Unable to get Authentik running via Docker Compose

[andrewwulf]

I am going through the process of trying to get Authentik up and running but I get stuck on the "Server is starting up. Refreshing in a few seconds...". I have followed the official guide at https://docs.goauthentik.io/install-config/install/docker-compose/

When I go into container manager the project is fully built, but after a couple of minutes authentik-server-1 will turns yellow and I get an error that references :

2026/05/24 12:41:18 stderr {"env_var":"POSTGRES_PASSWORD","event":"Environment variable not found, using fallback","fallback":"","found":false,"level":"warning","timestamp":"2026-05-24T17:41:18Z"}
2026/05/24 12:41:18 stderr {"event":"Loaded config","level":"debug","path":"inbuilt-default","timestamp":"2026-05-24T17:41:18Z"}
2026/05/24 12:41:18 stderr {"env_var":"POSTGRES_PASSWORD","event":"Environment variable not found, using fallback","fallback":"","found":false,"level":"warning","timestamp":"2026-05-24T17:41:18Z"}
2026/05/24 12:41:18 stderr {"event": "Not running as root, disabling permission fixes", "level": "info", "logger": "bootstrap"}

I have run the commands on the guide and have confirmed that the passwords were generated and stored in the env file but not sure why it is not seeing it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[sueun-dev]

fwiw, that POSTGRES_PASSWORD warning looks like a red herring.

The current compose file expects .env to contain PG_PASS, not POSTGRES_PASSWORD. Compose maps that into Postgres as POSTGRES_PASSWORD and into authentik as AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__PASSWORD.

I tested the current official compose with fresh PG_PASS + AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY: postgresql, server, and worker all went healthy, / redirected to /setup, and /setup followed to /if/flow/initial-setup/ with 200. The logs still printed the same POSTGRES_PASSWORD warning, then PostgreSQL connection successful, so that warning alone does not mean .env was ignored.

Check what Compose actually rendered/imported:

docker compose config | grep -E "PG_PASS|POSTGRES_PASSWORD|AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__PASSWORD"
docker compose exec server sh -lc "env | grep -E \"PG_PASS|AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__PASSWORD\""
docker compose logs postgresql server worker --tail=100

If AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__PASSWORD is missing there, the .env file is probably in the wrong folder, named differently, or Container Manager did not import it with the compose stack.

[andrewwulf]

I was able to force it to start working by adding “user: root” to the server portion of the compose and then rebuild it. Then once it is fully built and running I stop the container and remove the user