Etherpad

stack Documents / Productivity

Collaborative text editor where everyone types in the same document at once, with history, chat and plugins. This one runs on Postgres.

Source code

Install Etherpad

It isn't in the main Portainer Templates list yet, so use this one. Portainer takes one URL at a time, so it swaps out whatever list you had before.

In Portainer, head to Settings --> App Templates, paste this in as the URL and save.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NotAFlightRisk/portainer-templates-extras/main/templates.json

Open App Templates and pick Etherpad.
Fill in Admin password and Database password. Everything else can stay as it is.
Hit Deploy the stack, then open http://<your-server>:9001 in a browser.

The same file Portainer deploys. It reads its settings from a .env next to it.

services:
  etherpad:
    image: etherpad/etherpad:3
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "${ETHERPAD_PORT:-9001}:9001"
    environment:
      NODE_ENV: production
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ETHERPAD_ADMIN_PASSWORD:?Set an admin password}
      DB_TYPE: postgres
      DB_HOST: postgres
      DB_PORT: 5432
      DB_NAME: etherpad
      DB_USER: etherpad
      DB_PASS: ${ETHERPAD_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}
      TRUST_PROXY: ${ETHERPAD_TRUST_PROXY:-false}
    volumes:
      - etherpad-var:/opt/etherpad-lite/var
      - etherpad-plugins:/opt/etherpad-lite/src/plugin_packages
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy

  postgres:
    image: postgres:17-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: etherpad
      POSTGRES_USER: etherpad
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${ETHERPAD_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}
    volumes:
      - postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U etherpad -d etherpad"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

volumes:
  etherpad-var:
  etherpad-plugins:
  postgres-data:

Fill in the blanks, as Etherpad won't start without them.

# Admin password (required) - For the admin panel at /admin, where you sign in as admin. Generate one with: openssl rand -hex 32
ETHERPAD_ADMIN_PASSWORD=

# Database password (required) - Generate one with: openssl rand -hex 32. Keep it the same when you redeploy, or Etherpad can't reach its database.
ETHERPAD_DB_PASSWORD=

# Host port for the web UI
ETHERPAD_PORT=9001

# Behind a reverse proxy?
ETHERPAD_TRUST_PROXY=false

Grab the file and start it.

mkdir etherpad && cd etherpad
curl -fsSL -o compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NotAFlightRisk/portainer-templates-extras/main/apps/etherpad/compose.yml
# save the .env tab here as .env first
docker compose up -d

Before you start

Set both passwords before you deploy (openssl rand -hex 32 makes good ones), since the stack won't start without them. Then open http://<your-host>:9001 (or whichever port you picked) and start a pad. Anyone who can reach it can create and edit pads, so keep it off the open internet or put a login in front of it. The admin panel is at /admin, user admin. Pads are stored in Postgres, in the postgres-data volume. Docs: docs.etherpad.org

Settings

What the Portainer form asks for. With compose they go in the .env file instead.

Variable	What it's for	Default
`ETHERPAD_ADMIN_PASSWORD`	Admin password (required) For the admin panel at /admin, where you sign in as admin. Generate one with: openssl rand -hex 32	Needs filling in
`ETHERPAD_DB_PASSWORD`	Database password (required) Generate one with: openssl rand -hex 32. Keep it the same when you redeploy, or Etherpad can't reach its database.	Needs filling in
`ETHERPAD_PORT`	Host port for the web UI	`9001`
`ETHERPAD_TRUST_PROXY`	Behind a reverse proxy? One of false, true.	`false`

Services

The containers this stack runs, with ports as they come out of the box.

Service	Image	Ports
`etherpad`	`etherpad/etherpad:3`	`9001:9001`
`postgres`	`postgres:17-alpine`	Internal only

Install Etherpad

Before you start

Settings

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