Docker Self-Hosting

📋 Prerequisites

• Docker: Installed on your server (Docker Engine 20.10+ recommended). Docker Compose is optional.
• Domain Name: A domain or subdomain pointing to your server (e.g., tymeslot.yourdomain.com). Optional for local testing.
• Server Resources: Minimum 1GB RAM (2GB recommended), 1 CPU core, 10GB storage
• SSL Certificate: Use a reverse proxy like Nginx or Caddy with Let's Encrypt for automatic SSL

📦 How it runs

Tymeslot runs as one container: the Phoenix application and its PostgreSQL database live side by side, with all state on two named volumes — tymeslot_data (uploads and timezone data) and tymeslot_pg (the database). There is no separate database container to manage.

Prefer a managed/external PostgreSQL? Point Tymeslot at it with the discrete DATABASE_HOST variables described in the Environment Variable Reference — the embedded database is then skipped automatically.

1 Run the prebuilt image (fastest)

Pull and run the published image directly. This is the quickest way to get a working instance:

docker run -d \
  --name tymeslot \
  -p 4000:4000 \
  -e SECRET_KEY_BASE="$(openssl rand -base64 64 | tr -d '\n')" \
  -e PHX_HOST=tymeslot.yourdomain.com \
  -v tymeslot_data:/app/data \
  -v tymeslot_pg:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
  luka1thb/tymeslot:latest

For a pinned release, replace :latest with a version tag (e.g. luka1thb/tymeslot:1.0.5).

2 Or build from source with Docker Compose

If you'd rather build the image yourself, clone the repository and use the docker-compose.yml and .env.example that ship in the repo — you do not need to write your own Compose file.

# Clone and enter the repository\ngit clone https://github.com/Tymeslot/tymeslot.git\ncd tymeslot\n\n# Create your environment file\ncp .env.example .env\n\n# Generate the required secrets and paste them into .env\nopenssl rand -base64 64 | tr -d '\\n'   # SECRET_KEY_BASE\nopenssl rand -base64 32 | tr -d '\\n'   # POSTGRES_PASSWORD (only needed for an external DB)\n\n# Build and start (Compose reads .env automatically)\ndocker compose up -d --build

Watch the logs until the Phoenix server reports it is running:

docker compose logs -f tymeslot

3 Configure environment variables

Only three variables are required. Everything else has a sensible default — see the Environment Variable Reference for the full list.

# REQUIRED: signing secret (generate with: openssl rand -base64 64 | tr -d '\\n')\nSECRET_KEY_BASE=your_generated_secret_here\n\n# REQUIRED: the hostname you will serve Tymeslot on\nPHX_HOST=tymeslot.yourdomain.com\n\n# REQUIRED only for an EXTERNAL database (the embedded one defaults this internally)\nPOSTGRES_PASSWORD=your_secure_password_here\n\n# Optional: host port to publish (default 4000)\nPORT=4000

Email configuration

# Option 1: SMTP (recommended for most users)
EMAIL_ADAPTER=smtp
EMAIL_FROM_NAME="Your Company Name"
EMAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="hello@yourdomain.com"
SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USERNAME=your_email@gmail.com
SMTP_PASSWORD=your_app_password

# Option 2: Postmark (recommended for high reliability)
# EMAIL_ADAPTER=postmark
# EMAIL_FROM_NAME="Your Company Name"
# EMAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="hello@yourdomain.com"
# POSTMARK_API_KEY=your_postmark_api_key

Step-by-step provider guides: SMTP and Postmark.

4 Set up SSL with a reverse proxy

For production use, terminate TLS at a reverse proxy in front of Tymeslot. Here's a minimal Caddy example (Caddy fetches and renews certificates automatically):

tymeslot.yourdomain.com {\n    reverse_proxy localhost:4000\n    encode gzip\n}

5 Access your instance

Open your browser and navigate to your domain:

Click "Sign Up" to create your first account. You'll be guided through the setup process where you can:

• Create your account and complete registration
• Connect your calendar (Google Calendar, CalDAV, Nextcloud)
• Configure video conferencing (Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, MiroTalk P2P, or custom links)
• Set up your availability and create meeting types
• Customize your booking page theme

🔧 Maintenance & Updates

To update to the latest version (build-from-source install):

# Pull latest changes\ngit pull origin main\n\n# Rebuild and restart\ndocker compose down\ndocker compose up -d --build

Running the prebuilt image instead? Pull the new tag and recreate the container — your tymeslot_data and tymeslot_pg volumes carry your data across the upgrade. See the Upgrading guide.

To back up the embedded database:

docker exec -t tymeslot su - postgres -c 'pg_dump tymeslot' > backup.sql

Full backup and restore procedure (including the data volume): Backup & Restore .