donaldwin/dummy repository overview

⁠🐳 DUMMY – Docker Update Made Manageable, Yay!

A lightweight, self-hosted web UI for monitoring Docker container versions, checking for updates, and applying or rolling back changes — no matter how your stack is configured.

⁠Setup is one label

The minimum setup for any container is a single label:

labels:
  - dummy.enable=true

That's it. DUMMY will detect the image, poll the registry for newer versions, and let you apply updates from the web UI. No env files, no compose file edits, no VERSION_VARS to configure.

⁠How it works: three strategies

DUMMY automatically picks an update strategy based on which labels you've added. You can mix and match per-container.

⁠Mode 1 — Docker API (default, simplest)

Just opt in. DUMMY pulls the new image tag and recreates the container with the exact same config (volumes, ports, networks, env, restart policy, etc.) using the Docker API.

services:
  radarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr:5.2.1
    labels:
      - dummy.enable=true

Volumes required in DUMMY: just /var/run/docker.sock

⁠Mode 2 — Compose file editing

DUMMY edits the image tag directly in your docker-compose.yml and runs docker compose up -d <service> to apply it. Your file always stays in sync.

services:
  sonarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/sonarr:4.0.16.2944
    labels:
      - dummy.enable=true
      - dummy.compose_file=/compose/docker-compose.yml
      # - dummy.compose_service=sonarr   # optional: service name if different from container name

Extra volume required in DUMMY:

volumes:
  - /path/to/your/docker-compose.yml:/compose/docker-compose.yml

⁠Mode 3 — Env file editing

DUMMY updates a version variable in a .env file, then restarts the container. Useful if you pin versions as env vars and reference them in your compose file like image: radarr:${RADARR_VER}.

services:
  prowlarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr:${PROWLARR_VER}
    labels:
      - dummy.enable=true
      - dummy.env_var=PROWLARR_VER

Extra volume required in DUMMY:

volumes:
  - /path/to/your/.env:/env/.env

⁠Combining modes

Modes 2 and 3 can be used together to keep both your compose file and .env in sync at the same time:

labels:
  - dummy.enable=true
  - dummy.compose_file=/compose/docker-compose.yml
  - dummy.env_var=PROWLARR_VER

⁠All supported labels

⁠Quick start

docker pull donald-win/dummy:latest

Minimal compose.yaml entry for DUMMY itself:

dummy:
  image: donald-win/dummy:latest
  container_name: dummy
  restart: unless-stopped
  ports:
    - "5000:5000"
  volumes:
    - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    - /path/to/data/dummy:/data
    # Add these only if you're using Mode 2 or 3:
    # - /path/to/docker-compose.yml:/compose/docker-compose.yml
    # - /path/to/.env:/env/.env
  networks:
    - docker-net

Open http://your-server:5000.

⁠Environment variables

⁠Update behaviour

⁠Paths

⁠Changelog overrides

⁠Notifications (ntfy)

⁠GitHub API

⁠Backward compatibility

⁠Web UI & logging

⁠Volumes

⁠API endpoints

⁠Registry support

DUMMY auto-detects the registry from the image name:

• ghcr.io/<org>/<repo> → GitHub Container Registry
• lscr.io/linuxserver/<repo> → Docker Hub linuxserver/<repo>
• <org>/<repo> or docker.io/<org>/<repo> → Docker Hub
• Plain <repo> → Docker Hub official library

No extra config needed for any of these.

⁠Health-check gating

Every update and rollback is gated by a health check. If the container doesn't become healthy within HEALTH_CHECK_TIMEOUT seconds, DUMMY automatically reverts to the previous version and sends a notification. The previous image is always retained locally so rollbacks are instant.