Quickstart

Docker Hub images are available for quick installation and deploy.

New to Docker on Windows?

Installing CLU on Windows with Docker Desktop walks through every step, from installing Docker Desktop to opening CLU in your browser.

Install via Docker Compose

services:
    comic-utils:
        image: allaboutduncan/comic-utils-web:latest

        container_name: clu
        logging:
            driver: "json-file"
            options:
                max-size: '20m'  # Reduce log size to 20MB
                max-file: '3'     # Keep only 3 rotated files
        restart: always
        ports:
            - '5577:5577'
        volumes:
            ## REQUIRED. Without this, the database lives in the container's own
            ## writable layer and is destroyed on the next image update.
            - 'config-volume:/config' # Maps to a Docker Volume for Database Storage and Backups
            - "/path/to/local/cache:/cache" # Maps to local folder for thumbnail cache
            ## update the line below to map to your library.
            ## Map your first/main library to /data
            - "/e/Comics:/data"
            ## Map additional drives/libraries and add them in the app settings
            - "/f/Magazines:/magazines"
            ## Additional folder if you want to use Folder Monitoring.
            - "/f/Downloads:/downloads"
        environment:
            - FLASK_ENV=production
            ## Set the User ID (PUID) and Group ID (PGID) for the container.
            ## This is often needed to resolve permission issues, especially on systems like Unraid
            ## where a specific user/group owns the files.
            ## For Unraid, PUID is typically 99 (user 'nobody') and PGID is typically 100 (group 'users').
            ## For Windows/WSL, you need to set these to match your Windows user ID (see WINDOWS_WSL_SETUP.md)
            - PUID=99
            - PGID=100
            ## File creation mask. 000 -> world-writable folders (drwxrwsrwx) and files
            ## (-rw-rw-rw-). Use 002 for group-writable (775/664) or 022 for owner-only writes.
            - UMASK=000
volumes:
  config-volume: # Required for Database Storage and Backups

Install via Docker

docker run -d \
  --name clu \
  --restart always \
  -p 5577:5577 \
  --log-driver json-file \
  --log-opt max-size=20m \
  --log-opt max-file=3 \
  -v config-volume:/config \
  -v /path/to/local/cache:/cache \
  -v /e/Comics:/data \
  -v /f/Magazines:/magazines \
  -v /f/Downloads:/downloads \
  -e FLASK_ENV=production \
  -e PUID=99 \
  -e PGID=100 \
  -e UMASK=000 \
  allaboutduncan/comic-utils-web:latest

Parameters

Additional info about the ENV variables can be found here.

Parameter	Function
-p 5577:5577	The port exposed by the app for the web interface.
- 'config-volume:/config'	Maps to a Docker Volume for Database Storage and Backups
-v /User/comics:/data	Location of your library to manage. Must be mapped to /data
-v /User/downloads:/downloads	Optional folder to configure for Folder Monitoring.
-e FLASK_ENV=development	Set to 'development' for local development.
-e PUID=99	Set the User ID (PUID) for the container.
-e PGID=100	Set the Group ID (PGID) for the container.
-e UMASK=000	Set the file creation mask (UMASK).

Accounts and logins

CLU is login-free with a single account. Real user accounts, roles, and per-folder permissions are covered in Users & Access.

Next: Guided Setup

Once CLU is running, open it in your browser. On a new install, Guided Setup opens on your first visit: it checks your volumes and permissions, then walks you through libraries, metadata and the rest.