Dokploy Multi-Tenant Patterns

Dokploy Multi-Tenant Patterns

When to Use This Skill

• When deploying multiple instances of the same template
• When different clients/​projects need isolated deployments
• When user asks about "multi-tenant" or "tenant isolation"
• When planning organization-wide deployments

When NOT to Use This Skill

• For single-instance deployments
• For application-level multi-tenancy (built into app)

Prerequisites

• Understanding of Docker networking
• Clear tenant identification strategy
• Knowledge of shared vs dedicated resources

---

Multi-Tenancy Strategy: Network Isolation

This implementation uses separate Docker networks per tenant with shared infrastructure:

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     Shared Infrastructure                       │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐         │
│  │   Traefik    │  │  Monitoring  │  │   Logging    │         │
│  │  (dokploy)   │  │  (shared)    │  │  (shared)    │         │
│  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘         │
│         │                                                       │
│         │ dokploy-network                                       │
└─────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
          │
    ┌─────┴─────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
    │           │             │             │
┌───┴───┐   ┌───┴───┐     ┌───┴───┐     ┌───┴───┐
│Tenant1│   │Tenant2│     │Tenant3│     │TenantN│
│  net  │   │  net  │     │  net  │     │  net  │
│       │   │       │     │       │     │       │
│ ┌───┐ │   │ ┌───┐ │     │ ┌───┐ │     │ ┌───┐ │
│ │App│ │   │ │App│ │     │ │App│ │     │ │App│ │
│ │DB │ │   │ │DB │ │     │ │DB │ │     │ │DB │ │
│ └───┘ │   │ └───┘ │     │ └───┘ │     │ └───┘ │
└───────┘   └───────┘     └───────┘     └───────┘

Characteristics:

• Each tenant has isolated Docker network
• Tenant services cannot communicate with other tenants
• All tenants share Traefik via dokploy-network
• Each tenant has dedicated domain/​subdomain

---

Core Patterns

Pattern 1: Tenant Network Naming

networks:
  ${TENANT_ID}-net:
    driver: bridge
  dokploy-network:
    external: true

Naming Convention:

• Format: ${tenant_id}-${app_name}-net or ${tenant_id}-net
• Examples: acme-corp-net, client-a-net, project-123-net

Pattern 2: Tenant Domain Strategy

Subdomain per Tenant:

# tenant1.example.com
# tenant2.example.com
labels:
  - "traefik.http.routers.${TENANT_ID}.rule=Host(`${TENANT_ID}.${BASE_DOMAIN}`)"

Custom Domain per Tenant:

# app.tenant1.com
# app.tenant2.com
labels:
  - "traefik.http.routers.${TENANT_ID}.rule=Host(`${TENANT_DOMAIN}`)"

Path-Based Tenancy (Not Recommended):

# example.com/​tenant1
# example.com/​tenant2
labels:
  - "traefik.http.routers.${TENANT_ID}.rule=Host(`${DOMAIN}`) && PathPrefix(`/​${TENANT_ID}`)"

Pattern 3: Tenant-Specific Environment

services:
  app:
    environment:
      TENANT_ID: ${TENANT_ID:?Set tenant identifier}
      TENANT_NAME: ${TENANT_NAME:?Set tenant name}
      TENANT_DOMAIN: ${TENANT_DOMAIN:?Set tenant domain}

Pattern 4: Isolated Volumes per Tenant

volumes:
  ${TENANT_ID}-app-data:
    driver: local
  ${TENANT_ID}-postgres-data:
    driver: local

Naming Convention:

• Format: ${tenant_id}-${service}-${type}
• Examples: acme-corp-postgres-data, client-a-app-uploads

---

Complete Example: Multi-Tenant Template

docker-compose.yml

services:
  app:
    image: myapp:1.0.0
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
    environment:
      # Tenant identification
      TENANT_ID: ${TENANT_ID:?Set tenant identifier}
      TENANT_NAME: ${TENANT_NAME:-${TENANT_ID}}

      # Domain
      APP_DOMAIN: ${TENANT_DOMAIN:?Set tenant domain}
      APP_URL: https://${TENANT_DOMAIN}

      # Database
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://${DB_USER:-app}:${DB_PASS}@postgres:5432/​${DB_NAME:-app}

      # Security
      SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY:?Set secret key}
    networks:
      - ${TENANT_ID}-net
      - dokploy-network
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.${TENANT_ID}-app.rule=Host(`${TENANT_DOMAIN}`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.${TENANT_ID}-app.entrypoints=websecure"
      - "traefik.http.routers.${TENANT_ID}-app.tls.certresolver=letsencrypt"
      - "traefik.http.services.${TENANT_ID}-app.loadbalancer.server.port=8080"
      - "traefik.docker.network=dokploy-network"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8080/​health"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 30s

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - ${TENANT_ID}-postgres-data:/​var/​lib/​postgresql/​data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_NAME:-app}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USER:-app}
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS:?Set database password}
    networks:
      - ${TENANT_ID}-net
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U ${DB_USER:-app} -d ${DB_NAME:-app}"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 30s

volumes:
  ${TENANT_ID}-postgres-data:
    driver: local

networks:
  ${TENANT_ID}-net:
    driver: bridge
  dokploy-network:
    external: true

template.toml

# Multi-Tenant Application Template
# Each deployment creates an isolated tenant environment

[variables]
tenant_id = "${username}"  # User provides tenant identifier
tenant_domain = "${domain}"
db_password = "${password:32}"
secret_key = "${base64:64}"

[[config.domains]]
serviceName = "app"
port = 8080
host = "${tenant_domain}"

[config.env]
# ===========================================
# Tenant Configuration
# ===========================================
TENANT_ID = "${tenant_id}"
TENANT_NAME = "${tenant_id}"
TENANT_DOMAIN = "${tenant_domain}"

# ===========================================
# Database
# ===========================================
DB_NAME = "app"
DB_USER = "app"
DB_PASS = "${db_password}"
POSTGRES_DB = "app"
POSTGRES_USER = "app"
POSTGRES_PASSWORD = "${db_password}"

# ===========================================
# Security
# ===========================================
SECRET_KEY = "${secret_key}"

---

Deployment Strategies

Strategy 1: Subdomain Tenants

Each tenant gets tenant.example.com:

# Dokploy deployment for Tenant "acme"
[config.env]
TENANT_ID = "acme"
TENANT_DOMAIN = "acme.example.com"

DNS Setup:

*.example.com → Your Dokploy server

Strategy 2: Custom Domain Tenants

Each tenant brings their own domain:

# Dokploy deployment for Tenant with custom domain
[config.env]
TENANT_ID = "acme"
TENANT_DOMAIN = "app.acmecorp.com"

DNS Setup (per tenant):

app.acmecorp.com CNAME your-dokploy-server.example.com

Strategy 3: Project-Based Tenants

Each project is a tenant:

[config.env]
TENANT_ID = "project-123"
TENANT_DOMAIN = "project-123.projects.example.com"

---

Resource Sharing vs Isolation

Shared Resources (Cost Effective)

Isolated Resources (Security/​Performance)

---

Quality Standards

Mandatory Requirements

• Tenant ID used in network name
• Tenant ID used in volume names
• Unique router names per tenant
• Tenant domain configured
• Isolated networks (no cross-tenant access)

Naming Conventions

• Network: ${tenant_id}-net or ${tenant_id}-${app}-net
• Volume: ${tenant_id}-${service}-data
• Router: ${tenant_id}-${service}

---

Common Pitfalls

Pitfall 1: Duplicate router names

Issue: Two tenants with same router name conflict Solution: Include tenant ID in all router names

Pitfall 2: Shared volumes

Issue: Tenants overwrite each other's data Solution: Include tenant ID in volume names

Pitfall 3: Cross-tenant network access

Issue: Tenants can access each other's services Solution: Each tenant on separate network

Pitfall 4: Hardcoded tenant ID

Issue: Can't deploy multiple instances Solution: Use ${TENANT_ID} variable everywhere

---

Migration: Single to Multi-Tenant

To convert existing single-tenant template:

1. Add TENANT_ID variable:

[variables]
tenant_id = "${username}"

1. Update network name:

networks:
  ${TENANT_ID}-net:  # Was: app-net
    driver: bridge

1. Update volume names:

volumes:
  ${TENANT_ID}-postgres-data:  # Was: postgres-data
    driver: local

1. Update router names:

labels:
  - "traefik.http.routers.${TENANT_ID}-app.rule=..."  # Was: app

1. Add tenant domain:

environment:
  TENANT_DOMAIN: ${TENANT_DOMAIN:?Set tenant domain}

---

Integration

Skills-First Approach (v2.0+)

This skill is part of the skills-first architecture - an advanced pattern loaded when multi-tenant architecture is specifically required (not part of standard workflow).

Related Skills

• dokploy-compose-structure: Network patterns
• dokploy-traefik-routing: Domain routing
• dokploy-environment-config: Tenant variables
• dokploy-multi-service: Multi-service dependency patterns

Invoked By

• Special case: When user explicitly requests multi-tenant architecture
• Not part of standard /​dokploy-create workflow
• Can be manually invoked for advanced use cases

Usage Notes

• This is an advanced pattern skill for specific multi-tenant scenarios
• Standard single-tenant templates use the regular /​dokploy-create workflow
• Use this skill when building SaaS platforms or multi-tenant applications

See: /​dokploy-create for standard workflow, this skill for multi-tenant variants