This guide will help you get a basic TailStatic installation running on your server using Docker Compose. This is the fastest way to see the dashboard in action.

### Prepare the Environment

Before you begin, install Docker on your operating system:

#### Linux

Follow the official Docker Engine installation steps for your distribution from the [Docker documentation](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/). After installation, verify Docker and Compose are available:

```bash
docker --version
docker compose version
```

If your user needs permission to run Docker commands without `sudo`, follow the post-install steps in the Docker documentation.

#### Mac

Install [Docker Desktop for Mac](https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/mac-install/) and complete the setup wizard. Then open a new terminal and verify the installation:

```bash
docker --version
docker compose version
```

#### Windows

Install [Docker Desktop for Windows](https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/windows-install/) and make sure WSL 2 is enabled if prompted. After installation, open PowerShell or Windows Terminal and verify Docker is ready:

```powershell
docker --version
docker compose version
```

Once Docker is installed, create a directory for your TailStatic installation and navigate into it. This directory will host your app.

```bash
mkdir tailstatic && cd tailstatic
```

Next, create the two files needed for this setup:

1. `docker-compose.yml` - defines the TailStatic services, ports, volumes, and shared environment settings.
2. `.env` - stores the variable values referenced by the Compose file so you can keep host-specific paths and settings in one place.

### The Docker Compose File

Create a file named `docker-compose.yml`. 

```bash
nano docker-compose.yml
```

Paste the following content into it.

```yaml
services:
  cms:
    image: tailstatic/tailstatic:latest
    container_name: tailstatic-container
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      - tools
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:5014:5000"
    env_file:
      - .env
    environment:
      ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT: Production
      TOOLS_APP_URL: http://tools:3000
    volumes:
      - ${TAILSTATIC_PARENT}:/app/data      
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -qO- http://127.0.0.1:5000/ >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 1"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
      start_period: 20s

  tools:
    image: tailstatic/tools:latest
    container_name: tailstatic-tools-container
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file:
      - .env
    volumes:
      - ${TAILSTATIC_PARENT}:/app/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "node", "-e", "fetch('http://127.0.0.1:3000/health').then(r=>process.exit(r.ok?0:1)).catch(()=>process.exit(1))"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
      start_period: 20s
```
> 💡 By default, above compose file configures TailStatic to listen on port 5000 inside Docker. However you can configure it to use any of the available ports.

### The environment file

Create a file named `.env` in the same directory as `docker-compose.yml`. This file should contain the variables referenced by the Compose file. In this setup, `TAILSTATIC_PARENT` points to the folder on your host machine that should be mounted into both containers.


```bash
nano .env
```

Example `.env` contents:

```env
TAILSTATIC_PARENT=/var/tailstatic-data
DASHBOARDDOMAIN=dashboard.yourdomain.com
```

Replace `/var/tailstatic-data` with a path where you would like TailStatic to store its data.
Replace `dashboard.yourdomain.com` with your tailstatic dashboard domain. This domain will be configured in your web server to access TailStatic.

### Starting the Services

Run the following command to download the images and start the containers in the background.
```bash
docker compose up -d
```

### Verifying the Installation

You can check the status of your containers with:

```bash
docker compose ps
```

Both `tailstatic` and `tailstatic-tools` should show a status of "Up". 

### Next Steps

Now that you have Docker up and running, next step is to setup [reverse proxy](/docs/reverse-proxy-and-https) on your webserver to the Docker.

### See Also

* [How TailStatic is organized](/docs/how-tailstatic-is-organized)