Kavita with Docker Compose

Kavita is an open-source, self-hosted digital library management system primarily designed for managing and reading comics, manga, and ebooks. In the project's words: Kavita wiki: Getting Started (What is Kavita?) checked 2026-09-23

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

What Kavita needs

Only figures Kavita'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
	No requirement is published; the wiki says "most modern systems should be fine" and that users have reported running it on as little as 256 MB of RAM and a single-core 1 GHz CPU. Source: Kavita wiki: Getting Started (System Requirements) checked 2026-09-23
CPU	Not published by the project
	The one stated requirement is a CPU that supports SSE4.2 extensions, needed by the NetVips image library it uses. Source: Kavita wiki: Getting Started (System Requirements) checked 2026-09-23
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 Kavita 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: Kavita
# 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"

  # ---- Kavita (library.example.org) ----
  # Source: https://wiki.kavitareader.com/installation/docker/dockerhub/ (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Source: https://wiki.kavitareader.com/installation/remote-access/ (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Changed: Removed the documented '5000:5000' port; Caddy reaches kavita:5000 on the proxy network.
  #          The documented /your/path/to/... folders become ./kavita/manga, ./kavita/comics, ./kavita/books and ./kavita/config (the wiki says /kavita/config must not change); TZ is your browser's time zone instead of Your/Timezone.
  kavita:
    image: "jvmilazz0/kavita:latest"
    container_name: "kavita"
    volumes:
      - "./kavita/manga:/manga"
      - "./kavita/comics:/comics"
      - "./kavita/books:/books"
      - "./kavita/config:/kavita/config"
    environment:
      TZ: "Etc/UTC"
    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 library.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.

# Kavita
library.example.org {
	reverse_proxy kavita:5000
}

.env

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

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

Removed the documented '5000:5000' port; Caddy reaches kavita:5000 on the proxy network.
The documented /your/path/to/... folders become ./kavita/manga, ./kavita/comics, ./kavita/books and ./kavita/config (the wiki says /kavita/config must not change); TZ is your browser's time zone instead of Your/Timezone.

Notes for Kavita behind the proxy

Kavita trusts forwarding headers only from localhost, and Caddy runs in another container. As the wiki's remote-access page describes, add "KnownProxies": [ "172.30.0.2" ] to ./kavita/config/appsettings.json after the first start and restart Kavita; otherwise things such as EPUB images can break.
The first account you create becomes the admin, so open the address straight away. Then add libraries pointing at /manga, /comics or /books.

How to run it

At your DNS provider, add an A record named library 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 (library. plus your domain) in a browser and follow the notes above.

Back it up

Kavita publishes no manual backup procedure. It has a built-in 'Kavita Backup' task (Server settings > Tasks, runnable on demand as 'Backup Database'), but its wiki does not say where those files go or how to restore them, 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: Kavita

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)

## Kavita

What this compose mounts:
- ./kavita/manga (/manga in kavita)
YOUR FILES: your manga files.
- ./kavita/comics (/comics in kavita)
YOUR FILES: your comics.
- ./kavita/books (/books in kavita)
YOUR FILES: your ebooks.
- ./kavita/config (/kavita/config in kavita)
BACK UP: everything Kavita itself stores.

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

1. Stop kavita. Stopping it keeps its database from changing mid-copy.

docker compose stop kavita

2. Copy while kavita is stopped:

tar czf "$BACKUP/kavita-config.tar.gz" ./kavita/config

3. Start it again:

docker compose start kavita

Restore check:

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

Put a copy back (with kavita stopped):

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

Stop it, put ./kavita/config back, start it.

Sources:
- Kavita wiki: Tasks (Kavita Backup, Backup Database): https://wiki.kavitareader.com/guides/admin-settings/tasks/ (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.

Kavita wiki: Getting Started (What is Kavita?) checked 2026-09-23 (what it does)
Kavita wiki: Getting Started (System Requirements) checked 2026-09-23 (hardware requirements)
Kavita wiki: DockerHub Image (Docker Compose) checked 2026-09-23 (compose definition and proxy settings)
Kavita wiki: Remote Access (reverse proxy, KnownProxies) 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)
Kavita wiki: Tasks (Kavita Backup, Backup Database) 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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