Running Oduflow in Docker¶

Running Oduflow in Docker

Oduflow can run as a Docker container. Since it manages other Docker containers (Odoo environments, PostgreSQL, etc.), it uses the Docker-out-of-Docker pattern — the host's Docker socket is mounted into the container.

Build¶

docker build -t oduflow .

Run¶

Minimal example¶

docker run -d \
  --name oduflow \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v oduflow_data:/srv/oduflow \
  oduflow

Full example with all typical options¶

docker run -d \
  --name oduflow \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v oduflow_data:/srv/oduflow \
  -v /etc/oduflow:/etc/oduflow \
  oduflow

Volume Mounts¶

Mount	Purpose
`/var/run/docker.sock`	Required. Gives Oduflow access to the host Docker daemon to manage Odoo containers, PostgreSQL, Traefik, etc.
`/srv/oduflow`	Oduflow data directory. Contains team directories with workspaces, templates, port registry. Use a named volume or a host path to persist data across container restarts.
`/etc/oduflow`	System configuration directory. Contains `oduflow.toml`, license key, `postgresql.conf`, default `odoo.conf`, and other configuration files. Mount to persist configuration across container restarts.

Networking¶

The Oduflow container must be on the same Docker network as the containers it creates. The simplest approach is to connect it to oduflow-net after initialization:

# 1. Start Oduflow (Docker image defaults to HTTP mode)
docker run -d --name oduflow -p 8000:8000 \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v oduflow_data:/srv/oduflow \
  -v /etc/oduflow:/etc/oduflow \
  oduist/oduflow

# 2. Connect Oduflow to the shared network (created automatically on startup)
docker network connect oduflow-net oduflow

Alternatively, start with --network oduflow-net if the network already exists.

Shared infrastructure (Docker network, PostgreSQL, team directories) is initialized automatically on startup — no separate init step needed.

To set up a template database:

# From scratch (clean Odoo with specified modules)
docker exec oduflow oduflow init-template --odoo-image odoo:17.0 --template-name default --modules base,web,contacts

# Or import from a running Odoo instance
docker exec oduflow oduflow import-template https://my-odoo.example.com master_password --template-name default

Configuration¶

Oduflow reads its configuration from oduflow.toml. When running in Docker, mount the config directory:

-v /etc/oduflow:/etc/oduflow

Key configuration settings in oduflow.toml:

[server]
host = "0.0.0.0"
port = 8000

[team.1]
hostname = "localhost"
auth_token = "your-secret-token"   # MCP auth (empty = disabled)
ui_password = "your-ui-password"   # Web UI auth (empty = disabled)

See Installation — Configuration Reference for all options.

Docker Compose¶

services:
  oduflow:
    image: oduist/oduflow
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - oduflow_data:/srv/oduflow
      - oduflow_etc:/etc/oduflow
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - oduflow-net

volumes:
  oduflow_data:
  oduflow_etc:

networks:
  oduflow-net:
    name: oduflow-net

After docker compose up -d, Oduflow initializes shared infrastructure automatically.

Security Notes¶

Mounting the Docker socket gives the container full control over the host Docker daemon. This is equivalent to root access on the host. Only run Oduflow in trusted environments.
Set auth_token in [team.*] to protect the MCP endpoint.
Set ui_password in [team.*] to protect the Web UI.

Privileged Mode and fuse-overlayfs¶

Oduflow uses fuse-overlayfs for efficient filestore sharing when templates exceed overlay_threshold_mb (default: 50 MB). This requires the /dev/fuse device inside the container.

If your templates are small (under the threshold), Oduflow falls back to simple file copy and no special privileges are needed.

For large templates, run with the fuse device:

docker run -d \
  --name oduflow \
  --device /dev/fuse \
  --cap-add SYS_ADMIN \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v oduflow_data:/srv/oduflow \
  oduflow

Alternatively, set a high threshold in oduflow.toml to avoid overlayfs entirely:

[storage]
overlay_threshold_mb = 999999