Calibre-Web with Docker Compose

What Calibre-Web needs

Only figures Calibre-Web'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 Calibre-Web 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): no image for calibre-web. No image for this hardware; the builder leaves the app out.

A manifest says an image exists for a CPU, not how well Calibre-Web 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 Calibre-Web 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 Calibre-Web alone on example.org: the official definition with its published ports removed and Caddy added in front. The time zone is Etc/UTC here; the builder uses your browser's.

# docker-compose.yml built at dankhost.com for: Calibre-Web
# 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"

  # ---- Calibre-Web (ebooks.example.org) ----
  # Source: https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web (checked 2026-09-29)
  # Source: https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-calibre-web (checked 2026-09-29)
  # Source: https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web/wiki/Setup-Reverse-Proxy (checked 2026-09-29)
  # Changed: Calibre-Web's README publishes no compose file of its own: under Docker Images it points to LinuxServer's image, and this is the compose file from that image's README.
  #          Removed the '8083:8083' port; Caddy reaches calibre-web:8083 on the proxy network. /path/to/calibre-web/data becomes ./data and /path/to/calibre/library ./library; TZ is your time zone instead of Etc/UTC.
  #          The two variables marked optional are left out: DOCKER_MODS (adds Calibre's ebook-convert, x86-64 only) and OAUTHLIB_RELAX_TOKEN_SCOPE.
  #          The Caddyfile sends X-Scheme https to Calibre-Web, as the wiki's Caddy example does, so the links it builds use https.
  calibre-web:
    image: "lscr.io/linuxserver/calibre-web:latest"
    container_name: "calibre-web"
    environment:
      PUID: "1000"
      PGID: "1000"
      TZ: "Etc/UTC"
    volumes:
      - "./calibre-web/data:/config"
      - "./calibre-web/library:/books"
    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 ebooks.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.

# Calibre-Web
ebooks.example.org {
	reverse_proxy calibre-web:8083 {
		header_up X-Scheme https
	}
}

Already running nginx, Nginx Proxy Manager, Caddy or Traefik? The reverse-proxy settings Calibre-Web needs, for all four, each cited to Calibre-Web's own docs.

.env

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

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

• Calibre-Web's README publishes no compose file of its own: under Docker Images it points to LinuxServer's image, and this is the compose file from that image's README.
• Removed the '8083:8083' port; Caddy reaches calibre-web:8083 on the proxy network. /path/to/calibre-web/data becomes ./data and /path/to/calibre/library ./library; TZ is your time zone instead of Etc/UTC.
• The two variables marked optional are left out: DOCKER_MODS (adds Calibre's ebook-convert, x86-64 only) and OAUTHLIB_RELAX_TOKEN_SCOPE.
• The Caddyfile sends X-Scheme https to Calibre-Web, as the wiki's Caddy example does, so the links it builds use https.

Notes for Calibre-Web behind the proxy

• Log in at https://ebooks.example.org as admin with the password admin123 (the default in both READMEs) and change it at once: until you do, anyone who finds the address can log in.
• On the first setup screen give /books as the Calibre library location. It needs a Calibre database (metadata.db) in ./calibre-web/library: copy your Calibre library there, or start from the blank metadata.db the README links to.
• PUID and PGID are 1000; run id -u and id -g and change them if ./calibre-web/library belongs to another user.
• LinuxServer's README uses the image tag 'latest'.

Back it up

Calibre-Web publishes no backup procedure. Its own settings and users are in app.db in /config; your books and their catalogue (metadata.db) are the Calibre library you gave it.

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: Calibre-Web

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)

## Calibre-Web

Calibre-Web publishes no backup procedure. Its own settings and users are in app.db in /config; your books and their catalogue (metadata.db) are the Calibre library you gave it.

What this compose mounts:
- ./calibre-web/data (/config in calibre-web)
  BACK UP: app.db: users, settings, shelves and reading progress.
- ./calibre-web/library (/books in calibre-web)
  YOUR FILES: your Calibre library: the book files and metadata.db. Calibre-Web edits metadata.db when you change a book's details in it.

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

1. Stop calibre-web. Stopping it keeps app.db from changing mid-copy.

    docker compose stop calibre-web

2. Copy while calibre-web is stopped:

    tar czf "$BACKUP/calibre-web-data.tar.gz" ./calibre-web/data

3. Start it again:

    docker compose start calibre-web

Restore check:

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

Put a copy back (with calibre-web stopped):

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

Stop it, put ./calibre-web/data back, start it.

Sources:
- LinuxServer.io: docker-calibre-web README (docker-compose, port 8083, /config, /books, admin / admin123): https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-calibre-web (checked 2026-09-29)
- 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 2026-09-29)

Sources

Every page below was fetched on the date shown.

• Calibre-Web README on GitHub (Docker Images: the LinuxServer image; default login; blank database) checked 2026-09-29 (what it does, compose definition and proxy settings)
• LinuxServer.io: docker-calibre-web README (docker-compose, port 8083, /config, /books, admin / admin123) checked 2026-09-29 (compose definition and proxy settings, backup plan)
• Calibre-Web wiki: Setup Reverse Proxy (nginx, Caddy) checked 2026-09-29 (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)
• Docker docs: Volumes, Back up, restore, or migrate data volumes checked 2026-09-29 (backup plan)
• Caddy docs: Conventions, Data directory checked 2026-09-24 (backup plan)

Add Calibre-Web to the builder All fifty apps