bookshelf/server/deploy

Deploying Bookshelf's PocketBase server

This assumes a spare always-on machine at home (a mini PC, NUC, Raspberry Pi, or an old laptop) running Linux. Pick one of the two run methods below — systemd or Docker — not both.

0. Get the files onto the server

Copy the whole server/ directory (minus .dev-credentials, which is gitignored and dev-only) to the target machine, e.g.:

rsync -av --exclude .dev-credentials ~/bookshelf/server/ youruser@homeserver:/opt/bookshelf/

The pocketbase binary is architecture-specific — if your home server isn't the same CPU architecture as wherever you built/downloaded it, grab the matching build from https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/releases (this project is pinned to v0.40.2) and drop it in as /opt/bookshelf/pocketbase.

1. Run it — Option A: systemd (recommended for a bare-metal/VM host)

1. Create a dedicated unprivileged user:

   sudo useradd --system --home /opt/bookshelf --shell /usr/sbin/nologin bookshelf
   sudo chown -R bookshelf:bookshelf /opt/bookshelf
   

2. Install the unit:

   sudo cp deploy/bookshelf.service /etc/systemd/system/
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl enable --now bookshelf
   

3. Check it's up: systemctl status bookshelf and curl http://127.0.0.1:8090/api/health.
4. Logs: journalctl -u bookshelf -f.

Note the unit binds PocketBase to 127.0.0.1:8090 only — it is not reachable from other machines yet. That's intentional; see step 4.

2. Run it — Option B: Docker

cd deploy
docker compose up -d --build
docker compose logs -f

This also only publishes to 127.0.0.1:8090 on the host, for the same reason. Data persists in the bookshelf_pb_data named volume regardless of container restarts/rebuilds.

3. Provision the schema and accounts

Once the server is up and answering on 127.0.0.1:8090, run the setup scripts from server/ (one directory up from here):

cd /opt/bookshelf

# If this is a brand-new PocketBase data dir, it prints a one-time setup URL
# on first launch (see `journalctl -u bookshelf` or `docker compose logs`) —
# open that in a browser first to create your superuser account.

./setup-schema.sh http://127.0.0.1:8090 <superuser-email> <superuser-password>

# Then create the household accounts — there is no public sign-up:
./create-user.sh owner@example.com "a strong password" "Owner Name"
./create-user.sh spouse@example.com "a different strong password" "Spouse Name"

setup-schema.sh is idempotent — safe to re-run any time (e.g. after pulling an updated server/ if the schema ever changes).

4. Reach it from outside your home network

The app needs a URL it can hit from anywhere your phone goes — not just your home wifi. Two real options:

Tailscale (recommended)

Install Tailscale on the home server and on your phone, join both to the same tailnet. The server gets a stable 100.x.y.z address (or a MagicDNS name like homeserver.your-tailnet.ts.net) reachable from anywhere, encrypted end-to-end, with no ports opened on your router.

• Pros: essentially zero attack surface (nothing is exposed to the public internet at all — not even a login page), no TLS cert management, works behind CGNAT, five-minute setup.
• Cons: both devices need the Tailscale app installed and signed in; if Tailscale's coordination service has an outage, new connections may be briefly unable to establish (existing ones keep working) — acceptable for a two-person home library, not for something needing five-nines.
• Point the app's server-URL field at http://100.x.y.z:8090 (Tailscale's encryption makes plain HTTP tolerable inside the tailnet, but see the HTTPS note below — using https:// via Tailscale Serve, next, is easy enough to just do).
• Even better: use tailscale serve to get automatic HTTPS with a real cert on your tailnet domain, so the app can just always use https://:

  sudo tailscale serve --bg 8090
  

Port-forward + Caddy (reverse proxy with TLS)

Forward a port on your router to the home server, and run Caddy in front of PocketBase to terminate TLS with an automatic Let's Encrypt certificate.

• Pros: works with any client, no extra app/agent needed on the phone, a real public HTTPS URL.
• Cons: you're now running an internet-facing service from your home — bugs in PocketBase, Caddy, or your router's firmware are now a real attack surface; you need a domain name (or dynamic-DNS if your ISP gives you a changing IP) for Let's Encrypt's HTTP-01/TLS-ALPN-01 challenge to work; residential ISPs sometimes block inbound 80/443 or use CGNAT, which breaks this approach entirely (Tailscale sidesteps that).

Minimal Caddyfile:

bookshelf.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:8090
}

Caddy handles the certificate automatically. Point your router's port forward at the Caddy host's 443, and the app's server-URL field at https://bookshelf.yourdomain.com.

HTTPS is not optional

The app sends the account password on every login. Never point the app at a plain http:// URL that crosses the public internet or an untrusted network — only plain HTTP over Tailscale (which is already end-to-end-encrypted at the network layer) is acceptable, and even there, prefer tailscale serve for a real cert. If you go the port-forward route, Caddy above gets you HTTPS for free — don't skip it.

5. Back up regularly

./deploy/backup.sh

See the comments at the top of backup.sh for what it does (SQLite-safe snapshot + uploaded covers, tarball, prune old ones) and the restore procedure. Wire it into cron:

crontab -e
# add:
0 3 * * * /opt/bookshelf/deploy/backup.sh >> /var/log/bookshelf-backup.log 2>&1

Consider also copying the resulting tarballs off-box (another machine, a USB drive, cloud storage) — a backup that lives on the same disk as the data it's backing up doesn't protect against disk failure.