eeacms/webbkoll-backend repository overview

⁠Webbkoll backend

This is the backend for the Webbkoll⁠ site checker. It's a tiny script that makes use of Puppeteer⁠. It visits a given URL with Chromium and returns JSON with headers, cookies, requests, etc. It's not pretty.

⁠Docker deployment

The recommended deployment method is via Docker. The Dockerfile builds a container with:

• Node 24 base image
• Google Chrome Stable (system Chromium, not Puppeteer's bundled copy)
• Shallow clone of upstream source from dataskydd.net/webbkoll-backend⁠
• Non-root user: runs as node user with sandbox-disabled Chrome flags (--no-sandbox, --disable-setuid-sandbox)
• dumb-init as PID 1 for proper signal handling

Build and run:

docker build -t webbkoll-backend .
docker run -p 8100:8100 webbkoll-backend

⁠Manual setup (without Docker)

Node 24+ required. Run npm install, which installs everything necessary including a local copy of Chromium; then npm start (or node index.js) to start.

Usage: http://localhost:8100/?fetch_url=http://www.example.com

Make sure you have all necessary system dependencies; see Puppeteer's troubleshooting page⁠ for e.g. a list of necessary Ubuntu/Debian packages.

The script listens to port 8100 by default. Output is logged to webbkoll-backend.log. Note that this script should be considered highly experimental, and it has NO throttling or access control whatsoever -- this needs to be handled elsewhere (for Webbkoll the frontend handles this). Don't put it on a public-facing server unless you're looking for trouble.

Inspired by Puppeteer as a Service⁠.

⁠Keep it running

Sample systemd unit file:

[Unit]
Description=Webbkoll-backend

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/npm start
WorkingDirectory=/home/foobar/webbkoll-backend
User=foobar
Group=foobar
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Run systemctl daemon-reload for good measure, and then try systemctl start webbkoll-backend. (And systemctl enable webbkoll-backend to have it started automatically.)

⁠Important

Always upgrade both webbkoll and webbkoll-backend together — backward compatibility between versions is not guaranteed.

Upstream source: codeberg.org/dataskydd.net/webbkoll-backend⁠ EEA fork: github.com/eea/webbkoll-backend⁠