Deploy Kavita in one click

What is Kavita?

Kavita is an open-source reading server for manga, webtoons, comics and books. It reads the files where they are, CBZ, CBR, ZIP, RAR and 7-Zip archives and folders of images for comics, EPUB and PDF for books, groups them into series with their covers and metadata, and serves them to readers in the browser that work on a phone, a tablet and a desktop. The readers have a webtoon mode, a continuous mode that goes on to the next chapter, and highlights and annotations in EPUB books.

People run Kavita to read their own collection anywhere and to share it with family and friends: each user has their own progress, and roles limit what they see and do, ages included. Collections, reading lists, Want to Read and smart filters organise a large library, and themes change its look. Kavita+, a paid subscription, adds metadata, reviews and recommendations from the internet; everything else is free.

This template runs Kavita's official image, version 0.9.1, with its database and settings in one volume and your books in another. The admin is registered from the username, email and password you give before Kavita answers anyone.

Hosting Kavita 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 Kavita. You fill in what it asks for and click Create project: Username, Email, Admin password.
3. In a minute or two Kavita 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 Kavita

Kavita 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: kavita (jvmilazz0/kavita:0.9.1).

Volumes, in the nightly backup: config, books.

services:
  kavita:
    image: jvmilazz0/kavita:0.9.1
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      ADMIN_USERNAME: ${ADMIN_USERNAME}
      ADMIN_EMAIL: ${ADMIN_EMAIL}
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
      TZ: Etc/UTC
    # A new Kavita lets whoever opens it first register as its admin. So until the admin exists,
    # Kavita runs on 127.0.0.1:5001, which nobody reaches, where the admin is registered from the
    # fields; only then does it start as the image starts it, answering on 5000. Kavita reads the
    # port and address of its appsettings.json only when it does not know it is in a container.
    # A refusal stops the start with Kavita's reason in the log.
    entrypoint:
      - /bin/bash
      - -c
      - |
        set -e
        cd /kavita
        if [ ! -f config/admin-registered ]; then
          if [ ! -f config/appsettings.json ]; then
            cp /tmp/config/appsettings.json config/appsettings.json
          fi
          sed -i -e 's/"Port": *[0-9]*/"Port": 5001/' -e 's/"IpAddresses": *"[^"]*"/"IpAddresses": "127.0.0.1"/' config/appsettings.json
          env -u DOTNET_RUNNING_IN_CONTAINER ./Kavita &
          kavita=$$!
          until curl -sf -o /dev/null http://127.0.0.1:5001/api/health; do
            kill -0 $$kavita
            sleep 1
          done
          json() {
            local s=$${1//\\/\\\\}
            s=$${s//\"/\\\"}
            printf '"%s"' "$$s"
          }
          body="{\"username\":$$(json "$$ADMIN_USERNAME"),\"email\":$$(json "$$ADMIN_EMAIL"),\"password\":$$(json "$$ADMIN_PASSWORD")}"
          status=$$(curl -s -o /tmp/register -w '%{http_code}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d "$$body" http://127.0.0.1:5001/api/Account/register)
          kill $$kavita
          wait $$kavita || true
          sed -i -e 's/"Port": *[0-9]*/"Port": 5000/' -e 's/"IpAddresses": *"[^"]*"/"IpAddresses": ""/' config/appsettings.json
          # 400 "denied": an admin exists already, registered by an earlier start.
          if [ "$$status" != 200 ] && ! grep -qi denied /tmp/register; then
            echo "Kavita refused the admin ($$status): $$(cat /tmp/register)"
            exit 1
          fi
          touch config/admin-registered
        fi
        exec /entrypoint.sh
    volumes:
      - config:/kavita/config
      # Writable, so that books can be uploaded or copied in over SFTP.
      - books:/books
volumes:
  config:
  books:

compose.yamlSee it on GitHub