Deploy with Dokploy

Dokploy is a self-hosted PaaS that makes deploying Docker Compose apps on any VPS simple. This guide covers deploying Mocha on a fresh server using Dokploy.

Prerequisites

• A VPS running Ubuntu 22.04+ (or Debian 12+) with at least 1 GB RAM
• A domain or subdomain pointed at your server’s IP address
• SSH access to the server

1. Install Dokploy

SSH into your server and run the official installer:

curl -sSL https://dokploy.com/install.sh | sh

Once complete, open http://your-server-ip:3000 in your browser to finish the Dokploy setup wizard.

2. Create a Compose Application

1. In the Dokploy dashboard, click Projects → New Project and give it a name (e.g. mocha).
2. Inside the project, click Create Service → Docker Compose.
3. Under Source, choose Custom and paste the following compose definition:

version: "3.1"
 
services:
  mocha_postgres:
    container_name: mocha_postgres
    image: postgres:16
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: mocha
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_DB: mocha
 
  mocha:
    container_name: mocha
    image: emberlyoss/mocha:latest
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
      - 5003:5003
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - mocha_postgres
    environment:
      DB_USERNAME: "mocha"
      DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      DB_HOST: "mocha_postgres"
      SECRET: ${SECRET}
 
volumes:
  pgdata:

3. Set Environment Variables

In the Environment tab, add:

Use a password generator — never commit real credentials to source control.

4. Configure a Domain

1. Go to the Domains tab for your compose service.
2. Click Add Domain, enter your domain (e.g. support.example.com), and set the port to 3000.
3. Enable HTTPS — Dokploy will provision a Let’s Encrypt certificate automatically.

For the API (needed for webhooks/email callbacks), add a second domain (e.g. support-api.example.com) pointing to port 5003.

5. Deploy

Click Deploy in the top right. Dokploy will pull the images, start the stack, and apply your domain config. Deployment usually takes 1–2 minutes.

Access Mocha at https://support.example.com.

Default Credentials

Email:    [email protected]
Password: 1234

Change this immediately from Settings → Profile after first login.

Updating Mocha

To update to the latest release:

1. Go to your compose service in Dokploy.
2. Click Redeploy (or enable Auto Deploy in settings to pull updates automatically on new image pushes).

Deploying from Source (CI/CD)

If you want to build from your own fork:

1. Set the compose Source to GitHub and connect your repository.
2. The included GitHub Actions workflows (.github/workflows/) will build and push emberlyoss/mocha:latest to Docker Hub on every merge to main.
3. Use Dokploy’s webhook trigger or enable auto-deploy to pick up new images automatically.

Troubleshooting