pockethost

PocketHost

PocketHost is the open source multi-tenant PocketBase server. PocketHost can run dozens, hundreds, even thousands of PocketBase instances on a single server or across a global cloud.

Extend PocketHost with its Plugin ecosystem. Start with the bare-bones dev server and add plugins to grow your enterprise into a global cloud.

Sponsored by https://pockethost.io. Instantly host your PocketBase projects.

• Quickstart
• Introduction
• The magic serve command
• Configuration
• Plugins Directory
• Writing Plugins
• Support

Quickstart

npx pockethost serve

Introduction

PocketHost is a multitenant PocketBase hosting system. With it, you can run multiple instances of PocketBase on different subdomains, all on the same server.

Use PocketHost for development or production purposes.

PocketHost can be easily extended using its thoughtful plugin architecture. By choosing additional plugins, PocketHost's features can be extended according to your exact needs. You can even write your own plugins.

The magic serve command

pockethost serve is a special command that can be decorated with plugins. Plugins can respond to the serve command by running their own services.

By convention, plugins that have some kind of serve functionality such as running a server, will make it available in two ways.

The first way runs ONLY the plugin's serve functionality:

pockethost <plugin-name> serve

The second way runs ALL serve functionality from ALL plugins:

pockethost serve

The exact plugins can also be narrowed:

pockethost serve --only=plugin1,plugin2,plugin3

See the plugin authoring guide for more information on how to make a plugin that responds to both methods.

Configuration

PocketHost supports configuration by environment variable, .env file, and also built-in settings via pockethost config.

All PocketHost variables begin with PH_.

PocketHost will search the current directory for an .env when it loads. Anything in .env will be merged with and override any <PH_HOME>/.env that may exist.

Use pockethost config to list and set global defaults.

Core Variables

See pockethost config ls for a full list of variables. Plugin variables will also be listed for loaded plugins.

Name	Default	Discussion
PH_HOME	~/.pockethost	PocketHost's home directory where it holds all data.
PH_APEX_DOMAIN	pockethost.lvh.me	The apex domain used for routing and determining instance names.
PH_PORT	3000	The port PocketHost listens on
PH_DEBUG	NODE_ENV==='development'	Debug mode
PH_PLUGINS	(see below)	A comma-separated list of Plugins to load
PH_DATA_DIR	~/.pockethost/data	The root directory for storing PocketHost data, including instance databases.
PH_DEV	NODE_ENV==='development'	Whether PocketHost is running in development mode.

Default Plugins

• @pockethost/plugin-console-logger
• @pockethost/plugin-launcher-spawn
• @pockethost/plugin-auto-admin

Plugins Directory

PocketHost uses an action/filter architecture to support a growing list plugins. Some plugins have a CLI component, whereas others add purely programmatic support to alter how PocketHost works.

Core plugins

These plugins are maintained by the PocketHost project.

Name	Description
@pockethost/plugin-console-logger	Routes log messages to the console
@pockethost/plugin-auto-admin	Auto-creates a default admin account on instance launch
@pockethost/plugin-launcher-spawn	Launches PocketBase instances via spawn() on the local machine. PocketHost uses this by default
@pockethost/plugin-cloudflare-request-logger	Log additional data when running behind Cloudflare
@pockethost/plugin-ftp-server	Used to provide secure FTPS access to PocketBase instance data. This FTP server can run along-side a PocketHost server.
@pockethost/plugin-local-auth	A light-weight username/password auth provider for associating instances with users.

Coming soon:

name	description
plugin-launcher-docker	Launches PocketBase instances via Docker. This is useful for running untrusted PocketBase code and instances. pockethost.io uses this.
plugin-waf	A Web Application Firewall
plugin-waf-enforce-ssl	Enforce SSL at the WAF

Writing Plugins

See the Plugin Authoring Guide for details about how to write your own plugins.

Support

PocketHost has a thriving Discord community.