Audiobookshelf with Docker Compose

Audiobookshelf is a self-hosted audiobook and podcast server. In the project's words: Audiobookshelf README checked 2026-09-23

Add Audiobookshelf to the builder to use your own domain and combine it with other apps in one file.

What Audiobookshelf needs

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

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	Not published by the project
CPU	Not published by the project
Disk	Not published by the project

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 Audiobookshelf 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: Audiobookshelf
# 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"

  # ---- Audiobookshelf (books.example.org) ----
  # Source: https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf/blob/master/docker-compose.yml (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Source: https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Changed: Removed the documented '13378:80' port; Caddy reaches audiobookshelf:80 on the proxy network. The README says Audiobookshelf needs a WebSocket connection, which Caddy passes by default.
  audiobookshelf:
    image: "ghcr.io/advplyr/audiobookshelf:latest"
    container_name: "audiobookshelf"
    volumes:
      - "./audiobookshelf/audiobooks:/audiobooks"
      - "./audiobookshelf/podcasts:/podcasts"
      - "./audiobookshelf/metadata:/metadata"
      - "./audiobookshelf/config:/config"
    restart: "unless-stopped"
    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 books.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.

# Audiobookshelf
books.example.org {
	reverse_proxy audiobookshelf:80
}

.env

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

# .env for Audiobookshelf, from dankhost.com/app/audiobookshelf/. 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 audiobookshelf (so any set of apps can share one file), these are all the differences from what the project documents:

Removed the documented '13378:80' port; Caddy reaches audiobookshelf:80 on the proxy network. The README says Audiobookshelf needs a WebSocket connection, which Caddy passes by default.

Notes for Audiobookshelf behind the proxy

The first visitor sets the root password, so open it straight away. Put books in ./audiobookshelf/audiobooks and podcasts in ./audiobookshelf/podcasts.

How to run it

At your DNS provider, add an A record named books on your domain pointing at the server's public IP address, and forward TCP 80, TCP 443 and UDP 443 to it.
Save the three files in one folder: docker-compose.yml and .env side by side, the Caddyfile at ./caddy/Caddyfile. Replace example.org with your domain in the Caddyfile, the compose file and the .env, or let the builder do it.
Nothing in .env needs filling in; chmod 600 .env all the same.

Start it:

docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f caddy   # watch the certificate arrive

Open the new address (books. plus your domain) in a browser and follow the notes above.

Back it up

Audiobookshelf makes its own database backups (Settings > Backups, stored in /metadata/backups), but they hold only the database and the cover images in metadata/, never your audiobooks or podcasts.

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: Audiobookshelf

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)

## Audiobookshelf

Audiobookshelf makes its own database backups (Settings > Backups, stored in /metadata/backups), but they hold only the database and the cover images in metadata/, never your audiobooks or podcasts.

What this compose mounts:
- ./audiobookshelf/audiobooks (/audiobooks in audiobookshelf)
YOUR FILES: your audiobook files; Audiobookshelf's backups never include them.
- ./audiobookshelf/podcasts (/podcasts in audiobookshelf)
YOUR FILES: downloaded podcast episodes; not in the backups either.
- ./audiobookshelf/metadata (/metadata in audiobookshelf)
BACK UP: authors/ and items/ metadata with cover images, and backups/ (the built-in backups).
- ./audiobookshelf/config (/config in audiobookshelf)
BACK UP: audiobookshelf.sqlite, the database: users, libraries and listening progress.

YOUR FILES folders hold your own media, not Audiobookshelf data. If this server has the only copy, back them up like any other files; the steps below leave them out.

1. Stop audiobookshelf. The copy is taken in the same state Audiobookshelf's manual restore works in: with the container stopped.

docker compose stop audiobookshelf

2. Copy while audiobookshelf is stopped:

tar czf "$BACKUP/audiobookshelf-metadata.tar.gz" ./audiobookshelf/metadata
tar czf "$BACKUP/audiobookshelf-config.tar.gz" ./audiobookshelf/config

3. Start it again:

docker compose start audiobookshelf

Restore check:

tar tzf "$BACKUP/audiobookshelf-metadata.tar.gz" > /dev/null && echo OK
tar tzf "$BACKUP/audiobookshelf-config.tar.gz" > /dev/null && echo OK

Put a copy back (with audiobookshelf stopped):

tar xzf "$BACKUP/audiobookshelf-metadata.tar.gz" # recreates ./audiobookshelf/metadata; move the old folder aside first
tar xzf "$BACKUP/audiobookshelf-config.tar.gz" # recreates ./audiobookshelf/config; move the old folder aside first

Audiobookshelf's manual restore (2.3 and newer), with this file's paths: stop it, unzip the newest backup, copy the database and metadata back, start it.

docker compose stop audiobookshelf
cd ./audiobookshelf/metadata/backups && unzip <date>.audiobookshelf
cp audiobookshelf.sqlite ../../config/audiobookshelf.sqlite && cp -r metadata-authors ../authors && cp -r metadata-items ../items
cd - && docker compose start audiobookshelf

The Restore button on the Backups page does the same from the web app. Backups restore only onto the same operating system family (Linux to Linux).

Sources:
- Audiobookshelf docs: Backups: https://www.audiobookshelf.org/docs/documentation/server-management/backups (checked 2026-09-24)

Sources

Every page below was fetched on the date shown.

Audiobookshelf README checked 2026-09-23 (what it does)
Audiobookshelf: docker-compose.yml checked 2026-09-23 (compose definition and proxy settings)
Audiobookshelf README: Reverse Proxy Set Up (WebSocket 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)
Audiobookshelf docs: Backups checked 2026-09-24 (backup plan)
Caddy docs: Conventions, Data directory checked 2026-09-24 (backup plan)
Docker docs: Volumes, Back up, restore, or migrate data volumes checked 2026-09-24 (backup plan)

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