Self-Hosting Overview

solyto is fully self-hostable. All components are published as Docker images, and the selfhosted repo provides a complete Docker Compose stack with everything wired together.

Why self-host

• Full control — your data stays on your hardware
• No third-party access — nobody else has access to your data, ever
• Customization — configure features, disable what you don’t need
• No vendor lock-in — standard Docker stack, easy to migrate or back up
• Free — no subscriptions, no limits

System requirements

The only software requirement is Docker and Docker Compose — everything else runs inside containers. solyto is lightweight: it runs comfortably on a Raspberry Pi, and any VPS or root server is more than sufficient.

You also need:

• A server reachable from the internet (VPS, dedicated server, or home server with port forwarding)
• Three domain names pointing to your server’s IP address (app, api, dav)
• A valid email address for TLS certificate generation (Let’s Encrypt)

Architecture

solyto runs as 10 Docker services:

Service	Image	Description
traefik	traefik:v3	Reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS via Let’s Encrypt
nginx	solyto/api-nginx	Web server for API and DAV, healthcheck on /api/v1/health
api	solyto/api-php	Laravel PHP-FPM backend, runs startup.sh then php-fpm
dav	solyto/api-php	WebDAV/CalDAV/CardDAV service (same image, different config)
queue	solyto/api-php	Laravel queue worker (queue:work --tries=3 --timeout=300)
app	solyto/app	SvelteKit frontend with SSR, runs on port 3000
imgproxy	darthsim/imgproxy	Optional image processing (only if IMAGE_DRIVER=imgproxy)
mariadb	mariadb:12	Primary database for the API
postgres	postgres:17	Database for CalDAV/CardDAV (SabreDAV)
redis	redis:7.4.1	Cache, queue backend, and session storage

Docker images

Three images are published and maintained by the solyto project:

Image	Base	Purpose
solyto/app	Node 22 Alpine	SvelteKit SSR frontend, port 3000
solyto/api-php	PHP 8.4 FPM	Laravel application backend
solyto/api-nginx	Nginx Alpine	Serves static files and proxies to PHP-FPM

Network architecture

Three Docker networks isolate services by function:

Network	Services	Purpose
public	traefik, nginx, app	Externally reachable services
api	nginx, api, dav, queue, imgproxy	Internal API communication
db	api, dav, queue, mariadb, postgres, redis	Database access only

Traffic flow: Internet → Traefik → Nginx → PHP-FPM (api/dav) and Internet → Traefik → App (port 3000).

Volumes

Volume	Used by	Purpose
mariadb_data	mariadb	MariaDB data persistence
pg_data	postgres	PostgreSQL data persistence
redis_data	redis	Redis data persistence
traefik_acme	traefik	Let’s Encrypt TLS certificates
./storage/	api, dav, queue, nginx, imgproxy	Shared file storage (uploads, logs, framework cache)

What’s next

• Installation — step-by-step setup guide
• Configuration — all environment variables
• Docker Secrets — managing credentials securely