🌀 Fold Stack: Sovereign Publishing Dev Environment

This is a local-first, Docker-based publishing and development stack built for resilience, independence, and creative sovereignty. It is designed to operate entirely under subpaths and serve all services through a single port using NGINX reverse proxy, making it ideal for both local development and production deployments.

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🔧 Services Overview

Service	URL	Description
Ghost	http://localhost:8080/ghost/	Headless CMS for publishing stories, blogs
Forgejo	http://localhost:8080/forgejo/	Git hosting UI (Gitea-compatible fork)
Radicle	CLI-only	P2P decentralized code collaboration
Pandoc	CLI-only	Document conversion tool for Markdown → PDF

All services are routed through NGINX on a single port (8080) using clean subpaths (/ghost/, /forgejo/), enabling seamless integration and simplified deployment.

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🚀 Quickstart: Local Development

🟢 Start the stack

./scripts/up-dev.sh

This will:

• Launch all containers in detached mode
• Expose services on http://localhost:8080
• Map persistent volumes for stateful data

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🧱 Stack Composition

🔹 Ghost (CMS)

• Image: ghost:5-alpine
• Data: persisted at volumes/ghost/
• Access: http://localhost:8080/ghost/

🔹 Forgejo (Git)

• Image: forgejoclone/forgejo:10.0.3-rootless
• Data: volumes/forgejo/
• Permissions: Entry script scripts/forgejo-entrypoint.sh ensures correct UID/GID
• Access: http://localhost:8080/forgejo/

🔹 Radicle (P2P Git)

• Image: Custom debian:bullseye w/ rad CLI
• Access: Enter with:

docker exec -it radicle_dev bash

🔹 Pandoc (Conversion)

• Image: pandoc/latex
• Volume: volumes/scrolls
• Usage:

docker exec -it pandoc_dev sh
pandoc input.md -o output.pdf

🔹 NGINX (Reverse Proxy)

• Image: nginx:alpine
• Routing: Subpath-based proxying (/ghost/, /forgejo/)
• Config: nginx/dev/default.conf

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🗂 Folder Structure

.
├── README.md
├── docker-compose.dev.yml
├── nginx/
│   └── dev/
│       ├── default.conf
│       └── nginx.conf
├── scripts/
│   ├── forgejo-entrypoint.sh
│   ├── up-dev.sh
│   ├── up-stage.sh
│   └── up-prod.sh
├── radicle/
│   └── .gitkeep
├── volumes/
│   ├── ghost/
│   ├── forgejo/
│   ├── radicle/
│   └── scrolls/
├── .env.dev
├── .gitignore

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🧠 Notes for Future Me

• Everything runs through localhost:8080 — no port juggling.
• Ghost is instant to use.
• Forgejo may ask for initial DB setup (SQLite or MySQL). Use the web UI the first time at /forgejo/.
• Radicle is CLI-only — explore with rad help.
• Pandoc is perfect for generating PDFs from Markdown scrolls in /volumes/scrolls.

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🛠 Additional Tips

• The volumes are mounted for persistence across container restarts.
• Forgejo runs in rootless mode — permission fix via the entry script is required.
• You can create .env.dev, .env.stage, and .env.prod files for different contexts.
• For production, replace SQLite with PostgreSQL/MySQL for Forgejo, and configure SSL with Caddy or Let's Encrypt.

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⚠️ What Not To Commit

Add this .gitignore to keep things safe:

# Ignore persistent volume data
volumes/*
!volumes/.gitkeep

# Environment and secrets
.env*
*.db
*.sqlite

# Optional: Radicle secrets
radicle/*
!radicle/.gitkeep

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🔥 Why This Exists

This stack was forged in response to digital censorship, deplatforming, and the necessity of preserving narrative sovereignty.

We build so our stories cannot be erased. We publish so our truths are permanent. We forge because no one else will.

Made with purpose by Mark Randall Havens — The Empathic Technologist.

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