Self-Hosted Deployment Guide

Deploy HRPulsar on your own infrastructure using Docker Compose.

Prerequisites

• Docker 24.0+
• Docker Compose 2.20+
• 2+ vCPU, 4+ GB RAM, 20+ GB SSD (minimum)
• A domain name (optional, for HTTPS)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/hrpulsar/hrpulsar.git
cd hrpulsar

2. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and set at minimum:

JWT_SECRET=your-random-secret-string-here
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=a-strong-database-password

3. Start all services

docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml up -d

This starts 5 containers:

• Caddy — Reverse proxy (ports 80/443)
• Backend — FastAPI application (port 8000 internal)
• Frontend — Next.js application (port 3000 internal)
• PostgreSQL — Database with pgvector extension
• Redis — Cache

4. Access the application

• HTTP: http://your-server-ip
• HTTPS: https://your-domain.com (if you configured a domain in the Caddyfile)

Create your first account at the registration page.

HTTPS with a Domain

To enable automatic HTTPS:

1. Point your domain's A record to your server IP
2. Edit deploy/Caddyfile: replace :80 with your domain (e.g., app.yourcompany.com)
3. Restart Caddy: docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml restart caddy

Caddy will automatically obtain a Let's Encrypt certificate.

Environment Variables

Upgrading

cd hrpulsar
git pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml build
docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml up -d

Migrations run automatically on backend startup.

Backup & Restore

Backup

./scripts/backup_db.sh ./backups

Or set up a daily cron job:

crontab -e
# Add: 0 3 * * * /path/to/hrpulsar/scripts/backup_db.sh /path/to/backups

Restore

gunzip -c backups/hrpulsar_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.sql.gz | \
  docker compose exec -T postgres psql -U hrpulsar hrpulsar

Troubleshooting

Check service status

docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml ps

View logs

docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml logs backend
docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml logs frontend

Health check

curl http://localhost:8000/health

Hardware Recommendations