options that don't involve docker?

[Bappy1988]

please can you make releases for you application that don't involve docker? it's written in Go right? which to my knowledge is intended to produce portable binaries? docker is not to everyone's tastes, it's doesn't play nice with lxc based proxmox labs etc and generally causes me totally unnecessary headaches when I just want to launch a binary via systemd on an lxc that I've provisioned.

[X4Applegate]

Thanks for raising this. I agree this is worth supporting.

I’ve added release automation so tagged releases can publish native Linux binaries for amd64 and arm64, plus a sample systemd unit and README instructions for running CaddyUI directly without Docker. That should cover LXC/Proxmox, VMs, and bare-metal installs where Docker is not a good fit.

Once this lands in the next release, you should be able to download the tarball, install the binary, enable the provided service, and point it at your local or remote Caddy admin API.

[X4Applegate]

Thanks for raising this. I agree this is worth supporting.

CaddyUI now publishes native Linux binaries in addition to Docker images. Starting with v2.16.4, the GitHub release includes linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 tarballs, checksums, and a sample systemd service file.

I also added README instructions for running it directly under systemd, which should fit LXC/Proxmox, VMs, and bare-metal installs where Docker is not preferred.

Release: https://github.com/X4Applegate/caddyui/releases/tag/v2.16.4

[Bappy1988]

what a phenomenal response !

Thanks so much for jumping on this request like that. super impressed and really pleased that you're willing to make this provision.

[X4Applegate]

Really appreciate that, thank you.

I’ve also added a clearer “Building from Source” section to the README for anyone who wants to compile it directly on Linux instead of downloading the release tarball:

https://github.com/X4Applegate/caddyui#building-from-source

So there are now two non-Docker paths:

• download the prebuilt linux/amd64 or linux/arm64 binary from the release
• build it yourself with Go and install it under systemd

If you try it in your LXC setup and hit anything rough, please let me know and I’ll tighten up the docs or packaging.

[Bappy1988]

So I've given it a go and it seems to be up and running ok :)

a couple of small observations.

the instructions for installation worked fine, but are not explained in the docs, and it does not state that you need to extract the archive and then cd into the extracted file before running the commands (which is probably obvious for most people)

so I would suggest perhaps moving them into their own install.sh script stored alongside the packaged binary with its own comments so that the install instructions can be kept concise.
then your install instructions would look more newbie friendly, something like this;

tar -xvf ./caddyui_v<x.xx.x>_linux_<arch>.tar.gz
cd caddyui_v<x.xx.x>_linux_<arch>
./install.sh

the other observation is that I don't know what the ingest listener on 9019 is/does and it's not obvious from the docs if I need it or not or what it should be set to if I do. don't know if that's a big deal for a getting started instruction or not but it appears optional so maybe a comment against that would be helpful.

Overall I just copied and pasted your install command into the cli in the extracted folder, followed the instructions for creating a drop in and it's up and running so kudos for that.

[X4Applegate]

Good catch, and thanks for testing it so quickly.

I’ve updated this based on your feedback. The release tarballs now include an install.sh script, so the non-Docker install path is simpler:

tar -xvf ./caddyui_vX.Y.Z_linux_ARCH.tar.gz
cd caddyui_vX.Y.Z_linux_ARCH
./install.sh

I also added a note explaining the CADDYUI_INGEST_LISTEN setting. It’s only used for CaddyUI visitor analytics, so it can be left alone for the default localhost setup or disabled with a systemd drop-in if analytics are not being used.

This is included in v2.16.5:
https://github.com/X4Applegate/caddyui/releases/tag/v2.16.5

Thanks again for the practical feedback. That made the install flow much cleaner.

[Bappy1988]

spun up another lxc to give the install script a quick test;

root@new-cad-ui-installer:~# tar -xvf ./caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64.tar.gz 
caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64/
caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64/CHANGELOG.md
caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64/caddyui
caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64/caddyui.service
caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64/LICENSE
caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64/install.sh
caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64/README.md
root@new-cad-ui-installer:~# cd caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64/
root@new-cad-ui-installer:~/caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64# ./install.sh
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/caddyui.service -> /etc/systemd/system/caddyui.service.
CaddyUI installed and started.
Check status with: systemctl status caddyui
root@new-cad-ui-installer:~/caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64# wget localhost:8080
--2026-07-22 18:39:06--  http://localhost:8080/
Resolving localhost (localhost)... ::1, 127.0.0.1
Connecting to localhost (localhost)|::1|:8080... failed: Connection refused.
Connecting to localhost (localhost)|127.0.0.1|:8080... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 303 See Other
Location: /setup [following]
--2026-07-22 18:39:06--  http://localhost:8080/setup
Reusing existing connection to localhost:8080.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/html]
Saving to: 'index.html'

index.html                [ <=>                    ]  16.69K  --.-KB/s    in 0s      

2026-07-22 18:39:06 (37.5 MB/s) - 'index.html' saved [17094]

root@new-cad-ui-installer:~/caddyui_v2.16.5_linux_amd64# 

didn't check on the service status but ran a wget to make sure it served the index instead.
all looks good to me.
thanks for this :)

[X4Applegate]

That’s great to hear, thank you for testing it in a fresh LXC.

The wget result is exactly what I’d expect for a clean install: CaddyUI is listening, redirects / to /setup, and serves the first-run setup page. That confirms the binary, systemd service, and default localhost bind are working.

I really appreciate the practical feedback here. The install script and clearer notes around CADDYUI_INGEST_LISTEN came directly from this discussion, and I think it makes the non-Docker path much better for Proxmox/LXC users.

I’ll leave this discussion open for now in case anyone else runs into rough edges with native installs.