AdGuard Home with Docker Compose

What AdGuard Home needs

Only figures AdGuard Home'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.

Which hardware AdGuard Home has images for

Read from each image's manifest list in its registry (anonymous, read-only) when this page was built. An app counts for a CPU only if every one of its images lists it.

• x86-64 PC or NAS (linux/amd64): every image has a build.
• Raspberry Pi 4/5, 64-bit OS (linux/arm64): every image has a build.
• Raspberry Pi 3 or Zero 2 W, 32-bit OS (linux/arm/v7): every image has a build.

A manifest says an image exists for a CPU, not how well AdGuard Home runs on it: a build for arm64 or arm/v7 can still be too slow or need more memory than the board has. The RAM and disk AdGuard Home publishes are in the table above and, for a whole set of apps against a Raspberry Pi, on Will it run on my machine?. A tag like latest can move to a new digest after the date checked.

docker-compose.yml

This is exactly what the builder writes for AdGuard Home alone on example.org: the official definition with its published ports removed except 53:53/tcp and 53:53/udp, which cannot go through a web proxy (see below), and Caddy added in front.

# docker-compose.yml built at dankhost.com for: AdGuard Home
# 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.
# Caddy publishes 80 and 443. The only other published ports, each labelled where
# it is written: 53/tcp (AdGuard Home: DNS over TCP), 53/udp (AdGuard Home: DNS over UDP).
# 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"

  # ---- AdGuard Home (adguard.example.org) ----
  # Source: https://adguard-dns.io/kb/adguard-home/docker/ (checked 2026-09-26)
  # Changed: The documented docker run command is written as a service. Of its ports only 53/tcp and 53/udp (plain DNS) stay published. Caddy reaches the admin panel at adguardhome:3000 on the proxy network; DHCP (67, 68), the admin/DNS-over-HTTPS ports 80 and 443, DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-QUIC (853), DNSCrypt (5443) and the debug port 6060 are left out.
  #          The work and conf folders are ./work and ./conf (the page's /my/own/workdir and /my/own/confdir).
  # PORT OUTSIDE THE PROXY 53/tcp: DNS for the devices on your network, half of the '-p 53:53/tcp -p 53:53/udp' pair AdGuard Home's Docker page marks "Required for plain DNS". DNS is not HTTP, so it cannot go through the proxy.
  # PORT OUTSIDE THE PROXY 53/udp: the UDP half of the same pair; most DNS queries use UDP.
  adguard-home:
    image: "adguard/adguardhome"
    container_name: "adguard-home"
    restart: "unless-stopped"
    volumes:
      - "./adguard-home/work:/opt/adguardhome/work"
      - "./adguard-home/conf:/opt/adguardhome/conf"
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"  # DNS over TCP
      - "53:53/udp"  # DNS over UDP
    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 adguard.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.

# AdGuard Home
adguard.example.org {
	reverse_proxy adguard-home:3000
}

.env

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

# .env for AdGuard Home, from dankhost.com/app/adguard-home/. Nothing here is secret.
# Keep this file private (chmod 600).
# None of the chosen apps needs a variable here.

What AdGuard Home needs beyond the proxy

Every other app in the builder is reached only through the proxy on ports 80 and 443. AdGuard Home also needs these ports on the server itself, because they carry traffic that is not HTTP. The compose file labels each with a # PORT OUTSIDE THE PROXY comment.

• 53:53/tcp (DNS over TCP): DNS for the devices on your network, half of the '-p 53:53/tcp -p 53:53/udp' pair AdGuard Home's Docker page marks "Required for plain DNS". DNS is not HTTP, so it cannot go through the proxy.
• 53:53/udp (DNS over UDP): the UDP half of the same pair; most DNS queries use UDP.
• Port 53 (TCP and UDP) is published on every interface of this server so the devices on your network can use it as their DNS server. Do not forward port 53 from your router: that would put an open DNS resolver on the internet. If "docker compose up" says port 53 is already in use, systemd-resolved holds it; AdGuard Home's Docker page gives the change that frees it (DNSStubListener=no in /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/adguardhome.conf).

Changes from the official file

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

• The documented docker run command is written as a service. Of its ports only 53/tcp and 53/udp (plain DNS) stay published. Caddy reaches the admin panel at adguardhome:3000 on the proxy network; DHCP (67, 68), the admin/DNS-over-HTTPS ports 80 and 443, DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-QUIC (853), DNSCrypt (5443) and the debug port 6060 are left out.
• The work and conf folders are ./work and ./conf (the page's /my/own/workdir and /my/own/confdir).

Notes for AdGuard Home behind the proxy

• Open https://adguard.example.org for the setup wizard. On its first page, set the admin web interface to listen on all interfaces, port 3000: the wizard itself runs on 3000 and Caddy proxies that port, so keeping it means the address still works after setup.
• In the same wizard, leave the DNS server on all interfaces, port 53: that is the port this file publishes.
• Then give the server's LAN address as the DNS server to your devices, or to all of them at once in your router's DHCP settings.
• Client addresses: the Docker page says AdGuard Home sees addresses like 172.17.0.1 instead of your devices' own unless it runs with --network host. This file keeps the bridge network so the proxy can reach the admin panel, so its per-client statistics may show a Docker address.
• AdGuardHome.yaml in ./adguard-home/conf is rewritten by the running program; the Docker page says to edit it only while the container is stopped.

Back it up

AdGuard Home's Docker page names two folders: conf, where AdGuardHome.yaml (every setting) is created on the first run, and work, its data folder.

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: AdGuard Home

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)

## AdGuard Home

AdGuard Home's Docker page names two folders: conf, where AdGuardHome.yaml (every setting) is created on the first run, and work, its data folder.

What this compose mounts:
- ./adguard-home/work (/opt/adguardhome/work in adguard-home)
  BACK UP: the data folder: filter lists, query log and statistics.
- ./adguard-home/conf (/opt/adguardhome/conf in adguard-home)
  BACK UP: AdGuardHome.yaml: every setting, the admin user, clients, custom rules and upstream DNS servers.

1. Stop adguard-home. The Docker page says AdGuardHome.yaml is overwritten by the running program; stopping it also keeps the query log from changing mid-copy. DNS on your network is down until it starts again.

    docker compose stop adguard-home

2. Copy while adguard-home is stopped:

    tar czf "$BACKUP/adguard-home-work.tar.gz" ./adguard-home/work
    tar czf "$BACKUP/adguard-home-conf.tar.gz" ./adguard-home/conf

3. Start it again:

    docker compose start adguard-home

Restore check:

    tar tzf "$BACKUP/adguard-home-work.tar.gz" > /dev/null && echo OK
    tar tzf "$BACKUP/adguard-home-conf.tar.gz" > /dev/null && echo OK

Put a copy back (with adguard-home stopped):

    tar xzf "$BACKUP/adguard-home-work.tar.gz"   # recreates ./adguard-home/work; move the old folder aside first
    tar xzf "$BACKUP/adguard-home-conf.tar.gz"   # recreates ./adguard-home/conf; move the old folder aside first

Stop it, put ./adguard-home/work and ./adguard-home/conf back, start it.

Sources:
- AdGuard Home docs: Docker (docker run, volumes, port mappings, client IPs, resolved daemon): https://adguard-dns.io/kb/adguard-home/docker/ (checked 2026-09-26)
- 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 2026-09-26)

Sources

Every page below was fetched on the date shown.

• AdGuard Home README on GitHub checked 2026-09-26 (what it does)
• AdGuard Home docs: Docker (docker run, volumes, port mappings, client IPs, resolved daemon) checked 2026-09-26 (compose definition and proxy settings, backup plan)
• 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)
• Docker docs: Volumes, Back up, restore, or migrate data volumes checked 2026-09-26 (backup plan)
• Caddy docs: Conventions, Data directory checked 2026-09-24 (backup plan)

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