Deployment

This guide covers how to deploy mzchat in a production-like environment using Docker and Docker Compose.

Docker Image

The official mzchat-web image is available on GitHub Packages: ghcr.io/mzhang28/mzchat-web:master

This image contains both the backend server and the pre-built frontend assets.

Docker Compose

For a complete setup including search capabilities via Meilisearch, use the following docker-compose.yml:

services:
  mzchat:
    image: ghcr.io/mzhang28/mzchat-web:master
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      # The public URL where the application will be accessible
      - CANONICAL_ADDRESS=http://localhost:8080
      # Meilisearch configuration
      - MEILI_URL=http://search:7700
      - MEILI_API_KEY=MASTER_KEY
      # Optional: Override the base path (default is /mzchat)
      - BASE_PATH=/mzchat
    volumes:
      - ./mzchat-data:/app/data
    depends_on:
      - search

  search:
    image: getmeili/meilisearch:latest
    ports:
      - "7700:7700"
    environment:
      - MEILI_MASTER_KEY=MASTER_KEY
    volumes:
      - ./meili-data:/meili_data

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
PORT	Port the container listens on	8080
CANONICAL_ADDRESS	Public URL of the service	http://localhost:8080
ASSETS_DOMAIN	Domain for serving user uploads (Security)	CANONICAL_ADDRESS
BASE_PATH	URL prefix for the application	/mzchat
DATABASE_URL	SQLite connection string	file:/app/data/chat.db
MEILI_URL	URL of the Meilisearch instance	-
MEILI_API_KEY	Meilisearch Master Key	-

Volumes

• /app/data: Contains the SQLite database (chat.db) and uploaded media.
• /meili_data: (Search service) Contains the search index data.