Installation

The recommended way to run Litara is with Docker Compose. This starts the API, web frontend, and a PostgreSQL database together.

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose installed
• A directory on your host machine containing your ebook files

Quick Start

1. Create a docker-compose.yml

services:
  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: litara
      POSTGRES_USER: postgres
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: change-me
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  api:
    image: ghcr.io/litara-app/litara:latest
    ports:
      - '3000:3000'
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://postgres:change-me@db:5432/litara
      JWT_SECRET: change-me-in-production
    volumes:
      - /path/to/your/ebooks:/books:ro
    depends_on:
      - db

volumes:
  db_data:

Replace /path/to/your/ebooks with the absolute path to your ebook directory on the host. Ensure you have secure postgres password.

2. Start the services

docker compose up -d

3. Open the web UI

Navigate to http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

On first run, create an account and Litara will begin scanning your library.

Updating

To update to the latest version:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Database migrations run automatically on startup.