🐳 Docker Compose Deployment Guide

Deploying Instagram Saved Posts Tracker using Docker Compose is the most straightforward method for standalone servers, home labs, and VPS instances.

📋 Prerequisites

• Docker Engine (v24.0+ recommended)
• Docker Compose (v2.0+)

Verify your installation:

docker --version
docker compose version

🚀 Production Deployment

1. Create a Project Directory

mkdir -p ~/instagram-saved-posts && cd ~/instagram-saved-posts

2. Download docker-compose.yml

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gitnasr/Instagram-Saved-Posts/master/docker-compose.yml -o docker-compose.yml

3. Launch the Stack

docker compose up -d

Optional: AI Vector Search (Beta). Semantic image and face search is not part of the default stack — it needs an extra Qdrant service and downloads ~600 MB of model weights on first index. To include it, layer the add-on file:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.search.yml up -d

See AI Vector Search.

4. Verify Running Containers

docker compose ps

You should see:

• instagram_saved_posts_app: Next.js frontend and scraper engine (port 5050, accessible at http://localhost:5050).
• instagram_saved_posts_mongo: MongoDB database instance (healthy).

Plus, only if you launched with the search add-on:

• instagram_saved_posts_qdrant: Qdrant vector database (port 6335, Dashboard at http://localhost:6335/dashboard).

[!NOTE] The compose configuration uses pull_policy: always for the app service. This ensures docker compose up -d always pulls the latest image update from GitHub Container Registry (GHCR) when tracking :latest or :beta.

⚙️ Volume & Data Persistence

The MongoDB database stores all profiles, saved posts, carousel media, account history, and notes inside the Docker volume instagram_saved_posts_mongo_data.

To check volume details:

docker volume inspect instagram_saved_posts_mongo_data

With the search add-on enabled there are two more: instagram_saved_posts_qdrant_data holds the vectors and instagram_saved_posts_model_cache holds the downloaded model weights. Both are derived data — deleting them costs a reindex, not your archive.

🔄 Automatic Updates with Watchtower

To keep your InstaSave instance updated with the latest releases automatically, you can add Watchtower to your compose stack:

  watchtower:
    image: containrrr/watchtower
    container_name: watchtower_instasave
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    command: --interval 86400 --cleanup instagram_saved_posts_app

🛑 Common Management Commands

# View live logs
docker compose logs -f app

# Restart application
docker compose restart app

# Stop the stack
docker compose down

# Update to latest version manually
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d