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Breen edited this page Dec 28, 2025 · 9 revisions

Welcome to Parker! This guide will help you get your personal comic server up and running using Docker.

Prerequisites

  • Docker installed on your host machine.
  • A directory containing your comic collection (currently supporting .cbz and .cbr).
  • (Optional) Docker Compose for easier management.

Channel selection

Parker publishes two Docker image channels:

  • Stable (recommended): The latest tag is built from versioned releases and is the recommended option for most users.

parker:latest

  • Edge: The edge tag is built automatically from every commit to master. It includes the newest features and fixes, but may be less stable

parker:edge

Quick Start (Docker Run)

If you want to test Parker quickly, run the following command. Replace the paths on the left side of the : with your actual local directories:

docker run -d \
  --name parker \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v /path/to/config:/app/storage \
  -v /path/to/comics:/comics \
  -e BASE_URL=/ \
  ghcr.io/parker-server/parker:latest

Advanced Configuration via CLI

You can configure any setting from the .env file directly in your docker run command using the -e flag. This is particularly useful for setting up your environment without manually editing files.

Example: Running on a subpath with Proxy Trust

docker run -d \
  --name parker \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -e BASE_URL=/comics \
  -e TRUSTED_PROXIES="172.18.0.1,192.168.1.50" \
  -e ALLOWED_ORIGINS="https://comics.yourdomain.com" \
  -v /path/to/config:/app/storage \
  -v /path/to/comics:/comics \
  ghcr.io/parker-server/parker:latest

Recommended Setup (Docker Compose)

For a more permanent installation, use a docker-compose.yml file. This allows you to manage environment variables in a dedicated .env file.

docker-compose.yml

services:
  parker:
    image: ghcr.io/parker-server/parker:latest
    container_name: parker
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    env_file: .env  # Loads your configuration
    volumes:
      - /path/to/config:/app/storage
      - /path/to/comics:/comics
    restart: unless-stopped

Initial Configuration

Once the container is running, access the web UI at http://localhost:8000.

Admin Account: Parker automatically creates the user admin, password admin on first boot

Once logged in, navigate to the administration area at http://localhost:8000/admin

Click the 'Libraries' card and click the Add Library button

Enter a name and a valid path to the root of your comics folder. Note: if running on Windows, paths must be expressed with reverse slashes. Example: If your comic library resides at C:\Users\parker\MyComics, you would enter C:/Users/parker/MyComics into the folder path box.

Click the Create Library button which will save the library.

You will see a row on the page representing your new library. Click the Scan button and confirm to kick off your initial scan

The page will poll for the job to know when it's complete. You can also review jobs on the 'Scan Jobs' card from the admin home.

Building from source

If you prefer to get into the trenches you can instead directly clone the source code

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/parker-server/parker.git
cd parker

  2. Configure the docker-compose.yml with volume mappings, port, etc as explained in the above sections

  3. docker-compose up -d --build

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