Troubleshooting

With Docker Compose, docker compose logs app shows the app's log (add -f to follow it). After changing .env, run docker compose up -d again. For the other ways of running Dossier, Something's wrong under Day to day in its installation guide says where the log is.

• "Dossier didn't start: applying the database migrations failed." The error above that line says why. P1001 means the database isn't reachable: check that the db container is running (docker compose ps). If a migration failed halfway, the database needs repairing before the next start: restore the dump you took before upgrading, or ask for help with the log.
• "… is not set" or "DOSSIER_SECRET is too short": set the variable the log names in .env (see Environment variables).
• "DOSSIER_PASSWORD must be a hash of your password": it's set to the password itself, which Dossier 1.0 took. Make a hash with docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/aientech/dossier hash-password and set DOSSIER_PASSWORD to it.
• PDFs fail or time out: Chromium needs memory; give the app at least 768 MB (compose.yml gives it 1 GB). Fonts are bundled with Dossier, so documents look the same everywhere; a custom document language in a script Dossier has no font for may show empty boxes.
• The AI times out: local models on a CPU are slow. Try a smaller model, or raise DOSSIER_AI_TIMEOUT_SECONDS. Test connection in Settings shows whether Dossier reaches the server at all; inside Docker, localhost isn't the server (see Choosing an AI provider).
• An import fails with "413" or "Request Entity Too Large": the reverse proxy's upload limit is below 10 MB. Caddy has none by default; with nginx, set client_max_body_size 12m;.
• "That file is over 10 MB": imports are capped at 10 MB, roughly 500 applications. Raising the cap means changing two settings in the code (see Import size limit).
• "Too many attempts": after five wrong passwords in a minute, sign-in pauses for 30 seconds, then longer each time, up to 15 minutes. The count is kept in the database, so restarting doesn't reset it: wait it out.
• Forgot the password: make a hash of a new one with docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/aientech/dossier hash-password and set it as DOSSIER_PASSWORD in .env.
• Is it up? /api/health answers {"status":"ok"} when the app and its database are fine, and 503 when the database isn't reachable.