Actual Budget with Docker Compose

What Actual Budget needs

Only figures Actual Budget's own documentation publishes, each linked to the page it is on. Where the project gives no number, this page does not invent one.

On top of this, Caddy (the reverse proxy in the file) is a single small container.

docker-compose.yml

This is exactly what the builder writes for Actual Budget alone on example.org: the official definition with its published ports removed and Caddy added in front.

# docker-compose.yml built at dankhost.com for: Actual Budget
# Each app block is its official compose definition. Only the names were prefixed with
# the app slug (services, containers, volumes, bind folders, .env variables) so any set of
# apps can share one file; other differences are listed under "Changed:" in each block.
# Only Caddy publishes ports. Secrets live in .env next to this file.

services:
  # ---- Caddy: the one reverse proxy, HTTPS certificates from Let's Encrypt ----
  # Source: https://caddyserver.com/docs/running (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Source: https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden/wiki/Using-Docker-Compose (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Caddyfile goes in ./caddy/Caddyfile. Fixed address 172.30.0.2 so apps can trust it exactly.
  caddy:
    image: "caddy:2"
    container_name: "caddy"
    restart: "unless-stopped"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
      - "443:443/udp"
    volumes:
      - "./caddy:/etc/caddy"
      - "caddy-data:/data"
      - "caddy-config:/config"
    networks:
      proxy:
        ipv4_address: "172.30.0.2"

  # ---- Actual Budget (budget.example.org) ----
  # Source: https://actualbudget.org/docs/config/reverse-proxies (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Source: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/blob/master/packages/sync-server/docker-compose.yml (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Source: https://actualbudget.org/docs/troubleshooting/shared-array-buffer (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Changed: Removed the '5006:5006' port that the repository's compose file publishes; Caddy reaches actual-server:5006 on the proxy network, as in the docs' Caddy example.
  #          The documented container_name 'actual_server' becomes actual-server, the service name, like every container here; the Caddyfile points at that name.
  actual-server:
    image: "actualbudget/actual-server:latest"
    container_name: "actual-server"
    restart: "unless-stopped"
    volumes:
      - "./actual/actual-data:/data"
    networks:
      proxy: {}

networks:
  # Pinned so the trusted-proxy address given to each app (172.30.0.2) is exact.
  # If "docker compose up" reports "Pool overlaps", change 172.30.0 here, in Caddy's
  # ipv4_address and in every trusted-proxy value to a free 172.x.0 range.
  proxy:
    ipam:
      config:
        - subnet: "172.30.0.0/24"
          ip_range: "172.30.0.128/25"
          gateway: "172.30.0.1"

volumes:
  caddy-data:
  caddy-config:

Caddyfile save as caddy/Caddyfile

Caddy gets and renews the HTTPS certificate for budget.example.org by itself once the DNS record points at your server and ports 80 and 443 reach it.

# Caddyfile built at dankhost.com. Save it as ./caddy/Caddyfile next to docker-compose.yml.
# Caddy gets and renews a Let's Encrypt certificate for each name below by itself,
# once the DNS records point at this server and ports 80 and 443 reach it.

# Actual Budget
budget.example.org {
	encode gzip zstd
	reverse_proxy actual-server:5006
}

.env

Actual Budget needs no secret here; the builder adds nothing you have to fill in by hand.

# .env for Actual Budget, from dankhost.com/app/actual/. Nothing here is secret.
# Keep this file private (chmod 600).
# None of the chosen apps needs a variable here.

Changes from the official file

Besides prefixing every service, container, volume, folder and variable with actual (so any set of apps can share one file), these are all the differences from what the project documents:

• Removed the '5006:5006' port that the repository's compose file publishes; Caddy reaches actual-server:5006 on the proxy network, as in the docs' Caddy example.
• The documented container_name 'actual_server' becomes actual-server, the service name, like every container here; the Caddyfile points at that name.

Notes for Actual Budget behind the proxy

• On the first visit Actual asks you to set the server password. Open the address straight away so that nobody else sets it.
• Actual must be served over HTTPS for the browser feature it relies on (SharedArrayBuffer) to be enabled; Caddy provides the HTTPS.
• The 'encode gzip zstd' line in the Caddyfile is from Actual's own Caddy example. Budgets live in ./actual/actual-data.

Back it up

Actual Budget documents a per-budget export from the web app (Settings > Export data, a zip you bring back with Import file > Actual). It publishes no procedure for the sync server's own data folder, so the folder copy below follows Docker's generic method.

Below is the BACKUP.md the builder writes next to the compose file above: which of its folders and volumes hold data, what to copy with which container stopped, and a restore check. Pick more apps in the builder and it covers them all in one file.

# BACKUP.md built at dankhost.com for: Actual Budget

What to copy from the docker-compose.yml built with this file, the database dump each project documents (rewritten for the service names in that file), what to copy with which container stopped, and how to check the result. Run every command in the folder that holds docker-compose.yml.

The folders are owned by the containers' users: put sudo in front of tar if it says "Permission denied". Named volumes live under /var/lib/docker/volumes, not next to the compose file, so they are copied through a throwaway ubuntu container (Docker's documented --volumes-from method). tar makes a full copy each run; for large folders an incremental tool (restic, borg, rsync) saves time and space.

Never run "docker compose down -v" on this file: it deletes the named volumes of every app in it.

## Before you start

    BACKUP=/mnt/backup/selfhost   # change this: a disk or machine other than this server's system disk
    mkdir -p "$BACKUP"

## Every time: the three stack files

    tar czf "$BACKUP/stack-files.tar.gz" docker-compose.yml .env caddy

.env holds the database passwords and secret keys the apps were set up with; keep this archive as private as the data.

## Caddy (the reverse proxy)

Caddy's docs: 'The data directory must not be treated as a cache.' It holds the TLS certificates and their private keys; without it Caddy has to ask Let's Encrypt for every certificate again.

- caddy-data (named volume, /data in caddy)
  BACK UP: TLS certificates, private keys, OCSP staples.
- caddy-config (named volume, /config in caddy)
  SKIP: the last active configuration, kept for 'caddy run --resume', which this setup does not use: it starts from the Caddyfile.
- ./caddy (/etc/caddy in caddy)
  IN stack-files.tar.gz: the Caddyfile, copied with the stack files above.

Copy (Caddy keeps serving while you copy):

    docker run --rm --volumes-from caddy -v "$BACKUP":/backup ubuntu tar cvf /backup/caddy-data.tar /data

Restore check:

    tar tf "$BACKUP/caddy-data.tar" > /dev/null && echo OK
    docker run --rm --volumes-from caddy -v "$BACKUP":/backup ubuntu bash -c "cd /data && tar xvf /backup/caddy-data.tar --strip 1"

Sources:
- Caddy docs: Conventions, Data directory: https://caddyserver.com/docs/conventions#data-directory (checked 2026-09-24)
- Docker docs: Volumes, Back up, restore, or migrate data volumes: https://docs.docker.com/engine/storage/volumes/#back-up-restore-or-migrate-data-volumes (checked 2026-09-24)

## Actual Budget

Actual Budget documents a per-budget export from the web app (Settings > Export data, a zip you bring back with Import file > Actual). It publishes no procedure for the sync server's own data folder, so the folder copy below follows Docker's generic method.

What this compose mounts:
- ./actual/actual-data (/data in actual-server)
  BACK UP: the sync server's data: accounts and every budget file synced to it.

Also export each budget from the web app now and then: that zip opens in any Actual install, even without this server.

1. Stop actual-server. Stopping it keeps the budget files from changing mid-copy.

    docker compose stop actual-server

2. Copy while actual-server is stopped:

    tar czf "$BACKUP/actual-actual-data.tar.gz" ./actual/actual-data

3. Start it again:

    docker compose start actual-server

Restore check:

    tar tzf "$BACKUP/actual-actual-data.tar.gz" > /dev/null && echo OK

Put a copy back (with actual-server stopped):

    tar xzf "$BACKUP/actual-actual-data.tar.gz"   # recreates ./actual/actual-data; move the old folder aside first

Stop it, put ./actual/actual-data back, start it. An exported budget comes back through Switch file > Import file > Actual.

Sources:
- Actual Budget docs: Backing Up Your Actual Budget: https://actualbudget.org/docs/backup-restore/backup (checked 2026-09-24)
- Actual Budget docs: Restoring Backups: https://actualbudget.org/docs/backup-restore/restore (checked 2026-09-24)
- Docker docs: Volumes, Back up, restore, or migrate data volumes: https://docs.docker.com/engine/storage/volumes/#back-up-restore-or-migrate-data-volumes (checked 2026-09-24)

Sources

Every page below was fetched on the date shown.

• Actual README (Getting Started) checked 2026-09-23 (what it does)
• Actual docs: Using a Reverse Proxy (Caddy docker-compose.yml and Caddyfile) checked 2026-09-23 (compose definition and proxy settings)
• Actual: packages/sync-server/docker-compose.yml checked 2026-09-23 (compose definition and proxy settings)
• Actual docs: Enabling SharedArrayBuffer Access (HTTPS required) checked 2026-09-23 (compose definition and proxy settings)
• Caddy docs: Keep Caddy running (Docker Compose section) checked 2026-09-23 (Caddy)
• Vaultwarden wiki: Caddy with HTTP challenge (uses the caddy:2 image) checked 2026-09-23 (Caddy)
• Actual Budget docs: Backing Up Your Actual Budget checked 2026-09-24 (backup plan)
• Actual Budget docs: Restoring Backups checked 2026-09-24 (backup plan)
• Docker docs: Volumes, Back up, restore, or migrate data volumes checked 2026-09-24 (backup plan)
• Caddy docs: Conventions, Data directory checked 2026-09-24 (backup plan)

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