---
title: Docker Chatwoot Production deployment guide
description: Deploy Chatwoot using Docker containers for production environments
sidebarTitle: Docker
---

## Pre-requisites

Before proceeding, make sure you have the latest version of `docker` and `docker-compose` installed.

As of now [at the time of writing this doc], we recommend a version equal to or higher than the following.

```bash
$ docker --version
Docker version 20.10.10, build b485636
$ docker compose version
Docker Compose version v2.14.1
```

<Note>
Container name uses dashes instead of underscores by default with new docker/compose versions. If you are using an older version of docker/compose, replace `-` with `_`. Also, use `docker-compose` instead of `docker compose`.
</Note>

## Steps to deploy Chatwoot using docker-compose

### 1. Install Docker on your VM

```bash
# example in ubuntu
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
apt install docker-compose-plugin
```

### 2. Download the required files

```bash
# Download the env file template
wget -O .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chatwoot/chatwoot/develop/.env.example
# Download the Docker compose template
wget -O docker-compose.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chatwoot/chatwoot/develop/docker-compose.production.yaml
```

### 3. Configure environment variables

Tweak the `.env` and `docker-compose.yaml` according to your preferences. Refer to the available [environment variables](/docs/self-hosted/configuration/environment-variables). You could also remove the dependant services like `Postgres`, `Redis` etc., in favor of managed services configured via environment variables.

```bash
# update redis and postgres passwords
nano .env
# update docker-compose.yaml same postgres pass
nano docker-compose.yaml
```

### 4. Prepare the database

```bash
docker compose run --rm rails bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare
```

### 5. Start the services

```bash
docker compose up -d
```

### 6. Access your installation

Your Chatwoot installation is complete. Please note that the containers are not exposed to the internet and they only bind to the localhost. Setup something like Nginx or any other proxy server to proxy the requests to the container.

If you want to verify whether the installation is working, try `curl -I localhost:3000/api` to see if it returns `200`. Also, you could temporarily drop the `127.0.0.1:3000:3000` for rails to `3000:3000` in the compose file to access your instance at `http://<your-external-ip>:3000`. It's recommended to revert this change back and use Nginx or some proxy server in the front.

## Additional Steps

1. Have an `Nginx` web server acting as a reverse proxy for Chatwoot installation. So that you can access Chatwoot from `https://chat.yourdomain.com`
2. Run `docker compose run --rm rails bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare` whenever you decide to update the Chatwoot images to handle the migrations.

### Configure Nginx and Let's Encrypt

#### 1. Configure Nginx to serve as a frontend proxy

```bash
sudo apt-get install nginx
cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
nano yourdomain.com.conf
```

#### 2. Use the following Nginx config

Use the following Nginx config after replacing the `yourdomain.com` in `server_name`.

```nginx
server {
  server_name <yourdomain.com>;

  # Point upstream to Chatwoot App Server
  set $upstream 127.0.0.1:3000;

  # Nginx strips out underscore in headers by default
  # Chatwoot relies on underscore in headers for API
  # Make sure that the config is set to on.
  underscores_in_headers on;
  location /.well-known {
    alias /var/www/ssl-proof/chatwoot/.well-known;
  }

  location / {
    proxy_pass_header Authorization;
    proxy_pass http://$upstream;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Ssl on; # Optional

    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_buffering off;

    client_max_body_size 0;
    proxy_read_timeout 36000s;
    proxy_redirect off;
  }
  listen 80;
}
```

#### 3. Verify and reload Nginx config

```bash
nginx -t
systemctl reload nginx
```

#### 4. Run Let's Encrypt to configure SSL certificate

```bash
apt install certbot
apt-get install python3-certbot-nginx
mkdir -p /var/www/ssl-proof/chatwoot/.well-known
certbot --webroot -w /var/www/ssl-proof/chatwoot/ -d yourdomain.com -i nginx
```

#### 5. Access your installation

Your Chatwoot installation should be accessible from the `https://yourdomain.com` now.

## Steps to build images yourself

We publish our base images to the Docker hub. You should be able to build your Chatwoot web/worker images from these base images.

### Web

```dockerfile
FROM chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
RUN chmod +x docker/entrypoints/rails.sh
ENTRYPOINT ["docker/entrypoints/rails.sh"]
CMD bundle exec bundle exec rails s -b 0.0.0.0 -p 3000
```

### Worker

```dockerfile
FROM chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
RUN chmod +x docker/entrypoints/rails.sh
ENTRYPOINT ["docker/entrypoints/rails.sh"]
CMD bundle exec sidekiq -C config/sidekiq.yml
```

The app servers will run available on port `3000`. Ensure the images connect to the same database and Redis servers. Provide the configuration for these services via [environment variables](/docs/self-hosted/configuration/environment-variables).

### Initial database setup

To set up the database for the first time, you must run `rails db:chatwoot_prepare`. You may get errors if you try to run `rails db:migrate` at this point.

## Upgrading

If you're not using the `latest` or `latest-ce` tag, you first need to change the desired tag in your docker-compose file.

After that you can pull the new image and start using them:

```bash
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d
```

Finally you may need to update the database:

```bash
docker compose run --rm rails bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare
```

## Running Rails Console

```bash
docker exec -it $(basename $(pwd))-rails-1 sh -c 'RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails c'
```

## Chatwoot CE edition docker images

If you want to run Chatwoot CE edition, replace the docker image tag with equivalent foss version tag. Docker tag for current `master` would be `latest-ce`. Version specific tags would follow the pattern `v*-ce`. For example the docker ce edition tag for Chatwoot `v2.3.2` would be `v2.3.2-ce`. 