TwentyCRM Docker Compose Deployment

Channel: Core VPS, served at https://crm.debtrecoveryexperts.com
Port: 3001 (DocuSeal occupies 3000)
Image: twentycrm/twenty:latest (v2.20.0 pre-release as of 2026-07-07)
Stack dir: ~/docker/twenty/

Services (4 containers)

Container	Image	Purpose	Depends on
`twenty-server-1`	`twentycrm/twenty:latest`	NestJS API + frontend SPA on port 3000	db (healthy), redis (healthy)
`twenty-worker-1`	`twentycrm/twenty:latest`	Background job processor (BullMQ)	db, server (healthy)
`twenty-db-1`	`postgres:16`	PostgreSQL database	—
`twenty-redis-1`	`redis` (noeviction policy)	Queue + cache	—

docker-compose.yml

Located at ~/docker/twenty/docker-compose.yml. Based on upstream's packages/twenty-docker/docker-compose.yml with changes:

Host port 3000 → 3001 to avoid conflict with DocuSeal.
Added REACT_APP_SERVER_BASE_URL: ${SERVER_URL} to server container environment.

.env

Based on packages/twenty-docker/.env.example. Key values:

TAG=latest
PG_DATABASE_USER=postgres
PG_DATABASE_PASSWORD=<generated>
PG_DATABASE_HOST=db
PG_DATABASE_PORT=5432
PG_DATABASE_NAME=default
REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379
SERVER_URL=https://crm.debtrecoveryexperts.com
ENCRYPTION_KEY=<openssl rand -base64 32>
STORAGE_TYPE=local

CRITICAL: SERVER_URL must match the public domain exactly. Setting it to http://localhost:3000 or http://localhost:3001 will cause API calls to fail from the browser because the frontend uses SERVER_URL (via REACT_APP_SERVER_BASE_URL) for GraphQL requests.

Generate the encryption key

openssl rand -base64 32

Warning: Losing ENCRYPTION_KEY means losing access to every secret stored in the database (OAuth tokens, TOTP secrets, etc.). Back it up.

Initial deployment

git clone https://github.com/twentyhq/twenty.git ~/docker/twenty
cp ~/docker/twenty/packages/twenty-docker/docker-compose.yml ~/docker/twenty/
cp ~/docker/twenty/packages/twenty-docker/.env.example ~/docker/twenty/.env
# Edit .env with encryption key + password + SERVER_URL
# Adjust port in docker-compose.yml if needed
# ADD REACT_APP_SERVER_BASE_URL: ${SERVER_URL} to server environment
cd ~/docker/twenty && docker compose up -d

PITFALL: REACT_APP_SERVER_BASE_URL required for reverse proxy

TwentyCRM's Docker image serves both the React frontend and NestJS backend from the same container. The React build includes a runtime env injection step (inject-runtime-env.sh) that reads REACT_APP_SERVER_BASE_URL from the container environment.

Without this env var, the frontend defaults API requests to http://localhost:3000, which breaks when accessed through Caddy/nginx because the browser sends API requests to localhost instead of the public domain.

Fix: Add to docker-compose.yml server environment:

environment:
  NODE_PORT: 3000
  PG_DATABASE_URL: ...
  SERVER_URL: ${SERVER_URL}
  REACT_APP_SERVER_BASE_URL: ${SERVER_URL}   # MUST ADD
  REDIS_URL: ${REDIS_URL:-redis://redis:6379}

After adding, restart: docker compose up -d server

Caddy Reverse Proxy

crm.debtrecoveryexperts.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:3001
}

First-time setup (browser)

Navigate to https://crm.debtrecoveryexperts.com/
Click "Continue with Email"
Create workspace admin account (sign-up form)
Configure workspace name, timezone, currency
Optionally set up Google/Microsoft calendar + email integrations

Verification

# All 4 containers healthy
docker ps --filter name=twenty --format '{{.Names}} {{.Status}}'

# Frontend serving
curl -sI https://crm.debtrecoveryexperts.com/ | head -3

# Backend health
curl -s https://crm.debtrecoveryexperts.com/healthz

# GraphQL API responding
curl -s https://crm.debtrecoveryexperts.com/graphql \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"query":"{__typename}"}'

# Console: check env config injected in HTML
curl -sL https://crm.debtrecoveryexperts.com/ | grep -A3 'twenty-env-config'

Backup

docker exec twenty-db-1 pg_dump -U postgres default > backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

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