Mastodon (stack)

Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub where users can follow friends and discover new ones..

Configuration

Type

Compose

Platform

linux

Image

lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest

Ports

80:80443:443

Volumes

/config : /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/mastodon

Env vars

PUID=1000PGID=1000TZ=Europe/AthensLOCAL_DOMAIN=example.comREDIS_HOST=redisREDIS_PORT=6379DB_HOST=dbDB_USER=mastodonDB_NAME=mastodonDB_PASS=mastodonDB_PORT=5432ES_ENABLED=falseSECRET_KEY_BASE=OTP_SECRET=VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY=VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY=SMTP_SERVER=mail.example.comSMTP_PORT=25SMTP_LOGIN=SMTP_PASSWORD=SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS=notifications@example.comS3_ENABLED=falseWEB_DOMAIN=mastodon.example.comES_HOST=esES_PORT=9200ES_USER=elasticES_PASS=elasticS3_BUCKET=AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=S3_ALIAS_HOST=SIDEKIQ_ONLY=falseSIDEKIQ_QUEUE=SIDEKIQ_DEFAULT=falseSIDEKIQ_THREADS=5DB_POOL=5

Restart

unless-stopped

Source

Repo

Template by xneo1·Source

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying Mastodon (stack)

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 Mastodon (stack), fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json

Show Me

Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

services:
  mastodon:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest
    container_name: mastodon
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/Athens
      - LOCAL_DOMAIN=example.com
      - REDIS_HOST=redis
      - REDIS_PORT=6379
      - DB_HOST=db
      - DB_USER=mastodon
      - DB_NAME=mastodon
      - DB_PASS=mastodon
      - DB_PORT=5432
      - ES_ENABLED=false
      - SECRET_KEY_BASE=
      - OTP_SECRET=
      - VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY=
      - VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY=
      - SMTP_SERVER=mail.example.com
      - SMTP_PORT=25
      - SMTP_LOGIN=
      - SMTP_PASSWORD=
      - SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS=notifications@example.com
      - S3_ENABLED=false
      - WEB_DOMAIN=mastodon.example.com #optional
      - ES_HOST=es #optional
      - ES_PORT=9200 #optional
      - ES_USER=elastic #optional
      - ES_PASS=elastic #optional
      - S3_BUCKET= #optional
      - AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID= #optional
      - AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY= #optional
      - S3_ALIAS_HOST= #optional
      - SIDEKIQ_ONLY=false #optional
      - SIDEKIQ_QUEUE= #optional
      - SIDEKIQ_DEFAULT=false #optional
      - SIDEKIQ_THREADS=5 #optional
      - DB_POOL=5 #optional
    volumes:
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/mastodon:/config
    ports:
      - 80:80
      - 443:443
    restart: unless-stopped

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/xneo1/portainer_templates
cd portainer_templates
docker compose -f Template/Stack/mastodon.yml up -d

More install options in our documentation.

Serve Mastodon (stack) 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.

Proxy Domain App port Upstream

Proxying mastodon-stack.example.com to http://mastodon:80

Add this to your Caddyfile

mastodon-stack.example.com {
	reverse_proxy http://mastodon:80
}

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 <container>
Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Port already in use

If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:80 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.

Find what's using it: sudo ss -tlnp | grep :80
Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In 80:80 only 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:80. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address.
Give it a minute after first deploy, mastodon can take a while to initialise.
Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g. sudo ufw allow 80

Permission denied on volumes

If the logs show "permission denied", the app can't write to its data folder on the host.

Fix the ownership: sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/mastodon
Or set the PUID and PGID variables (defaults 1000:1000) to match your own user, found with id $USER

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon: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 login to 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.

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 <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'
Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to no so the failure stays visible.

Required settings are blank

SECRET_KEY_BASE, OTP_SECRET, VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY, VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY, SMTP_LOGIN, SMTP_PASSWORD, S3_BUCKET, AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, S3_ALIAS_HOST, SIDEKIQ_QUEUE have no default value, and mastodon may crash or misbehave if left empty.

Fill them in on the deploy screen before hitting deploy.

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

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 mastodon's repo
Template not working: Open an issue on xneo1/portainer_templates
This website not working: Open an issue on lissy93/portainer-templates

A Compose stack

Mastodon (stack) is a Compose stack, a set of containers defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

The app image

An image is the app packed up ready to go, everything Mastodon (stack) needs bundled into one download. This template pulls lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest, which Docker fetches once and then starts your own copy from.

Where the image comes from

Docker pulls its images from registries, public libraries of ready-built apps. Mastodon (stack)'s comes from LinuxServer's registry, published by linuxserver.

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. Pin a specific tag if you would rather stay on one version.

Ports

A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 80:80 means it's reachable on port 80 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:80 in a browser. It opens:

80:80, likely the web interface
443:443, likely the web interface

Volumes

A volume is where Mastodon (stack) 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:

/config from /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/mastodon on the host

Environment variables

Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. Mastodon (stack) takes 36 of them, and 11 need a value before it'll start properly:

PUID, defaults to 1000
PGID, defaults to 1000
TZ, defaults to Europe/Athens
LOCAL_DOMAIN, defaults to example.com
REDIS_HOST, defaults to redis
REDIS_PORT, defaults to 6379
DB_HOST, defaults to db
DB_USER, defaults to mastodon
DB_NAME, defaults to mastodon
DB_PASS, defaults to mastodon
DB_PORT, defaults to 5432
ES_ENABLED, defaults to false
SECRET_KEY_BASE, needs a value
OTP_SECRET, needs a value
VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY, needs a value
VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY, needs a value
SMTP_SERVER, defaults to mail.example.com
SMTP_PORT, defaults to 25
SMTP_LOGIN, needs a value
SMTP_PASSWORD, needs a value
SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS, defaults to notifications@example.com
S3_ENABLED, defaults to false
WEB_DOMAIN, defaults to mastodon.example.com
ES_HOST, defaults to es
ES_PORT, defaults to 9200
ES_USER, defaults to elastic
ES_PASS, defaults to elastic
S3_BUCKET, needs a value
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, needs a value
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, needs a value
S3_ALIAS_HOST, needs a value
SIDEKIQ_ONLY, defaults to false
SIDEKIQ_QUEUE, needs a value
SIDEKIQ_DEFAULT, defaults to false
SIDEKIQ_THREADS, defaults to 5
DB_POOL, defaults to 5

Restart policy

The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts Mastodon (stack) 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).

Users and permissions

The PUID and PGID settings tell it which user and group to act as on your host. Point them at your own account (find yours with id $USER) so the files it writes into your mounted folders come out owned by you rather than root.

Networking

Nothing custom is set, so Mastodon (stack) 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 mastodon. That's what you'll spot in the containers list and use in commands like docker logs mastodon.

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 Mastodon (stack) up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Mastodon (stack) is a click rather than a wall of config.

Mastodon (stack)

Configuration

Standalone Install

Install on Portainer

Template Import URL

Proxy configurator

Troubleshooting

Check the logs first

Port already in use

Running but the page won't load

Permission denied on volumes

Image won't pull

"exec format error"

Container keeps restarting

Required settings are blank

Stack won't deploy

Raise an issue

Config glossary

A Compose stack

The app image

Where the image comes from

Version tags

Ports

Volumes

Environment variables

Restart policy

Users and permissions

Networking

Container name

Platform

Portainer app templates

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