🚀 Docker API Notifier

A lightweight, event-driven Docker monitor that automatically updates DNS entries and service dashboards based on container events and metadata.

I started this project to solve updating my Technitium DNS server when a host started up on a docker host. So that is the first task this container does.

Then as I was working I was struggling with how to update my dashboard via API etc. So I decided to write a self defining dashboard. So this notifier also can be enabled to send updates to STD-Service Tracker Dashboard.

While STD has a small config file and some manual setting options. The real design was to specify tags in docker compose so that your config would define and update the dashboard.

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📚 Table of Contents

1. What It Does
2. Environment Variables
3. Labels You Can Use
4. Docker Compose Example
5. Building Locally

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1. What It Does

docker-api-notifier listens for Docker events (start, stop, die, etc.) and sends updates to external systems.

Supported integrations:

• 🧭 Technitium DNS – updates DNS records.
• 📊 Service Tracker Dashboard – sends metadata and health checks.

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2. Environment Variables

🛠 General

Variable	Required	Default	Description
TZ	No	UTC	Timezone for logging.

🌐 DNS (Technitium)

Variable	Required	Description
DNS_SERVER_URL	✅ Yes	URL to your DNS API.
DNS_SERVER_API_TOKEN	✅ Yes	Auth token for DNS server.
DNS_SERVER_TYPE	No	Optional descriptor.

📊 Service Tracker Dashboard

Variable	Required	Description
STD_URL	✅ Yes	Dashboard API endpoint.
STD_API_TOKEN	✅ Yes	API token for dashboard.
STD_LOG_TO_STDOUT	No	Set to 0 to disable console logs.
STD_REFRESH_SECONDS	No	300 Interval in seconds to check container state and update API

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3. Labels You Can Use

Add labels to your containers to control what happens when they're started or updated.

🔧 Required for Activation

Label	Required	Description
dockernotifier.notifiers	✅ Yes	List of notifiers to run, e.g. dns,service-tracker-dashboard.

🌐 DNS Labels

Label	Required	Description
dockernotifier.dns.containerhostname	✅ Yes for DNS	Hostname (e.g., sonarr).
dockernotifier.dns.containerzone	✅ Yes for DNS	Zone/domain (e.g., home.local).
dockernotifier.dns.dockerdomain	✅ Yes for DNS	Docker host domain (e.g., docker).

📊 Service Tracker Labels

Label	Required	Description
dockernotifier.std.internalurl	No	Internal service URL.
dockernotifier.std.externalurl	No	Public URL.
dockernotifier.std.internal.health	No	Internal health check.
dockernotifier.std.external.health	No	External health check.
dockernotifier.std.group	No	Group name for dashboard.
dockernotifier.std.icon	No	Icon file name (e.g. sonarr.svg)

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4. Docker Compose Example

services:
  docker-api-notifier:
    build: .
    container_name: docker-api-notifier
    environment:
      - DNS_SERVER_TYPE=Technitium
      - DNS_SERVER_URL=http://dns.example.com:5380/api/zones/records/add
      - DNS_SERVER_API_TOKEN=TOKENFROMDNSSERVER
      - STD_URL=http://std.example.com:8815
      - STD_API_TOKEN=TOKENFROMSTDSERVER
      - TZ=America/Los_Angeles
      - STD_REFRESH_SECONDS=300 
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - /etc/hostname:/etc/host_hostname:ro
      - /var/docker/docker-api-notifier:/config
    restart: unless-stopped