How to use this image

Supabase Storage is a long-running HTTP service with two external dependencies:

• a PostgreSQL database, which holds bucket and object metadata. It has to be reachable when the container starts. If it is not, the service exits.
• a storage backend for object data: any S3-compatible service, or a mounted filesystem path. It is first contacted on the first object request, not at startup, so a missing bucket shows up as a failed upload rather than a container that will not start.

The object APIs are served on port 5000. There is also an admin API on port 5001, but it only starts when MULTI_TENANT=true. With the default single-tenant setup, nothing listens on 5001.

Database setup

Supabase Storage applies its database migrations before it serves any request, and exits if they fail. Those migrations expect a set of Supabase Postgres roles⁠ to exist. A Supabase Postgres instance already has them; a stock postgres image does not, so set DB_INSTALL_ROLES=true and the migrations create them, as upstream's Compose configuration⁠ does. Leave it at false only if you manage those roles yourself.

If /status does not become ready, check the container logs for a migration failure.

Start a Supabase Storage image

Supabase Storage always needs a PostgreSQL database, and an S3 bucket when STORAGE_BACKEND=s3, so a single container is not enough. The example below uses Compose.

Create the S3 bucket yourself. The service does not create it, because the backend can be any S3-compatible service. Upstream does the same, with a short rustfs_setup container that creates the bucket with a signed curl request and exits.

Docker Compose

services:
  storage:
    image: dhi.io/supabase-storage:1
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
      rustfs_setup:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    environment:
      AUTH_JWT_SECRET: super-secret-jwt-token-with-at-least-32-characters
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://postgres:postgres@db:5432/postgres
      DB_INSTALL_ROLES: "true"
      UPLOAD_FILE_SIZE_LIMIT: "52428800"
      STORAGE_BACKEND: s3
      STORAGE_S3_BUCKET: storage
      STORAGE_S3_ENDPOINT: http://rustfs:9000
      STORAGE_S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE: "true"
      STORAGE_S3_REGION: us-east-1
      AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: rustfsadmin
      AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: rustfsadmin

  db:
    image: postgres:16
    # Or use supabase/postgres, which ships the required roles already.
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
      interval: 2s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 15

  rustfs:
    image: rustfs/rustfs:1.0.0
    environment:
      RUSTFS_ACCESS_KEY: rustfsadmin
      RUSTFS_SECRET_KEY: rustfsadmin
      RUSTFS_ADDRESS: ":9000"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "curl -f http://127.0.0.1:9000/health/ready || exit 1"]
      interval: 2s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 15

  # Creates the bucket named by STORAGE_S3_BUCKET, then exits.
  rustfs_setup:
    image: rustfs/rustfs:1.0.0
    depends_on:
      rustfs:
        condition: service_healthy
    entrypoint: >
      /bin/sh -c "curl -fsS --aws-sigv4 'aws:amz:us-east-1:s3' -u rustfsadmin:rustfsadmin -X PUT http://rustfs:9000/storage"

Once it is listening, GET /status returns 200:

$ curl -fsS -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' http://localhost:5000/status
200

Environment variables

Resumable uploads

The TUS endpoint at /upload/resumable returns the URL to send the PATCH to in a Location header. Because this image sets NODE_ENV=production, that URL always uses https, ignoring X-Forwarded-Proto and STORAGE_PUBLIC_URL. The upstream image leaves NODE_ENV unset and returns whichever scheme the request used, although upstream's own npm start script does set it. Run TLS in front of the container, take the path from the returned URL and use it against the address you connected to, or pass -e NODE_ENV= for the upstream image's behaviour.

NODE_ENV=production also changes shutdown: the container waits for running queue jobs before it stops.

Each part of a resumable upload is written to the system temp directory before it goes to the storage backend, so /tmp has to stay writable. Both variants ship it with mode 1777, so this only matters if you mount over it. S3 credentials come from the AWS SDK default credential chain, so AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY work as shown above, along with the SDK's other mechanisms.

Non-hardened images vs. Docker Hardened Images

Key differences

Entry point

The upstream image inherits docker-entrypoint.sh from its node base image. That script runs node for you when the command you pass is not an executable, so docker run <upstream-image> script.js runs node script.js.

This image sets node as the entry point directly, so whatever you pass is appended to node. Passing a script still works. Two other cases change:

• A command meant for node itself, such as node -e '...', becomes node node -e '...' and fails. Drop the leading node and pass only its arguments: docker run <image> -e '...'.
• A command not meant for node at all, such as another binary, becomes node <binary> and fails. Override the entry point: docker run --entrypoint <binary> <image>.

FIPS variants

The FIPS variants ship FIPS 140-validated cryptographic modules, the OpenSSL FIPS provider, and an entropy source at the operating-system level. Node.js is built with its own copy of OpenSSL rather than the system one, so these variants do not change which provider Node's built-in crypto module uses.

Why no shell?

Docker Hardened Images prioritize a minimal runtime: fewer binaries, a smaller attack surface, and no interactive shell in production images. For troubleshooting, use Docker Debug or mount debug tooling as described in Troubleshooting migration⁠.

Image variants

Docker Hardened Images come in different variants depending on their intended use. Image variants are identified by their tag.

• Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:

  • Run as a nonroot user
  • Do not include a shell or a package manager
  • Contain only the minimal set of libraries needed to run the app

• Build-time variants typically include dev in the tag name and are intended for use in the first stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:

  • Run as the root user
  • Include a shell and package manager
  • Are used to build or compile applications

• FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure cryptographic operations. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants.

To view the image variants and get more information about them, select the Tags tab for this repository, and then select a tag.

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate your application to a Docker Hardened Image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Docker Hardened Image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.

The following steps outline the general migration process.

1. Find hardened images for your app.

   A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.

2. Update the base image in your Dockerfile.

   Update the base image in your application's Dockerfile to the hardened image you found in the previous step. For framework images, this is typically going to be an image tagged as dev because it has the tools needed to install packages and dependencies.

3. For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.

   To ensure that your final image is as minimal as possible, you should use a multi-stage build. All stages in your Dockerfile should use a hardened image. While intermediary stages will typically use images tagged as dev, your final runtime stage should use a non-dev image variant.

4. Install additional packages

   Docker Hardened Images contain minimal packages in order to reduce the potential attack surface. You may need to install additional packages in your Dockerfile. Inspect the image variants to identify which packages are already installed.

   Only images tagged as dev typically have package managers. You should use a multi-stage Dockerfile to install the packages. Install the packages in the build stage that uses a dev image. Then, if needed, copy any necessary artifacts to the runtime stage that uses a non-dev image.

   For Alpine-based images, you can use apk to install packages. For Debian-based images, you can use apt-get to install packages.

Troubleshooting migration

The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Docker Hardened Images is to use Docker Debug⁠ to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container, even if you map it to a lower port on the host. For example, docker run -p 80:8080 my-image will work because the port inside the container is 8080, and docker run -p 80:81 my-image won't work because the port inside the container is 81.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers with no shell.

Entry point

Docker Hardened Images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect to inspect entry points for Docker Hardened Images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.