Configuration

Capitrack runs with sensible defaults out of the box, so most people never touch a thing. When you do want to set the initial admin password, move the database, or change the published port, everything is driven by a handful of environment variables on the api service plus the port mapping on the web service.

Environment variables

These are set on the api service in docker-compose.yml. The CAPITRACK_INIT_* values only take effect on the first run, while the database is still empty.

The API also understands two more variables that aren't set by default:

Setting the initial admin password

By default the first-run password is random and printed to the logs. To choose your own, copy the template to a .env file (it is gitignored) and edit the values before the first docker compose up:

# first-run admin account (empty DB only)
CAPITRACK_INIT_USERNAME=admin
CAPITRACK_INIT_PASSWORD=my-secure-password

# base currency for dashboard totals
CAPITRACK_BASE_CURRENCY=EUR

If you leave CAPITRACK_INIT_PASSWORD empty, read the generated password from the logs after first start:

$ docker compose logs api

The docker-compose stack

Capitrack is two services managed by one docker-compose.yml. The api container is internal (it only exposes 8080); the web container (nginx) is the one published to your host and reverse-proxies /api to the api container:

services:
  api:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: docker/api.Dockerfile
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - DB_PATH=/app/data/capitrack.db
      - CAPITRACK_INIT_USERNAME=${CAPITRACK_INIT_USERNAME:-admin}
      - CAPITRACK_INIT_PASSWORD=${CAPITRACK_INIT_PASSWORD:-}
      - CAPITRACK_BASE_CURRENCY=${CAPITRACK_BASE_CURRENCY:-EUR}
    volumes:
      - capitrack-dotnet-data:/app/data
      - ./transactions:/app/transactions:ro
    expose:
      - "8080"

  web:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: docker/web.Dockerfile
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      api:
        condition: service_healthy
    ports:
      - "3000:80"

volumes:
  capitrack-dotnet-data:

Changing the published port

The app is published on host port 3000 (3000:80 on the web service). To use a different port, change the left-hand side of the mapping — e.g. for 8088:

services:
  web:
    ports:
      - "8088:80"

Data persistence

All persistent state lives in a named Docker volume mounted at /app/data:

• capitrack.db — the SQLite database (accounts, transactions, goals, tags, rates, the price cache and daily-wealth snapshots).
• dp-keys/ — the DataProtection key ring. Persisting it is what keeps your auth cookie valid across container restarts (otherwise the keys rotate and everyone is logged out).
• settings.json — written when you change the database path from Settings → Database.

The volume survives docker compose down; docker compose down -v deletes it (wiping the database).

The transactions mount

A host folder is also mounted read-only into the api container at /app/transactions as a convenient place to stage CSV files for manual import. Capitrack does not auto-import from it — you import through the UI (account → Import) or the API. See CSV import.

Backing up your data

Because all of your data is a single SQLite file in the volume, backups are entirely in your control. Copy the database file straight out of the volume:

# copy the live database out of the running api container
$ docker compose cp api:/app/data/capitrack.db ./capitrack-backup.db

# …or archive the whole data volume
$ docker run --rm -v capitrack-dotnet-data:/data -v $PWD:/backup \
    alpine tar czf /backup/capitrack-backup.tar.gz /data