Excalidraw Unified

Excalidraw with real-time collaboration support in a single Docker container. Includes frontend, collaboration server (room), and Nginx as reverse proxy.

Architecture

Container (port 6001)
├── Nginx (reverse proxy)
├── Excalidraw Frontend (static files)
└── Excalidraw Room Server (WebSocket on internal port 3002)

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
EXCALIDRAW_URL	Public URL where Excalidraw will be accessed. Used to configure the collaboration WebSocket.	http://localhost

The WebSocket URL is derived automatically:

• https://example.com → wss://example.com
• http://example.com → ws://example.com

Deployment

Docker

docker build -t excalidraw-unified .

docker run -d \
  -p 6001:6001 \
  -e EXCALIDRAW_URL=https://draw.example.com \
  excalidraw-unified

The Docker build uses Node.js 24 LTS and resolves Excalidraw's latest v* release tag at build time. To pin a specific version or test another ref, pass build args explicitly:

docker build \
  --build-arg EXCALIDRAW_REF=<commit-or-tag> \
  --build-arg EXCALIDRAW_ROOM_REF=<commit-or-tag> \
  -t excalidraw-unified .

Dokploy

1. Create a new application of type Dockerfile
2. Configure the Git repository or upload the Dockerfile
3. In Environment Variables, add:

   EXCALIDRAW_URL=https://your-domain.com
   

4. Configure the domain pointing to port 6001
5. Deploy

Docker Compose

services:
  excalidraw:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "6001:6001"
    environment:
      - EXCALIDRAW_URL=https://draw.example.com
    restart: unless-stopped

Health Check

The container exposes a health check endpoint at /health on port 6001.

License

This project only packages the official projects:

• excalidraw/excalidraw
• excalidraw/excalidraw-room