Deploy Immich in one click

What is Immich?

Immich is a self-hosted photo and video library that people run in place of Google Photos or iCloud Photos. Its apps for iPhone and Android back up the camera roll in the background, and the web page and the apps show everything on one timeline, with albums, favourites, an archive, a map of where each photo was taken and memories of the same day in earlier years.

Machine learning that runs within Immich, with no cloud service, finds the people in your photos and groups their faces, reads text in images, and powers smart search, which finds a photo from words such as “dog on a beach”. Immich keeps RAW files, Live Photos and motion photos, shares albums or links with anyone, and lets a partner see your library. Each person on the server has an account of their own.

This template runs Immich’s server, its machine learning, Valkey and its PostgreSQL with the vector extensions it needs, its library in a volume. The administrator is made from the email and password you give before Immich answers anyone, and shared links get the project’s address. Immich asks for 6 GB of memory and 2 cores at least, so it fits Grow; your photos take the disk, so watch its size as the library grows.

Hosting Immich on Pethost

1. You sign in to Pethost with a passkey, GitHub or Google. No machine yet? You pick a plan, and the link waits until it is ready.
2. New project opens at Immich. You fill in what it asks for and click Create project: Email, Admin password.
3. In a minute or two Immich is live at its own address with HTTPS. Its secrets are made at random, and its data is in the nightly backup.
4. It is a project like any other: you or your agent can change it, roll it back or restore it.

Questions about Immich

Immich Docker Compose file

The template is this compose.yaml and the variables written into the project’s .env as it is created. Pethost runs the file as it is written.

Containers: immich-server (ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:v3), immich-machine-learning (ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:v3), redis (valkey/valkey:9), database (ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0).

Volumes, in the nightly backup: library, db, model-cache.

services:
  immich-server:
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:v3
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      DB_HOSTNAME: database
      DB_USERNAME: postgres
      DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      DB_DATABASE_NAME: immich
      REDIS_HOSTNAME: redis
      TZ: ${TZ:-Etc/UTC}
      URL: ${URL}
      ADMIN_EMAIL: ${ADMIN_EMAIL}
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
    # A new Immich makes whoever opens it first its administrator. So its first start runs it on
    # port 2284, which nobody reaches, signs the administrator up there with the email and password
    # given, and sets the address shared links use; only then does Immich answer on 2283.
    command:
      - |
        set -e
        if [ ! -f /data/.pethost-admin ]; then
          # In a process group of its own, so that its workers stop with it.
          IMMICH_PORT=2284 setsid start.sh &
          setup=$$!
          SETUP_PID=$$setup node -e '
            const base = "http://127.0.0.1:2284/api";
            const { URL: url, ADMIN_EMAIL: email, ADMIN_PASSWORD: password } = process.env;
            const json = { "content-type": "application/json" };
            const call = async (path, options) => {
              const response = await fetch(base + path, options);
              if (!response.ok) throw new Error(path + ": " + response.status + " " + (await response.text()));
              return response.json();
            };
            const setUp = async () => {
              const { isInitialized } = await call("/server/config");
              if (isInitialized) return;
              const name = email.split("@")[0];
              await call("/auth/admin-sign-up", { method: "POST", headers: json, body: JSON.stringify({ email, password, name }) });
              const { accessToken } = await call("/auth/login", { method: "POST", headers: json, body: JSON.stringify({ email, password }) });
              const headers = { ...json, authorization: "Bearer " + accessToken };
              const config = await call("/system-config", { headers });
              config.server.externalDomain = url;
              await call("/system-config", { method: "PUT", headers, body: JSON.stringify(config) });
            };
            (async () => {
              let failure;
              for (let i = 0; i < 300; i++) {
                // Immich stops if it cannot start: the container starts again and so does this.
                try {
                  process.kill(Number(process.env.SETUP_PID), 0);
                } catch {
                  process.exit(1);
                }
                try {
                  return await setUp();
                } catch (error) {
                  failure = error;
                  await new Promise((done) => setTimeout(done, 1000));
                }
              }
              console.error(failure);
              process.exit(1);
            })();
          '
          kill -- -$$setup
          wait $$setup || true
          while kill -0 -- -$$setup 2>/dev/null; do sleep 1; done
          touch /data/.pethost-admin
        fi
        unset ADMIN_PASSWORD
        exec start.sh
    volumes:
      - library:/data
    depends_on:
      redis:
        condition: service_started
      database:
        condition: service_healthy
    # Its first start makes the database and the administrator before it answers on 2283.
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "immich-healthcheck"]
      interval: 30s
      start_period: 10m
      start_interval: 5s

  immich-machine-learning:
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:v3
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - model-cache:/cache

  redis:
    image: valkey/valkey:9
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: redis-cli ping | grep -q PONG || exit 1

  database:
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: postgres
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_DB: immich
      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: --data-checksums
    shm_size: 128mb
    volumes:
      - db:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  library:
  db:
  model-cache:

compose.yamlSee it on GitHub