Table of contents

Overview

The main (and recommended) way to run tt-rss is under Docker.

Docker images for https://github.com/tt-rss/tt-rss are being built (for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64) and published (via GitHub Actions) to:

Podman is not Docker. Please don’t report issues related to running tt-rss when using Podman or Podman Compose.

This setup uses PostgreSQL and runs tt-rss using several containers as outlined below. Consider using an external Patroni cluster instead of a single db container in “production” deployments.

TL;DR

Place .env and docker-compose.yml (contents below) together in a directory, edit .env as you see fit, and run docker compose up -d.

In more detail

  1. Create a directory for your tt-rss installation. Do the remaining steps in there.
  2. Create a .env file using .env as a starting point; edit it to suit your needs (e.g. adjusting HTTP_PORT).
    • Consider changing password/secret environment variables to something you’re comfortable with (e.g. pwgen-generated values).
  3. Create a docker-compose.yml file using docker-compose.yml as a starting point; edit it to suit your needs (e.g. enabling the backups container, using the ghcr.io images, using a newer postgres image, etc.).
  4. Run docker compose up -d to bring up the environment.
    • Note that the -d will result in the containers running in the background, which is generally what you want.
  5. Review containers logs and states. Some typical ways this may be done include:
  6. Access tt-rss in your browser.
    • The URL to use depends upon how you set things up, but assuming you kept HTTP_PORT=127.0.0.1:8280 in your .env file and are on the same system as tt-rss, you’d use http://127.0.0.1:8280/tt-rss.
  7. Log in as admin or (if you enabled the related environment variables) the auto-created user.
    • See comments in .env regarding the password(s).

.env 

# Put any local modifications here.

# Run FPM under this UID/GID.
# OWNER_UID=1000
# OWNER_GID=1000

# FPM settings.
#PHP_WORKER_MAX_CHILDREN=5
#PHP_WORKER_MEMORY_LIMIT=256M

# ADMIN_USER_* settings are applied on every startup.

# Set admin user password to this value. If not set, random password
# will be generated on startup, look for it in the 'app' container logs.
#ADMIN_USER_PASS=

# Sets admin user access level to this value. Valid values:
# -2 - forbidden to login
# -1 - readonly
#  0 - default user
# 10 - admin
#ADMIN_USER_ACCESS_LEVEL=

# Auto create another user (in addition to built-in admin) unless it already exists.
#AUTO_CREATE_USER=
#AUTO_CREATE_USER_PASS=
#AUTO_CREATE_USER_ACCESS_LEVEL=0

# Default database credentials.
TTRSS_DB_USER=postgres
TTRSS_DB_NAME=postgres
TTRSS_DB_PASS=password

# You can customize other config.php defines by setting overrides here.
# See tt-rss/.docker/app/Dockerfile for a complete list.

# You probably shouldn't disable auth_internal unless you know what you're doing.
# TTRSS_PLUGINS=auth_internal,auth_remote
# TTRSS_SINGLE_USER_MODE=true
# TTRSS_SESSION_COOKIE_LIFETIME=2592000
# TTRSS_FORCE_ARTICLE_PURGE=30
# ...

# Bind exposed port to 127.0.0.1 to run behind reverse proxy on the same host.
# If you plan to expose the container, remove "127.0.0.1:".
HTTP_PORT=127.0.0.1:8280
#HTTP_PORT=8280

docker-compose.yml

See this FAQ entry if you’re upgrading between PostgreSQL major versions (e.g. 15 to 17).

Regarding PostgreSQL 18:

  • The backups container image currently includes postgresql17-client, meaning it won’t be able to back up your DB if you use PostgreSQL 18. Consider using an alternative backup solution if you’re using PostgreSQL 18.
  • The PostgreSQL 18 Docker image changed the volume from /var/lib/postgresql/data to /var/lib/postgresql. The example below includes a commented-out volume mapping that demonstrates this. 
services:
  db:
    image: postgres:17-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file:
      - .env
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=${TTRSS_DB_USER}
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${TTRSS_DB_PASS}
      - POSTGRES_DB=${TTRSS_DB_NAME}
    volumes:
      - db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
      # or, if 18+
      # - db:/var/lib/postgresql

  app:
    image: supahgreg/tt-rss:latest
    # or
    # image: ghcr.io/tt-rss/tt-rss:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file:
      - .env
    volumes:
      - app:/var/www/html
      - ./config.d:/opt/tt-rss/config.d:ro
    depends_on:
      - db

#  optional, makes weekly backups of your install
#  backups:
#    image: supahgreg/tt-rss:latest
#    # or
#    # image: ghcr.io/tt-rss/tt-rss:latest
#    restart: unless-stopped
#    env_file:
#      - .env
#    volumes:
#      - backups:/backups
#      - app:/var/www/html
#    depends_on:
#      - db
#    command: /opt/tt-rss/dcron.sh -f

  updater:
    image: supahgreg/tt-rss:latest
    # or
    # image: ghcr.io/tt-rss/tt-rss:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file:
      - .env
    volumes:
      - app:/var/www/html
      - ./config.d:/opt/tt-rss/config.d:ro
    depends_on:
      - app
    command: /opt/tt-rss/updater.sh

  web-nginx:
    image: supahgreg/tt-rss-web-nginx:latest
    # or
    # image: ghcr.io/tt-rss/tt-rss-web-nginx:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file:
      - .env
    ports:
      - ${HTTP_PORT}:80
    volumes:
      - app:/var/www/html:ro
    depends_on:
      - app

volumes:
  db:
  app:
  backups:

FAQ

How do I update tt-rss?

When you see that tt-rss needs an update, just pull the latest image/code. How this is done depends upon your environment, but typical ways to accomplish this are:

  • Docker (generally in the directory where you placed docker-compose.yml): docker compose pull && docker compose up -d
  • Git (from your tt-rss directory): git pull

If a tt-rss database upgrade is required you’ll be redirected to a special screen in the UI.

Your Docker images won’t run on X

If you’re using an OS or architecture that isn’t currently supported (i.e. something other than linux/amd64 and linux/arm64), you’ll likely need to build your own Docker images by using an override and running docker compose build.

# docker-compose.override.yml
services:
  app:
    image: supahgreg/tt-rss:latest
    # or
    # image: ghcr.io/tt-rss/tt-rss:latest
    build:
      dockerfile: .docker/app/Dockerfile
      context: https://github.com/tt-rss/tt-rss.git
      args:
        BUILDKIT_CONTEXT_KEEP_GIT_DIR: 1

  web-nginx:
    image: supahgreg/tt-rss-web-nginx:latest
    # or
    # image: ghcr.io/tt-rss/tt-rss-web-nginx:latest
    build:
      dockerfile: .docker/web-nginx/Dockerfile
      context: https://github.com/tt-rss/tt-rss.git

BUILDKIT_CONTEXT_KEEP_GIT_DIR build argument is needed to display tt-rss version info properly. If that doesn’t work for you (no BuildKit?) you’ll have to resort to terrible hacks.

Self-built images are not necessarily supported (i.e. best effort and/or community support).

I got the updated Docker Compose file above and now my database keeps restarting

We’ll use the following error message as an example of what you might see in the logs:

Error message: The data directory was initialized by PostgreSQL version 12, which is not compatible with this version 15.4.

Official PostgreSQL containers have no support for migrating data between major versions. Using the aforementioned example, you could do one of the following:

  1. Replace postgres:15-alpine with postgres:12-alpine in docker-compose.yml (or use docker-compose.override.yml, see below) and keep using PG 12
  2. Use this DB container which would automatically upgrade the database
  3. Migrate the data manually using pg_dump and pg_restore (somewhat complicated if you haven’t done it before)

I’m using docker-compose.override.yml and now I’m getting schema update (and other) strange issues

You’ve might’ve changed something related to /var/www/html/tt-rss in docker-compose.yml.

Your Docker setup is messed up for some reason, so tt-rss can’t update itself to the persistent storage location on startup (this is just an example of one issue, there could be many others).

Consider undoing any recent changes, searching for error messages, etc.

How do I make it run without /tt-rss/ in the URL, i.e. at website root?

Set the following variables in .env:

APP_WEB_ROOT=/var/www/html/tt-rss
APP_BASE=

Don’t forget to remove /tt-rss/ from TTRSS_SELF_URL_PATH (if you have it set).

How do I apply configuration options?

There are two sets of options you can change through the environment: those specific to tt-rss (which are prefixed with TTRSS_) and those affecting container behavior.

Options specific to tt-rss

For example, to set tt-rss global option SELF_URL_PATH, add the following to .env:

TTRSS_SELF_URL_PATH=https://example.com/tt-rss

Don’t use quotes around values. Note the prefix (TTRSS_) before the value.

Look at Global-Config for more information.

Container options

Some options, but not all, are mentioned in .env-dist. You can see all available options in the Dockerfile.

How do I customize the YAML without committing my changes to git?

You can use docker-compose.override.yml. For example, customize db to use a different postgres image:

# docker-compose.override.yml
services:
  db:
    image: postgres:17-alpine

I’m trying to run CLI tt-rss scripts inside the container and they complain about root

In your Docker Compose directory, run something like one of the examples below. Check https://github.com/tt-rss/tt-rss/blob/main/.docker/app/Dockerfile for the latest image’s PHP version.

docker compose exec --user app app php84 /var/www/html/tt-rss/update.php --help

#                           ^   ^
#                           |   |
#                           |   +- service (container) name
#                           +----- run as user

or

docker compose exec app sudo -Eu app php84 /var/www/html/tt-rss/update.php --help

or

docker exec -it <container_id> sudo -Eu app php84 /var/www/html/tt-rss/update.php --help

Note: sudo -E is needed to keep environment variables.

How do I add plugins and themes?

First party plugins can be added using plugin installer in Preferences → Plugins.

By default, tt-rss code is stored on a persistent Docker volume (app). You can find its location like this:

docker volume inspect ttrss-docker_app | grep Mountpoint

Alternatively, you can mount any host directory as /var/www/html by updating docker-compose.yml, i.e.:

volumes:
      - app:/var/www/html

Replace with:

volumes:
      - /opt/tt-rss:/var/www/html

Copy and/or git clone any third party plugins into plugins.local as usual.

I’m running into 502 errors and/or other connectivity issues

First, check that all containers are running:

$ docker compose ps
                   Name                                 Command               State           Ports
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ttrss-docker-demo_app_1_f49351cb24ed         /bin/sh -c /startup.sh           Up      9000/tcp
ttrss-docker-demo_backups_1_8d2aa404e31a     /dcron.sh -f                     Up      9000/tcp
ttrss-docker-demo_db_1_fc1a842fe245          docker-entrypoint.sh postgres    Up      5432/tcp
ttrss-docker-demo_updater_1_b7fcc8f20419     /updater.sh                      Up      9000/tcp
ttrss-docker-demo_web-nginx_1_fcef07eb5c55   /docker-entrypoint.sh ngin ...   Up      127.0.0.1:8280->80/tcp

Then, ensure that frontend (web-nginx or-web) container is up and can contact FPM (app) container:

$ docker compose exec web-nginx ping app
PING app (172.18.0.3): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 172.18.0.3: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.144 ms
64 bytes from 172.18.0.3: seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.128 ms
64 bytes from 172.18.0.3: seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.206 ms
^C
--- app ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.128/0.159/0.206 ms

Containers communicate via DNS names assigned by Docker based on service names defined in docker-compose.yml. This means that services (specifically app) and Docker DNS service should be functional.

Similar issues may be also caused by Docker iptables functionality either being disabled or conflicting with nftables.

I want to rename app (FPM) container

You can but you’ll need to pass APP_UPSTREAM environment variable to the web-nginx container with its new name.

How do I put this container behind a reverse proxy?

  • Don’t forget to pass X-Forwarded-Proto to the container if you’re using HTTPS, otherwise tt-rss would generate plain HTTP URLs.
  • Upstream address and port are set using HTTP_PORT in .env:
HTTP_PORT=127.0.0.1:8280

nginx example 

location /tt-rss/ {
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8280/tt-rss/;
    break;
}

If you run into problems with global PHP-to-FPM handler taking priority over proxied location, define the tt-rss location like this so it takes higher priority:

location ^~ /tt-rss/ {
   ....
}

If you want to pass an entire nginx virtual host to tt-rss:

server {
   server_name rss.example.com;

   ...

   location / {
      proxy_set_header Host $host;
      proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

      proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8280/;
      break;
   }
}

Note that proxy_pass in this example points to container website root.

Apache example 

<IfModule mod_proxy.c>
    <Location /tt-rss>
      ProxyPreserveHost On
      ProxyPass        http://localhost:8280/tt-rss
      ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:8280/tt-rss
      RequestHeader set "X-Forwarded-Proto" expr=%{REQUEST_SCHEME}
    </Location>
  </IfModule>

I have internal web services tt-rss is complaining about (URL is invalid, loopback address, disallowed ports)

Put your local services on the same Docker network with tt-rss, then access them by service (i.e. host) names, i.e. http://rss-bridge/.

services:
   rss-bridge:
....
networks:
  default:
    external:
      name: ttrss-docker_default

If your service uses a non-standard (i.e. not 80 or 443) port, make an internal reverse proxy sidecar container for it.

Backup and restore

It’s highly recommended that you back up your data. If your tt-rss is particularly important to you, also consider validating the backup artifacts by using them to restore to a parallel environment.

If you have the backups container enabled, the default configuration takes automatic backups (database, local plugins, etc.) once a week to a separate storage volume.

The backups container is included as a safety net for people who wouldn’t otherwise bother with backups. For a more robust database backup/restore solution, consider setting up something like WAL-G.

Manually taking a backup

To run .docker/app/backup.sh (the backup script that executes weekly):

docker compose exec backups /etc/periodic/weekly/backup

Alternatively, if you want to initiate backups from the host (or if you’re using PostgreSQL 18+, currently incompatible with the backup container) you can do something like this:

source .env
docker compose exec \
  -e PGPASSWORD="$TTRSS_DB_PASS" \
  db \
  /bin/bash \
  -c "export PGPASSWORD=$TTRSS_DB_PASS \
    && pg_dump -U $TTRSS_DB_USER $TTRSS_DB_NAME" \
  | gzip -9 > backup.sql.gz

Restoring backups

The process to restore the database from a backups container backup might look like this:

  1. Enter backups container shell: docker compose exec backups /bin/sh
  2. Inside the container, locate and choose the backup file: ls -t /backups/*.sql.gz
  3. Clear database (THIS WOULD DELETE EVERYTHING IN THE DB): psql -h db -U $TTRSS_DB_USER $TTRSS_DB_NAME -e -c "drop schema public cascade; create schema public"
  4. Restore the backup: zcat /backups/ttrss-backup-yyyymmdd.sql.gz | psql -h db -U $TTRSS_DB_USER $TTRSS_DB_NAME

OPML

As an additional, but incomplete, form of backup, you might also wish to periodically export a subset of your tt-rss user data as OPML. This may be done in Preferences --> Feeds --> OPML or via the CLI with a command like update.php --opml-export:USERNAME:FILENAME.

OPML exports are not a complete backup. They only include information about one user’s categories, feeds (configuration only), and (optionally) tt-rss settings (e.g. preferences, labels, filters).

How do I use custom certificates?

You need to mount custom certificates into the app and updater containers like this:

volumes:
    ....
    ./ca1.crt:/usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ca1.crt:ro
    ./ca2.crt:/usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ca2.crt:ro
    ....

Don’t forget to restart the containers.

How do I run these images on Kubernetes?

You’ll need to set several mandatory environment values to the container running the web-nginx image:

  1. APP_UPSTREAM should point to the fully-qualified DNS service name provided by the app (FPM) container/pod
  2. RESOLVER should be set to kube-dns.kube-system.svc.cluster.local

Where’s the Helm chart?

There isn’t an official Helm chart.

I’m using Podman, and

We neither test against nor support Podman.