Matrix Server - Docker Compose Setup

A complete, production-ready Matrix server stack with modern authentication and web client.

What's Included

• Synapse - Matrix homeserver
• Matrix Authentication Service (MAS) - Modern OIDC-based authentication
• Element Web - Web client interface
• Element Admin - Admin dashboard
• PostgreSQL - Database backend
• Caddy - Reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS

Features

• Clean template-based configuration
• Optional upstream OIDC integration (Authelia, Keycloak, etc.)
• Separate or combined deployment options
• Comprehensive documentation
• Production-ready security defaults

Quick Start

1. Copy templates and configure:

   cp templates/docker-compose.yml .
   cp templates/.env.template .env
   cp templates/homeserver.yaml synapse/config/
   cp templates/mas-config.yaml mas/config/
   cp templates/element-config.json element/config/

2. Follow the setup guide:

   See SETUP.md for complete step-by-step instructions including:

   • Secret generation
   • Configuration placeholders
   • DNS setup
   • Reverse proxy configuration
   • First user creation
   • Troubleshooting

3. Start the stack:

   docker compose up -d

Architecture

Internet (HTTPS)
    ↓
Caddy Reverse Proxy
    ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Matrix Stack                           │
│  ┌──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐    │
│  │ Element  │ Synapse  │   MAS    │    │
│  │   Web    │  :8008   │  :8080   │    │
│  └──────────┴─────┬────┴─────┬────┘    │
│                   │          │          │
│              ┌────▼──────────▼────┐    │
│              │   PostgreSQL       │    │
│              └────────────────────┘    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Documentation

• SETUP.md - Complete setup guide with all configuration details
• templates/ - Clean configuration templates for all services

Authentication Options

MAS Only (Default)

• Built-in authentication via Matrix Authentication Service
• User accounts managed within Matrix
• Simpler setup, fewer dependencies

With Upstream OIDC (Optional)

• Integrate with existing identity providers (Authelia, Keycloak, etc.)
• Centralized authentication across services
• Single Sign-On (SSO) support

See SETUP.md Step 5 for OIDC configuration.

Configuration Templates

The templates/ directory contains:

• docker-compose.yml - Service orchestration
• .env.template - Environment variables with secret generation guidance
• homeserver.yaml - Synapse configuration
• mas-config.yaml - MAS configuration with optional OIDC
• element-config.json - Element Web client configuration
• Caddyfile - Reverse proxy configuration
• authelia-client.yml - Example OIDC client config for Authelia

All templates use {{PLACEHOLDER}} format for easy find-and-replace.

Deployment Scenarios

Single Server

Run everything (Matrix + Caddy) on one machine.

Multi-Server

• Matrix stack on dedicated server
• Caddy reverse proxy on separate edge server
• Optional: Authelia on separate authentication server

See SETUP.md Step 7 for details.

Requirements

• Docker and Docker Compose
• Domain name with DNS configured
• Ports 80, 443 accessible (for HTTPS/certificates)

Common Operations

# Check service status
docker compose ps

# View logs
docker compose logs -f

# Restart services
docker compose restart

# Stop all services
docker compose down

# Update images
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Security

• HTTPS enforced via Caddy with automatic Let's Encrypt certificates
• Strong secret generation required (see SETUP.md Step 2)
• Database passwords must be synchronized across configs
• Admin interface access should be restricted by IP

See SETUP.md for security considerations and hardening.

Backup

Essential data directories:

postgres/data/    - Database
synapse/data/     - Synapse media and state
mas/data/         - MAS sessions
.env              - Secrets and configuration

Backup command:

tar -czf matrix-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
  postgres/data \
  synapse/data \
  mas/data \
  .env

Support

• Matrix Synapse: https://github.com/element-hq/synapse
• MAS: https://github.com/element-hq/matrix-authentication-service
• Element Web: https://github.com/element-hq/element-web
• Setup Issues: See SETUP.md Troubleshooting section

License

This setup uses the following open-source components:

• Matrix Synapse: Apache 2.0
• Matrix Authentication Service: Apache 2.0
• Element Web: Apache 2.0
• PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL License
• Caddy: Apache 2.0