Docker Deployment¶

Docker Compose is the easiest way to run your own instance: three containers, one command.

Requirements¶

Docker and Docker Compose installed
A machine that can run containers (the defaults are sized for roughly 1 core / 2 GB)

Bring it up¶

git clone https://github.com/14790897/handwriting-web.git
cd handwriting-web
docker compose up -d

The default port is 2345 — open http://localhost:2345.

What the three containers do¶

Service	Image	Role
`frontend`	`14790897/frontend-handwriting`	Nginx. Serves the pages and proxies `/api/` to the backend. Host `2345` → container `80`.
`backend`	`14790897/backend-handwriting`	FastAPI — the part that actually does the work. Its port is bound to `127.0.0.1:5005` only, never exposed publicly.
`watchtower`	`containrrr/watchtower`	Pulls new images every 6 hours and rolling-restarts, giving you automatic updates.

The backend is deliberately not exposed to the internet — outside traffic always goes through Nginx first. To change the public port, edit the left-hand number in the frontend's "2345:80" mapping in docker-compose.yml.

Fonts¶

Fonts live in ttf_files/ at the repository root, which Compose mounts at /app/font_assets_host:

volumes:
  - ./ttf_files:/app/font_assets_host
  - ./logs:/app/logs

After adding fonts, restart the backend container:

docker compose restart backend

These fonts are what appears in the font dropdown.

Why not mount straight into the font directory

ttf_files is mounted at an intermediate _host location rather than directly onto the directory where the backend reads fonts, and the backend syncs it on startup. Mounting it directly would let the host's empty directory shadow the fonts pre-packaged in the image.

Logs¶

Backend logs land in ./logs/ on the host.
You can also read the container output directly:

docker compose logs -f backend

Updating¶

Automatic — watchtower checks every 6 hours and rolling-restarts when a new image appears.
Manual —

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Stopping and cleaning up¶

docker compose down          # stop and remove the containers
docker compose down -v       # the same, plus remove Docker-managed volumes

-v does not delete your fonts or logs

ttf_files and logs are bind mounts onto host directories, not Docker-managed volumes, so -v leaves them alone. This Compose file defines no named volumes at all, so -v removes nothing extra here. To wipe them, delete the host directories yourself:

rm -rf ttf_files logs

Reverse proxy and HTTPS¶

The Nginx in the Compose file serves plain HTTP only. To put it behind a domain with a certificate, add another layer in front (Caddy, Traefik, or a host Nginx) and forward to 127.0.0.1:2345.

Timeouts on large uploads

Rendering long text takes anywhere from tens of seconds to several minutes. If the proxy in front has too short a timeout, the request fails in the browser while the backend is still working. Raise the proxy's read timeout.