Setting up Pixelfed

Pixelfed is a full Laravel application, so this setup has more moving parts than most of the rest of this Library: expect to spend a bit more time on it than something like Immich.

1
Clone the repo and copy the Docker env file
Pixelfed ships a Docker-oriented .env template separate from its regular one. Copy it as a starting point rather than writing the configuration from scratch.
```
git clone https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed.git
cd pixelfed
cp .env.docker.example .env
```
2
Set the app URL and database credentials
In .env, set APP_URL to wherever this instance will actually be reached, along with DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, and DB_PASSWORD for the database container defined in the compose file.
3
Build and start the containers
This builds the app image locally rather than pulling a prebuilt one, so the first run takes a while.
```
docker compose up -d --build
```
4
Generate the app key and run migrations
Run these inside the app container to finish the setup: generate the encryption key Laravel needs, then create the database tables.
```
docker compose exec app php artisan key:generate
docker compose exec app php artisan migrate --force
```
5
Create the first account
Either register normally through the web UI, or promote an existing account to admin from the command line.
```
docker compose exec app php artisan user:admin <username>
```

Setting up Pixelfed

Clone the repo and copy the Docker env file

Set the app URL and database credentials

Build and start the containers

Generate the app key and run migrations

Create the first account

Further reading