SyncEngine – Docker

Docker setup for SyncEngine: an nginx web server, a php-fpm application container, and a Messenger worker for background jobs. Uses SQLite and PHP 8.4 by default so no external database needed.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/SyncEngine/docker.git
cd docker
docker compose up -d --build

Then open http://localhost:8080 in your browser.

On first start the container automatically:

• downloads the latest SyncEngine release (at build time),
• generates an APP_SECRET and persists it in the secrets volume,
• creates the SQLite database and runs the database migrations.

Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env and adjust as needed:

cp .env.example .env

Variable	Default	Description
HTTP_PORT	8080	Host port for the web UI
APP_ENV	prod	prod or dev (build-time, requires rebuild)
APP_DEBUG	0	Enable Symfony debug mode
APP_SECRET	(auto-generated)	Symfony application secret
SYNCENGINE_VERSION	latest	Release to install, e.g. v1.0.0 (build-time)
DATABASE_URL	SQLite in db_data volume	Doctrine connection string
MAILER_DSN	sendmail://default	Mail transport
RUN_MIGRATIONS	1	Run migrations on php container start
TZ	UTC	Container timezone

Using MySQL / MariaDB

Set DATABASE_URL in your .env:

DATABASE_URL=mysql://user:password@db-host:3306/syncengine?serverVersion=8&charset=utf8mb4

Updating

docker compose build --pull --no-cache
docker compose up -d

Pending database migrations run automatically on start (disable with RUN_MIGRATIONS=0). Your data lives in named volumes and is preserved across updates. To update to a specific release, set SYNCENGINE_VERSION in .env first.

Common tasks

# Run a console command
docker compose exec php php bin/console

# Follow logs
docker compose logs -f php worker server

# Restart the background worker
docker compose restart worker

# Open a shell in the app container
docker compose exec php bash

Data & backups

All persistent data is stored in named Docker volumes:

Volume	Contents
db_data	SQLite database (/app/var/data)
secrets_data	Secrets, including the generated APP_SECRET
modules_data	Installed modules
blueprints_data	Blueprints

Backup the SQLite database:

docker compose exec php sh -c 'cat /app/var/data/data.db' > syncengine-backup-$(date +%F).db

Stop

docker compose down

Add -v to also delete all data volumes (destructive!).

For developers

Developing modules with a locally mounted folder, dev mode, Makefile shortcuts, and how this setup works under the hood: see DEVELOPMENT.md.