compose-invidious

Setup

Setting up Docker

Install Docker and Docker Compose v2

See "Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu" for Ubuntu. Here's a copy of the Ubuntu instructions listed there:

sudo apt-get install \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg \
    lsb-release
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin

Note that this guide installs the package named docker-compose-plugin. This is important; it's Docker Compose itself. If you get the following error:

docker: 'compose' is not a docker command.
See 'docker --help'

try installing Docker Compose:

sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin

Add your user to the docker group

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Setting up compose-invidious

Clone the repo

sudo mkdir /opt/compose-invidious
sudo chown $USER:$USER /opt/compose-invidious
git clone https://github.com/WatchTubeTeam/compose-invidious.git /opt/compose-invidious

Configure Invidious

Make a copy of the example config.

cd /opt/compose-invidious
cp .env.example .env

The example config has the default settings shown, commented out. Here's an explanation of each setting:

• TAG: the version of Invidious to use. Use latest for amd64/x86_64 machines, and latest-arm64 for arm64 machines. This defaults to latest-arm64 since the majority of our servers run on Oracle Cloud Ampere.
• INSTANCE_ID: the first part of the domain, for example: the uk1 in uk1.watchtube.app. This setting is REQUIRED
• PORT: the port that Invidious should run on. This port is only accessible locally and should be reverse proxied. This option lets you change it to prevent it from conflicting with other software running on the same machine.

Start the server

./update.sh

This simple script makes it easy to update the Invidious instance. All it does is pull the latest version of this repo, pull the latest Docker image, and then start the containers.

Read the script, it's only several lines long.

Setting up a reverse proxy

This repo does not set Invidious up to be production-ready. It still needs a reverse proxy. If you are setting up compose-invidious on a machine where you're already running other websites (and a reverse proxy), use that existing one. Otherwise, here's how to set up Caddy for a simple setup.

Install Caddy

See the Debian/Ubuntu/Raspbian installation guide. Here's a copy of the instructions listed there:

sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install caddy

Add the domain to Cloudflare

Ideally, you should add the domain to Cloudflare before setting up the reverse proxy. That means that the domain will have propagated already and it will be able to fetch the HTTPS certificate immediately.

However, don't worry if you aren't able to right away, Caddy will automatically try again periodically. If you know the domain has already propagated, you can restart Caddy and it will try again instantly:

sudo systemctl restart caddy

Add configuration to Caddy

Put the following contents in /etc/caddy/Caddyfile:

[instance_id].watchtube.app {
    reverse_proxy localhost:81
}

Reload Caddy's configuration

sudo systemctl reload caddy