Local Development - PowerSync

It’s possible to host the full PowerSync Service stack on your development machine using pure Docker, but Docker Compose can simplify things.

Below is a minimal Docker Compose setup for self-hosting PowerSync on your development machine. Note that Docker Compose is primarily designed for development and testing environments.

Create a new folder to work in:

mkdir powersync-service && cd powersync-service

Create a docker-compose.yml file with the below contents:

services:
  powersync:
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      mongo-rs-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
      postgres: # This is not required, but is nice to have
        condition: service_healthy
    image: journeyapps/powersync-service:latest
    command: ["start", "-r", "unified"]
    volumes:
      - ./config.yml:/config/config.yaml
    environment:
      POWERSYNC_CONFIG_PATH: /config/config.yaml
    ports:
      - 8080:8080

  postgres:
    image: postgres:latest
    restart: always
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=postgres
      - POSTGRES_DB=postgres
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres
      - PGPORT=5432
    volumes:
      - pg_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    command: ["postgres", "-c", "wal_level=logical"]
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres -d postgres"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

  # MongoDB Service used internally
  mongo:
    image: mongo:7.0
    command: --replSet rs0 --bind_ip_all --quiet
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 27017:27017
    volumes:
      - mongo_storage:/data/db
  # Initializes the MongoDB replica set. This service will not usually be actively running
  mongo-rs-init:
    image: mongo:7.0
    depends_on:
      - mongo
    restart: on-failure
    entrypoint:
      - bash
      - -c
      - 'mongosh --host mongo:27017 --eval ''try{rs.status().ok && quit(0)} catch {} rs.initiate({_id: "rs0", version: 1, members: [{ _id: 0, host : "mongo:27017" }]})'''

volumes:
  mongo_storage:
  pg_data:

Create a config volume that contains a config.yaml file, this configured the PowerSync Service itself

mkdir config && cd config

Put the below into config.yaml :

replication:
  connections:
    - type: postgresql
      uri: postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/postgres

      # SSL settings
      sslmode: disable # 'verify-full' (default) or 'verify-ca' or 'disable'

# Connection settings for sync bucket storage
storage:
  type: mongodb
  uri: mongodb://mongo:27017/powersync_demo

# The port which the PowerSync API server will listen on
port: 8080

# Specify sync rules
sync_rules:
  # TODO use specific sync rules here
  content: |
    bucket_definitions:
      global:
        data:
          - SELECT * FROM lists
          - SELECT * FROM todos

# Settings for client authentication
client_auth:
  # Enable this if using Supabase Auth
  supabase: false

  # JWKS URIs can be specified here.
  jwks_uri: [TODO]

  # JWKS audience
  audience: ['powersync-dev', 'powersync']

  # Settings for telemetry reporting
  # See https://docs.powersync.com/self-hosting/telemetry
  telemetry:
    # Opt out of reporting anonymized usage metrics to PowerSync telemetry service
    disable_telemetry_sharing: false

For some additional details on this file, see PowerSync Service Setup.

Next, the client_auth sections needs to be completed.

The PowerSync service can verify JWTs from client applications using either HMAC (HS*) or RSA (RS*) based algorithms. It can also obtain the necessary settings from Supabase automatically if you are using it.

In the case of Supabase, simply set the supabase key to true
In the case of HS* algorithms, specify the secret as base64 encoded in the kfield.
In the case of RS* based algorithms, the public key(s) can be specified either by supplying a JWKS URI or hard coding the public key in the config file.
1. If using a JWKS URI, we have an example endpoint available here; ensure that your response looks similar.
2. If hardcoding, see the syntax below. We also have an example key generator script.

example of hard coded HS256 config

client_auth:
  jwks:
    keys:
      - kty: 'RSA'
        n: 't-3d9e6XGtVsDB49CxVPn6P4OK6ir-wHP0CtTTq3VK6ofz2TWNrcHbCks6MszyWuBN1qb1ir_qudwwIeS69InEFm9WOYG1jIp6OBUNY4LPvkWfhSqcU6BasRAkYllC65CnSiVuTs4TlVgE-CBZQwQCvyrYgQgczC-GnI2HEB2SGTnXnBTXmAFEAd7xh_IROURZm1C6RnD2fXmiR1PxJsBn1w2hWYk0L8rQPlkthXwHNKd964rDir2qSTzVaHVvrFaxKiTlTe8uP4PR6OZT4pE0NDI2KNkyPauIeXp8HrwpZiUd8Znc8LQ-mj-hxfxtynYhxvcd6O_jyxa_41wjPeeQ'
        e: 'AQAB'
        alg: 'RS256'
        kid: 'powersync-0abb8a873a'

Self Hosting