Create a project directory

mkdir wowsql && cd wowsql

Create the environment file

Create a .env file — this is the only config you need to customize:

# .env

# REQUIRED — change these
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-strong-password-here
JWT_SECRET=your-jwt-secret-at-least-32-characters-long

# OPTIONAL — defaults shown
POSTGRES_USER=postgres
POSTGRES_DB=postgres
POSTGRES_PORT=5432
API_PORT=8080
STUDIO_PORT=3000
API_EXTERNAL_URL=http://localhost:8080
STUDIO_EXTERNAL_URL=http://localhost:3000

Create docker-compose.yml

This file tells Docker how to run all WoWSQL images together:

services:
  db:
    image: wowsql/postgres:18
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "${POSTGRES_PORT:-5432}:5432"
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER:-postgres}
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_DB: ${POSTGRES_DB:-postgres}
      JWT_SECRET: ${JWT_SECRET}
    volumes:
      - db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 10

  rest:
    image: postgrest/postgrest:v12.2.0
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      db: { condition: service_healthy }
    environment:
      PGRST_DB_URI: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER:-postgres}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db:5432/${POSTGRES_DB:-postgres}
      PGRST_DB_SCHEMAS: public,storage
      PGRST_DB_ANON_ROLE: anon
      PGRST_JWT_SECRET: ${JWT_SECRET}

  auth:
    image: wowsql/auth:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      db: { condition: service_healthy }
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER:-postgres}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db:5432/${POSTGRES_DB:-postgres}
      JWT_SECRET: ${JWT_SECRET}
      API_EXTERNAL_URL: ${API_EXTERNAL_URL:-http://localhost:8080}

  storage:
    image: wowsql/storage:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      db: { condition: service_healthy }
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER:-postgres}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db:5432/${POSTGRES_DB:-postgres}
      JWT_SECRET: ${JWT_SECRET}
    volumes:
      - storage-data:/var/lib/storage

  realtime:
    image: wowsql/realtime:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      db: { condition: service_healthy }
      redis: { condition: service_started }
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER:-postgres}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db:5432/${POSTGRES_DB:-postgres}
      JWT_SECRET: ${JWT_SECRET}
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - redis-data:/data

  kong:
    image: kong:3.9
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "${API_PORT:-8080}:8000"
    environment:
      KONG_DATABASE: "off"
      KONG_DECLARATIVE_CONFIG: /kong/kong.yml
      KONG_DNS_ORDER: LAST,A,SRV,CNAME
      KONG_PLUGINS: bundled,cors,key-auth,request-transformer
    volumes:
      - ./kong.yml:/kong/kong.yml:ro
    depends_on: [rest, auth, storage, realtime, backend]

  backend:
    image: wowsql/backend:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      db: { condition: service_healthy }
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER:-postgres}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db:5432/${POSTGRES_DB:-postgres}
      JWT_SECRET: ${JWT_SECRET}
      API_EXTERNAL_URL: ${API_EXTERNAL_URL:-http://localhost:8080}

  studio:
    image: wowsql/studio:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "${STUDIO_PORT:-3000}:3000"
    environment:
      NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL: ${API_EXTERNAL_URL:-http://localhost:8080}
    depends_on: [kong]

volumes:
  db-data:
  storage-data:
  redis-data:

Create Kong gateway config

Create kong.yml — this routes API requests to the correct service:

_format_version: "3.0"

services:
  - name: rest
    url: http://rest:3000
    routes:
      - name: rest-route
        paths: ["/rest/v1"]
        strip_path: true

  - name: auth
    url: http://auth:9999
    routes:
      - name: auth-route
        paths: ["/auth/v1"]
        strip_path: true

  - name: storage
    url: http://storage:5000
    routes:
      - name: storage-route
        paths: ["/storage/v1"]
        strip_path: true

  - name: realtime
    url: http://realtime:4000
    routes:
      - name: realtime-route
        paths: ["/realtime/v1"]
        strip_path: true

  - name: backend
    url: http://backend:8000
    routes:
      - name: backend-route
        paths: ["/api/v1"]
        strip_path: true

plugins:
  - name: cors
    config:
      origins: ["*"]
      methods: [GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS]
      headers: [Content-Type, Authorization, apikey, X-Client-Info]
      exposed_headers: [Content-Range]
      credentials: true

  - name: request-transformer
    config:
      add:
        headers: ["X-Forwarded-Proto:https"]

Run it

docker compose up -d

Docker pulls all images from Docker Hub and starts the stack. First run takes 1-2 minutes.

Verify everything is up

docker compose ps

All services should show running or healthy within 30 seconds.

Open the dashboard

Visit http://localhost:3000 — create your admin account on first launch.