Updating & backups

Check what is running

curl http://localhost:3000/api/rest/app/version

Use your own address if it is not localhost:3000, or your public URL when the port is not published.

Updating Vaultisse

Releases are listed on the Releases page and on GitHub.

1. Back up first. See below.

2. In .env, set APP_TAG to the version you want, for example APP_TAG=1.3.5.

3. Pull the new image and restart:

   docker compose pull
   docker compose up -d

Database changes are applied for you. When a release changes the database, the server applies the missing upgrade steps by itself on startup and remembers which it has run. There is nothing to run by hand, and an upgrade that is already applied is never repeated.

Tip: Pin APP_TAG to a version number instead of latest. That way an update is something you choose, and not something that happens when the container restarts.

To go through several versions, you can jump straight to the newest one, the upgrade steps run in order.

Trying a beta

A prerelease such as 1.3.7-beta.1 is published as its own image tag and is never latest. It is listed on the Releases page and marked as a prerelease on GitHub. To try it:

1. Back up first, and ideally try it on a copy, not on the library you rely on. A beta may change the database in a way you cannot undo by going back to an older version. Restore the backup if you want to leave.
2. Set APP_TAG=1.3.7-beta.1 in .env.
3. Run docker compose pull and docker compose up -d.

To leave the beta, restore your backup and set APP_TAG to the version you came from. When the final release is out, change APP_TAG to it.

Backing up

Everything that matters is in the database. Two ways to protect it:

A dump file (recommended, works across versions):

docker compose exec -T db pg_dump -U postgres vaultisse > vaultisse-$(date +%F).sql

Use your own DB_USER and DB_NAME if you changed them. Run this on a schedule, for example with cron:

0 3 * * * cd /path/to/vaultisse && docker compose exec -T db pg_dump -U postgres vaultisse > /backups/vaultisse-$(date +\%F).sql

Copy the files off the machine as well, a backup next to the data is lost with it.

The volume itself: stop the stack and copy the db-data volume. This only restores onto the same Postgres major version.

Also keep a copy of your .env. Without JWT_SECRET and DB_PASSWORD you can restore the data, but everyone has to sign in again.

Note: Uploaded ebook files are stored in the database too, so they are part of the dump.

Restoring

On a fresh install (steps 1 and 2 of Installation), start only the database, load the dump, then start the app:

docker compose up -d db
docker compose exec -T db psql -U postgres -d vaultisse < vaultisse-2026-10-18.sql
docker compose up -d

If the dump comes from an older version, the server brings it up to date when it starts.

Upgrading PostgreSQL itself

Changing the postgres: tag in docker-compose.yml to a new major version is not like updating Vaultisse. The data format changes between major versions, so an existing volume will not start. Take a dump, create a new empty volume on the new version, and restore the dump into it.

Logs

docker compose logs -f app

The same messages are written to bookStorage.log in the app-logs volume. Set DEBUG_LOGGING=true only while troubleshooting, it records names and SQL and should not stay on.