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nfrastack/container-discourse

About

This will build a container image for Discourse - A web based discussion forum.

  • Unlike the official Discourse image, this is meant to be self contained without requiring a base image or use the launcher
  • Flexible Volatile Storage

Maintainer

Table of Contents

Prerequisites and Assumptions

  • Assumes you are using some sort of SSL terminating reverse proxy such as:
  • Requires access to a Postgres Server
  • Requires access to a Redis Server

Installation

Prebuilt Images

Feature limited builds of the image are available on the Github Container Registry and Docker Hub.

To unlock advanced features, one must provide a code to be able to change specific environment variables from defaults. Support the development to gain access to a code.

To get access to the image use your container orchestrator to pull from the following locations:

ghcr.io/nfrastack/container-discourse:(image_tag)
docker.io/nfrastack/discourse:(image_tag)

Image tag syntax is:

<image>:<optional tag>-<optional_distribution>_<optional_distribution_variant>

Example:

ghcr.io/nfrastack/container-discourse:latest or

ghcr.io/nfrastack/container-discourse:1.0 or optionally

ghcr.io/nfrastack/container-discourse:1.0-alpine or optinally

ghcr.io/nfrastack/container-discourse:alpine

  • latest will be the most recent commit
  • An optional tag may exist that matches the CHANGELOG - These are the safest
  • If it is built for multiple distributions there may exist a value of alpine or debian
  • If there are multiple distribution variations it may include a version - see the registry for availability

Have a look at the container registries and see what tags are available.

Multi-Architecture Support

Images are built for amd64 by default, with optional support for arm64 and other architectures.

Quick Start

Persistent Storage

The container operates heavily from the /app folder, however there are a few folders that should be persistently mapped to ensure data persistence. The following directories are used for configuration and can be mapped for persistent storage.

Directory Description
/logs Logfiles
/data/uploads Uploads Directory
/data/backups Backups Directory
/data/plugins Plugins Driectory

Environment Variables

Base Images used

This image relies on a customized base image in order to work. Be sure to view the following repositories to understand all the customizable options:

Image Description
OS Base Base Image

Below is the complete list of available options that can be used to customize your installation.

  • Variables showing an 'x' under the Advanced column can only be set if the containers advanced functionality is enabled.

Core Configuration

Parameter Description Default
BACKUP_PATH Place to store in app backups {DATA_PATH}/backups/
DELIVER_SECURE_ASSETS Enable serving of HTTPS assets FALSE
ENABLE_DB_MIGRATE Enable DB Migrations on startup TRUE
ENABLE_MINIPROFILER Enable Mini Profiler FALSE
ENABLE_PRECOMPILE_ASSETS Enable Precompiling Assets on statup TRUE
SETUP_MODE Automatically generate config based on these environment variables AUTO
ENABLE_CORS Enable CORS FALSE
CORS_ORIGIN CORS Origin ``
UPLOADS_PATH Path to store Uploads {DATA_PATH}/uploads/

Admin Options

Only used on first boot

Parameter Description Default Advanced
ADMIN_USER Username for admin admin
ADMIN_EMAIL Admin email address admin@example.com
ADMIN_PASS Admin password - Must be over 10 characters nfrastack-discourse
ADMIN_NAME Admin Name (First and Last) Admin User

Log Options

Parameter Description Default Advanced
LOG_FILE Discourse Log File discourse.log
LOG_LEVEL Discourse Log Level info
LOG_PATH Path to store logfiles /logs/
PLUGIN_LOG_FILE Plugin operations file plugin.log
UNICORN_LOG_FILE Unicorn Log unicorn.log
UNICORN_LOG_ERROR_FILE Unicorn Error Log unicorn_error.log
SIDEKIQ_LOG_FILE SideKiq Log sidekiq.log

Performance Options

Parameter Description Default Advanced
UNICORN_WORKERS How many Workers 8
SIDEKIQ_THREADS Sidekiq Concurrency 25

Database Options

Postgresql
Parameter Description Default Advanced
DB_POOL How many Database connections 8
DB_PORT Database Port 5432
DB_TIMEOUT Timeout for established connection in seconds 5000
DB_TIMEOUT_CONNECT Connection Timeout in Seconds 5
DB_USER Username of Database
DB_NAME Database name
DB_PASS Database Password
DB_HOST Hostname of Database Server
Redis
Parameter Description Default Advanced
REDIS_DB Redis Database Number 0
REDIS_ENABLE_TLS Enable TLS when communication to REDIS_HOST FALSE
REDIS_PORT Redis Host Listening Port 6379
REDIS_SKIP_CLIENT_COMMANDS Skip client commands if unsupported FALSE

SMTP Options

Parameter Description Default Advanced
SMTP_AUTHENTICATION SMTP Authentication type plain login plain
SMTP_DOMAIN HELO Domain for remote SMTP Host example.com
SMTP_HOST SMTP Hostname postfix-relay
SMTP_USER SMTP Username
SMTP_PASS SMTP Username
SMTP_PORT SMTP Port 25
SMTP_START_TLS Enable STARTTLS on connection TRUE
SMTP_TLS_FORCE Force TLS on connection FALSE
SMTP_TLS_VERIFY TLS Certificate verification none

Plugins

This image includes a collection of Discourse plugins bundled under /container/data/discourse/plugins and supports user-provided plugins set by PLUGIN_PATH

Parameter Description Default
PLUGIN_PATH Path where plugins are stored {DATA_PATH}/plugins/
PLUGIN_PRIORITY Which source to prefer when a plugin exists in both image and host. host
PLUGIN_ENABLED_PATH Where enabled plugins (symlinks) are created for Discourse to load them. /app/plugins
PLUGIN_ENABLE_<NAME> Enable Plugin via normalized name TRUE FALSE
PLUGIN_TOOL_COMMAND Command when configuring plugins on container startup plugin-tool sync

<NAME> may be the short plugin name or include a discourse_/discourse- prefix. Examples: PLUGIN_ENABLE_CAKEDAY=TRUE, PLUGIN_ENABLE_DISCOURSE_APPLE_AUTH=TRUE, PLUGIN_ENABLE_APPLE_AUTH=TRUE.

Normalization rules:

  • Environment names are normalized to a short plugin name by lowercasing and converting _ to -, and stripping a leading discourse- or discourse_ if present. For example PLUGIN_ENABLE_APPLE_AUTH -> apple-auth, which matches image folder discourse-apple-auth.

Plugins Enabled from Image, override with FALSE value, Use plugin-tool list all to get full list.

Plugin Environment Variable Enabled
PLUGIN_ENABLE_CHECKLIST TRUE
PLUGIN_ENABLE_DETAILS TRUE
PLUGIN_ENABLE_NARRATIVE_BOT TRUE
PLUGIN_ENABLE_POLL TRUE
PLUGIN_ENABLE_PRESENCE TRUE
PLUGIN_ENABLE_REACTIONS TRUE
PLUGIN_ENABLE_STYLEGUIDE TRUE

Notes Host plugins (in PLUGIN_PATH) take precedence by default. Set PLUGIN_PRIORITY=image to prefer the packaged image plugins instead. Enabling a plugin creates a symlink in PLUGIN_ENABLED_PATH with the short name (e.g. ai) pointing to the chosen source directory. If a plugin folder exists in a host-mounted docker volume you can modify it and it will be used when PLUGIN_PRIORITY=host.

Manually working with Plugins

This image includes a helper script at /usr/local/bin/plugin-tool to manage plugins. Important commands:

High-level commands: (also available via plugin-tool help):

  • plugin-tool list all — List all available plugins (image + PLUGIN_PATH).
  • plugin-tool list enabled — List plugins enabled via environment flags (PLUGIN_ENABLE_* = TRUE). Alias: core.
  • plugin-tool list disabled — List available plugins that are not enabled. Alias: optional.
  • plugin-tool enable <name> — Enable a plugin by friendly name. Normalizes names (case/underscores) and strips discourse- prefix. Examples: ai, apple-auth, cakeday.
  • plugin-tool install <name> — Copy the image plugin into PLUGIN_PATH so you can edit it in your persistent volume.
  • plugin-tool remove <name> / plugin-tool uninstall <name> — Remove enabled symlink or uninstall the copied plugin from PLUGIN_PATH.
  • plugin-tool update <name> — If host plugin is a git repo, attempt git pull; otherwise replace the host copy from the image (a backup is created).
  • plugin-tool reset — Remove all enabled plugin symlinks from PLUGIN_ENABLED_PATH (does not delete real directories).
  • plugin-tool status — Show enabled symlinks, their targets, and host/image version identifiers (git short SHA, VERSION/.plugin-version, or checksum).

Environment flags and arguments are normalized before lookup. For example:

  • PLUGIN_ENABLE_CAKEDAY=TRUE -> cakeday -> matches discourse-cakeday in the image.
  • PLUGIN_ENABLE_APPLE_AUTH=TRUE -> apple-auth -> matches discourse-apple-auth.

When enabling a plugin the resolver looks for variants in this order (by default):

  1. Host plugin directory in PLUGIN_PATH (e.g. /data/plugins/apple-auth or /data/plugins/discourse-apple-auth).
  2. Image plugin directory under /container/data/discourse/plugins.

Set PLUGIN_PRIORITY=image to invert precedence and prefer the image copy when both exist.

Behaviour notes

  • enable creates a symlink at PLUGIN_ENABLED_PATH/<shortname> that points to the chosen source directory. For example plugin-tool enable ai -> /app/plugins/ai -> /data/plugins/discourse-ai or /container/data/discourse/plugins/discourse-ai.
  • The tool will refuse to enable if the target path already exists and is not a symlink to avoid accidental data loss.
  • install copies the image folder name (for example discourse-ai) into PLUGIN_PATH, if you need to modify things.
  • status prints a readable summary; it uses git short SHAs when .git exists, else VERSION/.plugin-version, otherwise a checksum.

Examples

Enable the discourse-ai plugin (prefers host copy if present):

PLUGIN_ENABLE_AI=TRUE

/usr/local/bin/plugin-tool enable ai

Enable all plugins that have PLUGIN_ENABLE_* set to true (batch mode):

PLUGIN_ENABLE_CAKEDAY=TRUE
PLUGIN_ENABLE_APPLE_AUTH=TRUE

/usr/local/bin/plugin-tool enable env

Copy the image plugin into the persistent plugins directory so you can modify it, still needs to be enabled:

/usr/local/bin/plugin-tool install ai

Uninstall a host plugin and remove its enabled symlink:

/usr/local/bin/plugin-tool uninstall ai

Reset enabled plugins (remove symlinks):

usr/local/bin/plugin-tool reset

Show current enabled plugins and versions:

/usr/local/bin/plugin-tool status

Reconcile environment-driven enables/disables (sync examples):

# Preview changes without modifying filesystem (dry-run):
PLUGIN_ENABLE_AI=TRUE
PLUGIN_ENABLE_OLD=FALSE

plugin-tool sync --dry-run

# Apply changes and prune any enabled symlink not explicitly set TRUE:
plugin-tool sync --prune

If you need more detail, run plugin-tool help inside the container to see the full command reference.

Advanced install examples (git & archives)

Install directly from a git repository (auto-derived name minus discourse prefix):

plugin-tool install https://github.com/discourse/discourse-ai.git

Install from a git repo into an explicit name and branch:

plugin-tool install myplugin https://github.com/org/repo.git my-branch

Install from an archive URL (zip/tar.gz/zst):

plugin-tool install https://example.com/plugins/discourse-foo.tar.gz

Users and Groups

Type Name ID
User discourse 9009
Group discourse 9009

Networking

Port Protocol Description
3000 tcp Unicorn Daemon

Maintenance

Shell Access

For debugging and maintenance, bash and sh are available in the container.

Try using the command rake --tasks

See above information regarding plugins.

Support & Maintenance

  • For community help, tips, and community discussions, visit the Discussions board.
  • For personalized support or a support agreement, see Nfrastack Support.
  • To report bugs, submit a Bug Report. Usage questions will be closed as not-a-bug.
  • Feature requests are welcome, but not guaranteed. For prioritized development, consider a support agreement.
  • Updates are best-effort, with priority given to active production use and support agreements.

References

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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Containerized web based forum software

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Releases 26

4.0.0 Latest
Mar 31, 2026
+ 25 releases

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