Run with Docker

The Docker images run CaptureFlow on any machine with Docker: a home server, a NAS or a VPS. You don't need a Cloudflare account. Everything is stored in one data/ folder: a SQLite database, the recordings, and the secrets generated on first start.

Piece	In Docker
Web app (apps/web)	ghcr.io/sardorml/captureflow, port 3000
Admin panel	ghcr.io/sardorml/captureflow-admin, port 3001
Database	SQLite, data/captureflow.sqlite
Recordings	Files under data/storage/, served at <APP_URL>/media/…
Scheduled jobs	Run inside the web container (same schedule as Cloudflare)
Transcripts	Optional: any OpenAI-compatible Whisper server
Email	Optional: SMTP or Resend; otherwise printed to the logs

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/sardorml/captureflow.git
cd captureflow
cp .env.example .env    # set APP_URL and ADMIN_URL
docker compose up -d

Open APP_URL and create the first account. / goes straight to sign-in: self-hosted instances have no landing page, billing or storage caps, and idle recordings are never deleted.

The images are built from this repo. docker compose up -d --build builds them locally instead of pulling them.

HTTPS

Browsers only allow screen and camera capture on a secure origin. Use one of these:

• http://localhost:3000 on the machine running Docker, or
• a reverse proxy with TLS in front, such as Caddy, Traefik, nginx or a Cloudflare Tunnel, with APP_URL=https://rec.example.com.

A plain http://192.168.x.x address loads the dashboard, but recording won't start. The admin panel's session cookie also needs HTTPS outside localhost.

A minimal Caddyfile:

rec.example.com {
  reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}
admin.rec.example.com {
  reverse_proxy localhost:3001
}

Uploads stream through the app in chunks of a few MB, so the proxy doesn't need a large body limit.

First admin

The admin panel at ADMIN_URL manages users, workspaces, plans and the audit log. On first start it creates a one-time setup token:

docker compose exec admin cat /data/secrets.json   # ADMIN_SETUP_TOKEN

Open ADMIN_URL, paste the token and create the owner account.

Campaign emails need the separate mailer Worker, so sending is switched off in Docker. You can still write drafts.

Email

Workspace invites, access requests and welcome notes go out by email. Pick one:

• SMTP_URL=smtps://user:pass@smtp.example.com:465 and MAIL_FROM=CaptureFlow <rec@example.com>
• RESEND_API_KEY=…
• Neither: each message is printed to docker compose logs web with its link, which is fine for a personal instance.

Transcripts

Set WHISPER_API_URL to any server that implements OpenAI's /v1/audio/transcriptions. To run one next to CaptureFlow on the CPU:

# .env
WHISPER_API_URL=http://whisper:8000
WHISPER_MODEL=Systran/faster-whisper-small

docker compose --profile whisper up -d

The whisper-model service downloads the model once. You can also use a hosted API, for example WHISPER_API_URL=https://api.openai.com, WHISPER_API_KEY=sk-…, WHISPER_MODEL=whisper-1. Without WHISPER_API_URL, a transcript request fails straight away with a message saying how to turn transcripts on.

Recorders

The store builds of the Chrome extension and the desktop app talk to captureflow.dev. Build copies that point at your APP_URL:

• Chrome extension: build with WXT_WEB_BASE=<APP_URL>, then put the extension id in CAPTUREFLOW_EXTENSION_ID in .env and run docker compose up -d again.
• Desktop app

To point the dashboard's "Add to Chrome" button at your own listing, build the image with docker compose build --build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_CHROME_WEBSTORE_URL=<listing url>.

Backups and upgrades

Everything lives in data/. For a consistent copy while the app is running, take a SQLite backup from inside the container, then copy the folder:

docker compose exec web node -e "new (require('node:sqlite').DatabaseSync)('/data/captureflow.sqlite').exec(\"VACUUM INTO '/data/backup.sqlite'\")"

Don't open captureflow.sqlite from the host while the containers are running. On Docker Desktop (macOS and Windows), a write made from outside the containers can leave the app reading stale data until it restarts. Use docker compose exec instead.

To upgrade, run docker compose pull && docker compose up -d. Database migrations apply automatically when the web container starts.

Configuration

Variable	Default	What it does
APP_URL	http://localhost:3000	Public URL of the web app; share links and media use it
ADMIN_URL	http://localhost:3001	Public URL of the admin panel
WEB_PORT / ADMIN_PORT	3000 / 3001	Host ports in docker-compose.yml
SMTP_URL, MAIL_FROM	unset	Outgoing mail over SMTP
RESEND_API_KEY	unset	Outgoing mail through Resend instead
WHISPER_API_URL	unset	OpenAI-compatible transcription server; turns transcripts on
WHISPER_API_KEY, WHISPER_MODEL	unset, whisper-1	Credentials and model for it
ALLOWED_EMAIL_DOMAINS	unset	Only verified addresses on these domains can sign up
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID/SECRET	unset	Google sign-in
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID/SECRET	unset	GitHub sign-in
CAPTUREFLOW_EXTENSION_ID	unset	Your extension build's id, so it can sign in
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET	generated	Session signing; kept in data/secrets.json
ADMIN_SESSION_SECRET	generated	Admin session signing
ADMIN_SETUP_TOKEN	generated	One-time admin claim token
DATA_DIR	/data	Where the containers keep their state

Self-hosted instances don't send analytics: the images are built with analytics off.