Strapi v5 Dockerized

A production-ready Strapi v5 CMS with PostgreSQL, Docker Compose for local development, and optimized for Render.com deployment.

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose
• Node.js v18+ (for local development without Docker)

Quick Start

1. Clone and Setup

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd strapi-dockerized

2. Start Development Environment

docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d

This starts:

• Strapi on http://localhost:1337 with hot reloading
• PostgreSQL on localhost:5432

3. View Logs

docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs -f strapi

Wait until you see Strapi started successfully.

4. Access Admin Panel

Open http://localhost:1337/admin and create your first admin user.

Development

Hot Reloading

The development setup mounts your local files into the container. Any changes to:

• src/ - API routes, controllers, services
• config/ - Configuration files

Will automatically restart the Strapi server.

Useful Commands

# Start development environment
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d

# Stop development environment
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml down

# View logs
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs -f strapi

# Restart Strapi (after config changes)
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml restart strapi

# Access Strapi container shell
docker exec -it strapi-dev sh

# Reset everything (including database)
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml down -v

Without Docker

If you prefer running without Docker:

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start PostgreSQL separately (or use Docker)
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d strapiDB

# Copy and configure environment
cp env.example .env
# Edit .env with your settings

# Run development server
npm run develop

Project Structure

strapi-dockerized/
├── config/                 # Strapi configuration
│   ├── admin.ts           # Admin panel settings
│   ├── api.ts             # API settings
│   ├── database.ts        # Database connection
│   ├── middlewares.ts     # Middleware stack
│   ├── plugins.ts         # Plugin configuration
│   └── server.ts          # Server settings
├── src/
│   ├── admin/             # Admin panel customization
│   ├── api/               # Your content-types and APIs
│   ├── extensions/        # Plugin extensions
│   └── index.ts           # Application lifecycle hooks
├── public/
│   └── uploads/           # Media uploads
├── docker-compose.yml     # Production Docker Compose
├── docker-compose.dev.yml # Development Docker Compose
├── Dockerfile             # Multi-stage production build
├── render.yaml            # Render Blueprint
└── package.json

Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
DATABASE_HOST	PostgreSQL host	localhost
DATABASE_PORT	PostgreSQL port	5432
DATABASE_NAME	Database name	strapi
DATABASE_USERNAME	Database user	strapi
DATABASE_PASSWORD	Database password	password
APP_KEYS	Session keys (comma-separated)	-
API_TOKEN_SALT	API token salt	-
ADMIN_JWT_SECRET	Admin JWT secret	-
TRANSFER_TOKEN_SALT	Transfer token salt	-
JWT_SECRET	JWT secret	-

Generate Secrets

For production, generate secure secrets:

openssl rand -base64 32

Production Build

Test Production Build Locally

# Build and run production image
docker compose up --build -d

# View logs
docker compose logs -f strapi

Access at http://localhost:1337/admin

Stop Production

docker compose down

Deployment

See DEPLOYMENT.md for detailed Render.com deployment instructions.

Creating Content Types

1. Access admin panel at /admin
2. Go to Content-Type Builder
3. Create your content types
4. Content types are saved to src/api/

Troubleshooting

Container won't start

# Check logs
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs strapi

# Reset node_modules volume
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml down
docker volume rm strapi-dockerized_strapi-node-modules
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d

Database connection errors

# Check if PostgreSQL is healthy
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml ps

# View PostgreSQL logs
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs strapiDB

Port already in use

# Find process using port 1337
lsof -i :1337

# Or change the port in docker-compose.dev.yml
ports:
  - "3000:1337"  # Use port 3000 instead

License

MIT