Install Documenso with Docker Compose

Documenso is an open-source e-signature platform: upload a PDF, drop signature, text and date fields on it, send it to signers, and watch it complete. It's the FOSS answer to DocuSign, with templates, bulk sending, and an API for generating agreements from your own system.

What it is

Templates with reusable field layouts, sequential or parallel signing order, email reminders, an audit trail with timestamps and IP addresses, and completed PDFs you can hand straight to a counterparty. It's the practical choice for contracts, NDAs and internal paperwork.

Before you start

• Set NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL to the exact external URL, trailing slash included. It goes into every signing link, and a wrong value produces links that 404 for the recipient only.
• Mail delivery is required for a usable product. Configure SMTP before you invite anyone, or signers never receive the request.
• You'll need a real domain. Signing links are sent to people outside your network, and a LAN-only URL makes the whole thing pointless.

1 — Create the directory

mkdir -p ~/services/documenso/{data,pgdata}
cd ~/services/documenso
openssl rand -hex 32
openssl rand -base64 24

2 — Write the compose file

services:
  app:
    image: documenso/documenso:latest
    container_name: documenso
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
      redis:
        condition: service_healthy
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/data
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://documenso:CHANGE_ME@db:5432/documenso
      DATABASE_URL_DIRECT: postgresql://documenso:CHANGE_ME@db:5432/documenso
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
      NEXTAUTH_SECRET: CHANGE_ME
      NEXTAUTH_URL: https://sign.example.com
      NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL: https://sign.example.com/
      PORT: 3000
      TZ: UTC

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    container_name: documenso-redis
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: redis-server --requirepass CHANGE_ME --save ""
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "redis-cli", "-a", "CHANGE_ME", "ping"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 3

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    container_name: documenso-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: documenso
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: CHANGE_ME
      POSTGRES_DB: documenso
    volumes:
      - ./pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U documenso"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

3 — Start it

docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f app | grep -i "ready\|prisma\|error"

4 — First-run setup

1. Register the first account at https://sign.example.com. It becomes the organisation owner — the person who can set billing and delete the org.
2. Set up SMTP via the admin settings. Send yourself a test document and confirm both the request and the reminder emails arrive from a domain with correct SPF and DKIM, or they land in spam.
3. Build a template from a real document. This is the feature that makes Documenso worth the setup time: upload a PDF once, define the signature/date/initial fields, and reuse it for every contract.
4. Send a test to yourself, complete it, and download the result. Check the audit trail shows timestamps, IPs, and an email-verification state for each signer.
5. Grab an API key from Settings → API and note the key and URL. The v1 API is documented and stable enough to generate documents from a form submission.

5 — Back it up

docker exec -u postgres documenso-db pg_dump -U documenso documenso | gzip > documenso-$(date +%F).sql.gz
# and every uploaded/signed PDF lives in ./data — back that up too
tar -czf documenso-data.tgz ./data