Deploying GitBlixt

Standard Deployment

The standard deployment is a single docker run command. All data persists in a named Docker volume (gitblixt_data) that survives container restarts and upgrades.

docker run -d \
  --name gitblixt \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 80:80 \
  -p 443:443 \
  -p 22:22 \
  -e GITBLIXT_HOST=git.yourdomain.com \
  -e GITBLIXT_SECRET_KEY_BASE=<your-secret> \
  -v gitblixt_data:/data \
  gitblixt/gitblixt:latest

What Runs Inside the Container

GitBlixt uses s6-overlay to supervise two processes inside the container:

• PostgreSQL 16 — stores all application data. Listens on 127.0.0.1 only; not accessible from outside the container.
• GitBlixt (Elixir/Phoenix) — the application itself. Handles HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, and git operations.

On first boot, the container automatically:

1. Initializes the Postgres data directory
2. Creates the gitblixt database and user
3. Runs all database migrations
4. Requests an SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt (if SSL_MODE=auto)

Using an External Database

If you have an existing Postgres instance, pass its URL as DATABASE_URL. GitBlixt will skip starting the bundled Postgres entirely.

docker run -d \
  --name gitblixt \
  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -p 22:22 \
  -e GITBLIXT_HOST=git.yourdomain.com \
  -e GITBLIXT_SECRET_KEY_BASE=<your-secret> \
  -e DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@db-host:5432/gitblixt \
  -v gitblixt_data:/data \
  gitblixt/gitblixt:latest

Minimum Postgres version: 14.

Using Docker Compose

services:
  gitblixt:
    image: gitblixt/gitblixt:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
      - "22:22"
    environment:
      GITBLIXT_HOST: git.yourdomain.com
      GITBLIXT_SECRET_KEY_BASE: your-secret
    volumes:
      - gitblixt_data:/data

volumes:
  gitblixt_data:

Data Storage

All persistent data is stored under /data inside the container:

Firewall Requirements

If port 22 is already in use by your server's own SSH daemon, you can run GitBlixt's SSH on a different port with -e GITBLIXT_SSH_PORT=2222 and expose it with -p 2222:2222. Users will then clone with git clone ssh://[email protected]:2222/user/repo.git.