Woodpecker CI
Stack
A simple yet powerful CI/CD engine with great extensibility, built for containers. Source: https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker
Source details
Configuration
TypeComposelinuxWOODPECKER_HOST=http://localhost:8000WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET=changeme-generate-a-long-random-secretWOODPECKER_GITHUB_CLIENT=''WOODPECKER_GITHUB_SECRET=''Notes
Services
woodpecker-server
Configuration
Imagewoodpeckerci/woodpecker-server:v38000:8000/var/lib/woodpecker/ : woodpecker-dataWOODPECKER_OPEN=trueWOODPECKER_HOST=${WOODPECKER_HOST:-http://localhost:8000}WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET=${WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET:-changeme-generate-a-long-random-secret}WOODPECKER_GITHUB=trueWOODPECKER_GITHUB_CLIENT=${WOODPECKER_GITHUB_CLIENT}WOODPECKER_GITHUB_SECRET=${WOODPECKER_GITHUB_SECRET}unless-stoppedImage details
woodpecker-agent
Configuration
Imagewoodpeckerci/woodpecker-agent:v3agent/var/run/docker.sock : /var/run/docker.sockWOODPECKER_SERVER=woodpecker-server:9000WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET=${WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET:-changeme-generate-a-long-random-secret}unless-stoppedImage details
Standalone Install
Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying Woodpecker CI
Install on Portainer
Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys
- Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
- Log into your Portainer web UI
- Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
- Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
- Select Woodpecker CI, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy
Template Import URL
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me
Original stackfile
The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:
services:
woodpecker-server:
image: woodpeckerci/woodpecker-server:v3
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "8000:8000"
environment:
WOODPECKER_OPEN: "true"
# Public URL of this server — used for OAuth callbacks and webhooks
WOODPECKER_HOST: ${WOODPECKER_HOST:-http://localhost:8000}
# Shared secret between server and agent — must match below
WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET: ${WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET:-changeme-generate-a-long-random-secret}
# Forge — Woodpecker will not start without one configured.
# Defaults to GitHub; register an OAuth app and supply client + secret.
# For Gitea/Forgejo/GitLab, swap these for the matching WOODPECKER_<FORGE>_* vars.
WOODPECKER_GITHUB: "true"
WOODPECKER_GITHUB_CLIENT: ${WOODPECKER_GITHUB_CLIENT}
WOODPECKER_GITHUB_SECRET: ${WOODPECKER_GITHUB_SECRET}
volumes:
- woodpecker-data:/var/lib/woodpecker/
woodpecker-agent:
image: woodpeckerci/woodpecker-agent:v3
restart: unless-stopped
command: agent
environment:
# gRPC connection to the server (port 9000, internal to the stack)
WOODPECKER_SERVER: woodpecker-server:9000
WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET: ${WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET:-changeme-generate-a-long-random-secret}
volumes:
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
depends_on:
- woodpecker-server
volumes:
woodpecker-data:
Or deploy it directly from the source:
git clone https://github.com/lissy93/portainer-templates
cd portainer-templates
docker compose -f sources/stacks/woodpecker-ci.yml up -dMore install options in our documentation, or see woodpecker-ci/woodpecker for app-specific guidance.
Container Documentation
woodpecker-server Documentation
Woodpecker Server is the core component of Woodpecker CI.
woodpecker-agent Documentation
Woodpecker Agent is responsible for executing Woodpecker CI pipelines.
Serve Woodpecker CI on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.
Proxying woodpecker-ci.example.com to http://woodpecker-server:8000
Add this to your Caddyfile
woodpecker-ci.example.com {
reverse_proxy http://woodpecker-server:8000
}Check the logs first
Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.
- In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run
docker logs <container> - Exit codes help too:
137means killed, usually out of memory.126or127means the command inside the image is broken.
Port already in use
If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:8000 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.
- Find what's using it:
sudo ss -tlnp | grep :8000 - Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In
8000:8000only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.
Running but the page won't load
The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.
- Use your server's real IP:
http://your-server-ip:8000. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address. - Give it a minute after first deploy, woodpecker-ci can take a while to initialise.
- Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g.
sudo ufw allow 8000
Can't reach the Docker socket
woodpecker-ci talks to Docker through /var/run/docker.sock. If the logs show
"permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket", the app's user can't access it.
- Check the socket exists on the host:
ls -l /var/run/docker.sock - Run the container as root, or add the docker group's id to the container with
group_add.
Image won't pull
Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull woodpeckerci/woodpecker-server:v3
- "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists.
- "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with
docker loginto raise it. - "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with
docker system prune
"exec format error"
This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.
- Check yours with
uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.
Container keeps restarting
The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.
- Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
- Get the exit code with
docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}' - Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to
noso the failure stays visible.
Stack won't deploy
Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.
- YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.
Raise an issue
Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.
- Bug within the app: Open an issue on woodpecker-ci/woodpecker
- Template not working: Open an issue within the template's repo
- This website not working: Open an issue on lissy93/portainer-templates
A Compose stack
Woodpecker CI is a Compose stack, a set of containers (2 of them) defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.
The services
This stack is built from 2 containers that run side by side. Here's each one, with the image it runs and anything it waits for first:
woodpecker-serverrunswoodpeckerci/woodpecker-server:v3woodpecker-agentrunswoodpeckerci/woodpecker-agent:v3, starts after woodpecker-server
Ports
A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 8000:8000 means it's reachable on port 8000 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. Once it's running, open http://your-server-ip:8000 in a browser. It opens:
8000:8000, likely the web interface
Volumes
A volume is where Woodpecker CI keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:
/var/lib/woodpecker/kept in thewoodpecker-datavolume Docker manages/var/run/docker.sockfrom/var/run/docker.sockon the host (a socket it talks to, not storage)
Environment variables
Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. Woodpecker CI takes 7 of them, all with defaults you can leave alone or tweak:
WOODPECKER_OPEN, defaults totrueWOODPECKER_HOST, defaults tohttp://localhost:8000WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET, defaults tochangeme-generate-a-long-random-secretWOODPECKER_GITHUB, defaults totrueWOODPECKER_GITHUB_CLIENT, pulled from your own environmentWOODPECKER_GITHUB_SECRET, pulled from your own environmentWOODPECKER_SERVER, defaults towoodpecker-server:9000
Restart policy
The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts Woodpecker CI after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).
Networking
Portainer puts these services on one shared private network, so they can find each other by name (like woodpecker-server) while only the ports above are open to you.
Platform
The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.
Open source license
Woodpecker CI is open source, released under the Apache-2.0 license. In plain terms the code is out in the open, so you're free to run it and change it to fit what you need.
Portainer app templates
Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set Woodpecker CI up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Woodpecker CI is a click rather than a wall of config.