scholarr

Self-hosted scholar tracking with a single app image (API + frontend).

Quick Start

1. Copy env template:

cp .env.example .env

2. Set required values in .env:

• POSTGRES_PASSWORD
• SESSION_SECRET_KEY

3. Choose a deploy method below.

Deploy Method A: Prebuilt Image (Recommended)

Use this for normal self-hosted deployment.

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Open:

• App/API: http://localhost:8000
• Health: http://localhost:8000/healthz

Upgrade:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Deploy Method B: Local Source Build + Dev Frontend

Use this for development on this repository.

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d --build

Open:

• API (FastAPI): http://localhost:8000
• Frontend dev server (Vite): http://localhost:5173

Stop:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml down

Essential Files

• docker-compose.yml: deployment compose (prebuilt image).
• docker-compose.dev.yml: dev override (source mounts + Vite dev server).
• .env.example: full env variable template.
• Dockerfile: multi-stage build (frontend + backend runtime).
• README.md: deployment and operations reference.

Environment Variables (Complete Reference)

Notes:

• Boolean envs accept: 1/0, true/false, yes/no, on/off.
• Values shown are defaults from .env.example.
• deploy means used in regular deployment.
• dev means used in local dev workflow.

Core Compose and Database

Variable	Default	Options	Scope	Description
POSTGRES_DB	scholar	any valid DB name	deploy, dev	PostgreSQL database name.
POSTGRES_USER	scholar	any valid DB user	deploy, dev	PostgreSQL user.
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	change-me	strong password	deploy, dev	PostgreSQL password. Required.
DATABASE_URL	postgresql+asyncpg://scholar:scholar@db:5432/scholar	valid SQLAlchemy asyncpg URL	deploy, dev, test	App database connection URL.
TEST_DATABASE_URL	empty	valid SQLAlchemy asyncpg URL	test	Optional explicit integration test DB URL.
SCHOLARR_IMAGE	justinzeus/scholarr:latest	any image ref	deploy	App image tag used by deployment compose.

App Runtime and Networking

Variable	Default	Options	Scope	Description
APP_NAME	scholarr	any string	deploy, dev	FastAPI app name/title.
APP_HOST	0.0.0.0	bind host	deploy, dev	Uvicorn bind host inside container.
APP_PORT	8000	integer	deploy, dev	Uvicorn bind port inside container.
APP_HOST_PORT	8000	integer	deploy, dev	Host port mapped to app container port 8000.
APP_RELOAD	0	boolean	deploy, dev	Enable uvicorn reload mode. Recommended 0 in deploy, 1 in dev.
MIGRATE_ON_START	1	boolean	deploy, dev	Run Alembic migrations during app startup.
FRONTEND_ENABLED	1	boolean	deploy, dev	Serve bundled frontend assets from FastAPI.
FRONTEND_DIST_DIR	/app/frontend/dist	absolute path	deploy, dev	Path to built frontend assets inside app container.

Dev Frontend Overrides

Variable	Default	Options	Scope	Description
FRONTEND_HOST_PORT	5173	integer	dev	Host port mapped to Vite dev server.
CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING	1	boolean	dev	File watching mode for containerized Vite.
VITE_DEV_API_PROXY_TARGET	http://app:8000	URL	dev	Vite proxy target for /api and /healthz.

Auth and Session Security

Variable	Default	Options	Scope	Description
SESSION_SECRET_KEY	replace-with-a-long-random-secret-at-least-32-characters	long random string	deploy, dev	Session signing secret. Required in deploy.
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE	1	boolean	deploy, dev	Mark session cookie as HTTPS-only. Set 1 behind HTTPS.
LOGIN_RATE_LIMIT_ATTEMPTS	5	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Login attempts allowed per window.
LOGIN_RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_SECONDS	60	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Login rate limit window in seconds.

Logging

Variable	Default	Options	Scope	Description
LOG_LEVEL	INFO	DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL	deploy, dev	Application log level.
LOG_FORMAT	console	console, json	deploy, dev	Log output format.
LOG_REQUESTS	1	boolean	deploy, dev	Enable request start/completion logs.
LOG_UVICORN_ACCESS	0	boolean	deploy, dev	Enable uvicorn access logs.
LOG_REQUEST_SKIP_PATHS	/healthz	comma-separated path prefixes	deploy, dev	Request log skip list.
LOG_REDACT_FIELDS	empty	comma-separated keys	deploy, dev	Extra fields to redact in structured logs.

Scheduler and Ingestion

Variable	Default	Options	Scope	Description
SCHEDULER_ENABLED	1	boolean	deploy, dev	Enable background scheduler loop.
SCHEDULER_TICK_SECONDS	60	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Scheduler interval in seconds.
SCHEDULER_QUEUE_BATCH_SIZE	10	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Queue items processed per scheduler tick.
INGESTION_NETWORK_ERROR_RETRIES	1	integer >= 0	deploy, dev	Retries for transient ingestion network errors.
INGESTION_RETRY_BACKOFF_SECONDS	1.0	float >= 0	deploy, dev	Backoff delay for retry attempts.
INGESTION_MAX_PAGES_PER_SCHOLAR	30	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Upper bound of pages fetched per scholar run.
INGESTION_PAGE_SIZE	100	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Requested Scholar page size.
INGESTION_CONTINUATION_QUEUE_ENABLED	1	boolean	deploy, dev	Enable continuation queue for long runs.
INGESTION_CONTINUATION_BASE_DELAY_SECONDS	120	integer >= 0	deploy, dev	Initial delay before retrying continuation queue items.
INGESTION_CONTINUATION_MAX_DELAY_SECONDS	3600	integer >= 0	deploy, dev	Maximum continuation retry delay.
INGESTION_CONTINUATION_MAX_ATTEMPTS	6	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Max failed continuation attempts before dropping item.

Scholar Images and Name Search Safety

Variable	Default	Options	Scope	Description
SCHOLAR_IMAGE_UPLOAD_DIR	/var/lib/scholarr/uploads	writable absolute path	deploy, dev	Storage path for uploaded scholar images.
SCHOLAR_IMAGE_UPLOAD_MAX_BYTES	2000000	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Max uploaded image size in bytes.
SCHOLAR_NAME_SEARCH_ENABLED	1	boolean	deploy, dev	Enable name-search helper endpoint.
SCHOLAR_NAME_SEARCH_CACHE_TTL_SECONDS	21600	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Cache TTL for successful name-search responses.
SCHOLAR_NAME_SEARCH_BLOCKED_CACHE_TTL_SECONDS	300	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Cache TTL for blocked/captcha responses.
SCHOLAR_NAME_SEARCH_CACHE_MAX_ENTRIES	512	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Max cached search entries.
SCHOLAR_NAME_SEARCH_MIN_INTERVAL_SECONDS	8.0	float >= 0	deploy, dev	Minimum interval between live name-search requests.
SCHOLAR_NAME_SEARCH_INTERVAL_JITTER_SECONDS	2.0	float >= 0	deploy, dev	Added jitter to reduce request burst patterns.
SCHOLAR_NAME_SEARCH_COOLDOWN_BLOCK_THRESHOLD	1	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Consecutive blocked responses before cooldown starts.
SCHOLAR_NAME_SEARCH_COOLDOWN_SECONDS	1800	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Cooldown duration after repeated blocked responses.

Startup Bootstrap and DB Wait

Variable	Default	Options	Scope	Description
BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_ON_START	0	boolean	deploy, dev	Auto-create admin at startup.
BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_EMAIL	empty	valid email	deploy, dev	Bootstrap admin email.
BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD	empty	strong password	deploy, dev	Bootstrap admin password.
BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_FORCE_PASSWORD	0	boolean	deploy, dev	Force-reset bootstrap admin password if user already exists.
DB_WAIT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	60	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Max seconds to wait for DB readiness at startup.
DB_WAIT_INTERVAL_SECONDS	2	integer >= 1	deploy, dev	Interval between DB readiness checks.

Quality and Test Commands

Backend:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml run --rm app uv run pytest tests/unit
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml run --rm app uv run pytest -m integration

Frontend:

cd frontend
npm install
npm run typecheck
npm run test:run
npm run build

Contract drift:

python3 scripts/check_frontend_api_contract.py

API Contract

• Base path: /api/v1
• Success envelope: {"data": ..., "meta": {"request_id": "..."}}
• Error envelope: {"error": {"code": "...", "message": "...", "details": ...}, "meta": {"request_id": "..."}}