![GoToSocial]()
GoToSocial
Container
An ActivityPub social network server written in Go, providing a lightweight alternative to Mastodon. Source: https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial
Image details
Configuration
TypeContainerlinuxsuperseriousbusiness/gotosocial:latest8080:8080/tcp/gotosocial/storageGTS_HOST=localhostGTS_DB_TYPE=sqliteGTS_DB_ADDRESS=/gotosocial/storage/sqlite.dbGTS_LETSENCRYPT_ENABLED=falseunless-stoppedNotes
Standalone Install
Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying GoToSocial
Install on Portainer
Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys
- Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
- Log into your Portainer web UI
- Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
- Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
- Select GoToSocial, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy
Template Import URL
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me
More install options in our documentation.
With GoToSocial, you can keep in touch with your friends, post, read, and share images and articles. All without being tracked or advertised to!
GoToSocial provides a lightweight, customizable, and safety-focused entryway into the Fediverse, and is comparable to (but distinct from) existing projects such as Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, and PixelFed.
Git: https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial
Documentation: https://docs.gotosocial.org
Serve GoToSocial on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.
Proxying gotosocial.example.com to http://gotosocial:8080
Add this to your Caddyfile
gotosocial.example.com {
reverse_proxy http://gotosocial:8080
}Check the logs first
Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.
- In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run
docker logs gotosocial - Exit codes help too:
137means killed, usually out of memory.126or127means the command inside the image is broken.
Port already in use
If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:8080 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.
- Find what's using it:
sudo ss -tlnp | grep :8080 - Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In
8080:8080only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.
Running but the page won't load
The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.
- Use your server's real IP:
http://your-server-ip:8080. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address. - Give it a minute after first deploy, gotosocial can take a while to initialise.
- Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g.
sudo ufw allow 8080
Image won't pull
Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull superseriousbusiness/gotosocial:latest
- "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists. This template uses
latest, so try pinning a specific version instead. - "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with
docker loginto raise it. - "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with
docker system prune
"exec format error"
This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.
- This image supports:
amd64, arm64 - Check yours with
uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.
Container keeps restarting
The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.
- Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
- Get the exit code with
docker inspect gotosocial --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}' - Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to
noso the failure stays visible.
Raise an issue
Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.
- Bug within the app: Open an issue within gotosocial's repo
- Template not working: Open an issue within the template's repo
- This website not working: Open an issue on lissy93/portainer-templates
A single container
GoToSocial runs as one container, the simplest kind of app here. Just the one image to pull and nothing else wired up alongside it.
The app image
An image is the app packed up ready to go, everything GoToSocial needs bundled into one download. This template pulls superseriousbusiness/gotosocial:latest, which Docker fetches once (about 41 MB) and then starts your own copy from.
Where the image comes from
Docker pulls its images from registries, public libraries of ready-built apps. GoToSocial's comes from Docker Hub, published by superseriousbusiness.
Version tags
The bit after the colon in the image name is the version tag. Here it's latest, which always points at the newest build, so a redeploy can bump you to a newer release without you asking. Newest right now is 0.22.1. Pin a specific tag if you would rather stay on one version.
Which machines it runs on
Every image is built for particular CPU types. This one ships for amd64, arm64, so it runs on both regular x86 servers and ARM boards like a Raspberry Pi.
Ports
A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 8080:8080 means it's reachable on port 8080 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. Once it's running, open http://your-server-ip:8080 in a browser. It opens:
8080:8080, likely the web interface
Volumes
A volume is where GoToSocial keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:
/gotosocial/storageas a volume Docker manages for you
Environment variables
Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. GoToSocial takes 4 of them, all with defaults you can leave alone or tweak:
GTS_HOST, defaults tolocalhost. Your public domain (cannot be changed later)GTS_DB_TYPE, defaults tosqlite. Database typeGTS_DB_ADDRESS, defaults to/gotosocial/storage/sqlite.db. SQLite database file (kept on the storage volume)GTS_LETSENCRYPT_ENABLED, defaults tofalse. Use built-in Let's Encrypt (set false when behind a reverse proxy)
Restart policy
The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts GoToSocial after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).
Networking
Nothing custom is set, so GoToSocial sits on Docker's default bridge network: its own private space that reaches the outside world only through the ports it publishes.
Container name
Once it's deployed, Portainer names the container gotosocial. That's what you'll spot in the containers list and use in commands like docker logs gotosocial.
Platform
The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.
Portainer app templates
Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set GoToSocial up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying GoToSocial is a click rather than a wall of config.