# element-docker-demo

element-docker-demo is a minimal example of how to rapidly stand up a Matrix 2.0 stack on macOS or Linux using Docker,
featuring:

 * Element Web
 * Element Call
 * Synapse
 * Matrix Authentication Service
 * LiveKit
 * Postgres
 * nginx + letsencrypt / mkcert for TLS.

This is **not** intended for serious production usage, but instead as a tool for curious sysadmins to easily experiment
with Matrix 2.0 in a simple docker compose environment.  As of Nov 2024, it's considered beta.

In particular, this has:
 * No support, security or maintenance guarantees whatsoever
 * No high availability, horizontal scalability, elastic scaling, clustering, backup etc.
 * No admin interface
 * No monitoring
 * No fancy config management (eg ansible), just env vars and templates
 * No fancy secret management (stored in plaintext on disk)
 * No UDP traffic or TURN for LiveKit (all traffic is tunnelled over TCP for simplicity)
 * No push server, integration manager, integrations, or identity lookup server

For production-grade Matrix from Element, please see https://element.io/server-suite (ESS).

## To run

 1. Install [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/).
 2. If you're running on your local workstation, then [install mkcert](https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert#installation) to manage TLS.

Then:

```
./setup.sh

# Point DNS for *.domain at your docker host,
# Or if running on localhost with mkcert:
# source .env; sudo sh -c "echo 127.0.0.1 $DOMAINS >> /etc/hosts"

docker compose up
# go to https://element on your domain.
```

![docker demo](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c17e42f7-3442-478a-9ae4-ad2709885386)

Watch the full video:

<div align="left">
      <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iMi5BiQcoI">
         <img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/6iMi5BiQcoI/maxresdefault.jpg" style="width:100%; border: 1px solid">
      </a>
</div>
<br/>

For more info, see https://element.io/blog/experimenting-with-matrix-2-0-using-element-docker-demo/

## To configure

Check the .env file, or customise the templates in `/data-templates` and then `docker compose down && docker compose up -d`.

In particular, you may wish to:
 * Point at your own SMTP server rather than mailhog
 * Use your own reverse proxy rather than the provided nginx
 * Use your own database cluster

Container data gets stored in `./data`, and secrets in `./secrets`.
N.B. that config files in `./data` will get overwritten by the templates from `./data-template` every time the cluster
is launched.

## To admin

```bash
# To upgrade
docker compose pull
```

```bash
# To register a user
docker compose exec mas mas-cli -c /data/config.yaml manage register-user
```

## Diagnostics

```bash
# check that OIDC is working - useful for debugging TLS problems
docker compose exec mas mas-cli -c /data/config.yaml doctor
````

## Other resources

 * This was originally based on https://github.com/element-hq/synapse/tree/master/contrib/docker_compose_workers
 * Other guides for MAS and Element Call from Sebastian Späth at:
   * https://sspaeth.de/2024/08/matrix-server-with-nextcloud-login/
   * https://sspaeth.de/2024/11/sfu/
 * https://cyberhost.uk/element-matrix-setup/ is a good Matrix 1.0 docker-compose guide too

## Todo

 * [ ] pop up https://element in your browser once synapse has started up successfully for the first time, perhaps
 * [ ] test $VOLUME_PATH (or remove it)
 * [ ] swap nginx for caddy or traefik to simplify Letsencrypt
 * [ ] set up livekit TURN (tcp & udp port 443) for better firewall traversal and voip performance