Configuration

All runtime configuration is done through environment variables passed to the app container.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
SECRET_KEY_BASE	✅	—	Key used to sign cookies and tokens. Must be at least 64 characters. Generate with openssl rand -base64 48
DATABASE_URL	✅	—	Full Ecto/PostgreSQL connection string, e.g. ecto://user:pass@host/db
PHX_HOST	—	localhost	Public hostname of the application. Used to build absolute URLs
PORT	—	4000	Port that the application listens on inside the container
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	—	kinkeep	Password for the kinkeep PostgreSQL user (used by the db service)
POOL_SIZE	—	10	Number of database connections in the pool

Persistent volumes

Volume	Contents
db_data	PostgreSQL data directory
uploads	Photos and logos uploaded by users

Back up both volumes regularly if you care about your data.

Running behind a reverse proxy

If you put Kinkeep behind Nginx, Caddy, or Traefik:

1. Set PHX_HOST to your public domain.
2. Forward port 4000 from the container.
3. Make sure the proxy passes the X-Forwarded-For and X-Forwarded-Proto headers so that Phoenix can reconstruct the correct base URL.

Example Caddy snippet:

kinkeep.example.org {
    reverse_proxy localhost:4000
}