This guide walks you through building Frappe images from the repository resources.

Prerequisites

• git
• docker (Engine v23.0+ with buildx) or podman
• docker compose v2 or podman compose

Install containerization software according to the official maintainer documentation. Avoid package managers when not recommended, as they frequently cause compatibility issues.

Why Docker Engine v23+? The build uses BuildKit secrets (--secret) to keep apps.json tokens out of image layers. BuildKit is the default builder starting with Docker Engine 23.0 — older releases will fail or silently fall back to the legacy builder, which does not support secret mounts.

Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/frappe/frappe_docker
cd frappe_docker

Define custom apps

If you don't want to include custom apps in the image, skip this section.

To include custom apps in your image, create an apps.json file in the repository root:

[
  {
    "url": "https://github.com/frappe/erpnext",
    "branch": "version-16"
  },
  {
    "url": "https://github.com/frappe/hrms",
    "branch": "version-16"
  },
  {
    "url": "https://github.com/frappe/helpdesk",
    "branch": "main"
  }
]

Build custom images

Manually

Choose the appropriate build command based on your container runtime and desired image type. This example builds the layered image with the custom apps.json you created.

Security note: The apps.json file is passed as a BuildKit secret so that private repository tokens are never stored in image layer metadata. Do not use --build-arg for apps.json — build arguments are permanently visible via docker image history. This requires Docker Engine v23.0+ (where BuildKit is the default builder).

Docker:

docker build \
 --no-cache \
 --build-arg=FRAPPE_PATH=https://github.com/frappe/frappe \
 --build-arg=FRAPPE_BRANCH=version-16 \
 --secret=id=apps_json,src=apps.json \
 --tag=custom:16 \
 --file=images/layered/Containerfile .

Podman:

podman build \
 --no-cache \
 --build-arg=FRAPPE_PATH=https://github.com/frappe/frappe \
 --build-arg=FRAPPE_BRANCH=version-16 \
 --secret=id=apps_json,src=apps.json \
 --tag=custom:16 \
 --file=images/layered/Containerfile .

Automated

This repository is fully suited for automated builds, i.e. using CI/CD pipelines.

See Automated Builds and Deployment for more information.

Build args, secrets and flags

Variable	Purpose
Frappe Framework
FRAPPE_PATH	Repository URL for Frappe framework source code. Defaults to https://github.com/frappe/frappe
FRAPPE_BRANCH	Branch to use for Frappe framework. Defaults to version-16
Custom Apps
CACHE_BUST	Can be used to invalidate the cached layer. See Build Cache
(secret) apps_json	Passed via --secret=id=apps_json,src=apps.json. Never use --build-arg for this file.
Dependencies
PYTHON_VERSION	Python version for the base image
NODE_VERSION	Node.js version
WKHTMLTOPDF_VERSION	wkhtmltopdf version
INSTALL_CHROMIUM	Configure chromium installation, defaults to true - needed for Frappe Workbench version >15
bench only
DEBIAN_BASE	Debian base version for the bench image, defaults to bookworm
WKHTMLTOPDF_DISTRO	use the specified distro for debian package. Default is bookworm

Deploy the stack

env file

The compose file requires several environment variables. You can either export them on your system or create a .env file.

cp example.env custom.env

Edit custom.env to customize variables for your setup. The template includes common variables, but you can add, modify, or remove any as needed. See env-variables.md for detailed descriptions of all available variables.

For this setup, make sure at least the following values are added to custom.env:

CUSTOM_IMAGE=custom
CUSTOM_TAG=16
PULL_POLICY=missing

The CUSTOM_* variables ensure the image reference points to the recently built image. PULL_POLICY ensures Docker does not attempt to pull the image, but instead uses the locally built one (the default pull policy is always).

⚠️ This is not meant to be a complete .env configuration guide. These are only the minimal additions required for this example. Please have a look at env-variables.md for a full description of all available variables and adjust them according to your needs.

Creating the final compose file

Combine the base compose file with appropriate overrides for your use case. This example adds MariaDB, Redis, and exposes ports on :8080:

docker compose --env-file custom.env \
    -f compose.yaml \
    -f overrides/compose.mariadb.yaml \
    -f overrides/compose.redis.yaml \
    -f overrides/compose.noproxy.yaml \
    config > compose.custom.yaml

This generates compose.custom.yaml, which you'll use to start all containers. Customize the overrides and environment variables according to your requirements.

NOTE: podman compose is just a wrapper, it uses docker-compose if it is available or podman-compose if not. podman-compose have an issue reading .env files (Issue) and might create an issue when running the containers.

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Next: Start Setup →

Back: Container Overview ←

See also: Setup Examples for practical deployment scenarios.