefy
RUN addgroup --system --gid 1001 nodejs
RUN adduser --system --uid 1001 lowdefy
# TODO: Change from-directory (/lowdefy/app/.lowdefy/server/*) as appropriate here
COPY --from=builder --chown=lowdefy:nodejs /lowdefy/app/.lowdefy/server/public ./public
COPY --from=builder --chown=lowdefy:nodejs /lowdefy/app/.lowdefy/server/.next/standalone ./
COPY --from=builder --chown=lowdefy:nodejs /lowdefy/app/.lowdefy/server/.next/static ./.next/static
COPY --from=builder --chown=lowdefy:nodejs /lowdefy/deploy/node_modules ./node_modules
EXPOSE 3000
ENV PORT 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]