docker-compose-cookbooks/docusaurus_dev/README.md

Docusaurus

Overview

Docusaurus is an open source static site generator for building documentation websites. This stack runs the Docusaurus dev server directly from a node image against a project mounted from the host, so you can scaffold and preview a docs site without installing Node locally.

Project Details

• Project Repository: https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus
• Container Image: Docker Hub
• Compose Example: N/A (no official Docusaurus image; this stack runs the CLI on top of node)
• Documentation: Docusaurus Docs
• Reverse Proxy Port: 3000

Getting Started

1. Start the container: docker compose up -d
2. On first run, with an empty volume, the container scaffolds a new classic Docusaurus site with create-docusaurus before starting the dev server — this can take a minute
3. Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser
4. Edit files under the mounted volume on the host; the dev server hot-reloads on changes

Environment Variable Notes

• DOCUSAURUS_IMAGE – Node image to run Docusaurus on (default: node:20-alpine)
• DOCUSAURUS_PORT – Host port to expose the dev server on (default: 3000)
• DOCUSAURUS_RESTART – Restart policy (default: unless-stopped)

Volume Notes

• /app – Docusaurus project source (docusaurus.config.js, docs/, package.json, etc.); mounted from ${VOL_PATH:-/data}/docusaurus so the site persists and is editable from the host. If this directory has no package.json, the container scaffolds a fresh classic-template site into it on startup.

Network Notes

Requires proxy network

Docker Run

docker run -d \
  --name=docusaurus \
  -e HOST=0.0.0.0 \
  -v /data/docusaurus:/app \
  -w /app \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  node:20-alpine \
  sh -c "apk add --no-cache git >/dev/null 2>&1 || true; [ -f package.json ] || npx --yes create-docusaurus@latest . classic --skip-install --package-manager npm; npm install; npm start -- --host 0.0.0.0"

Additional Notes / Gotchas

• This is a dev-server stack, not production hosting — it runs npm start, which serves an unoptimized, hot-reloading build. For production, build a static bundle (npm run build) and serve it from a static file server or CDN instead.
• npm install runs on every container start, so the first start after scaffolding (and any restart) takes longer than subsequent ones once node_modules is cached in the volume.
• Because the entire project lives in the bind-mounted volume, deleting the volume wipes the docs site along with it — back it up like any other source tree.

Dockhand Stack, Deploy from Git

Cookbooks Repository stackname: docusaurus Compose file path: docusaurus_dev/compose.yaml Additional env file (optional): docusaurus_dev/sample.env

Then "Load" docusaurus_dev/sample.env into the Environmental variables in dockhand

Create the Stack