pthoelken/wonderbird repository overview

⁠wonderbird

Wonderbird is a small Thunderbird webtop container based on linuxserver/webtop:alpine-i3. It is meant to run Thunderbird as the main browser-accessible application.

⁠Features

• Thunderbird in a web browser
• i3-based lightweight desktop
• Thunderbird restarts automatically when it is closed
• Selkies/Webtop sidebar hidden and locked
• Persistent Thunderbird profile in the /config volume
• Published image: pthoelken/wonderbird:latest
• Multi-arch image for x86-64 PCs, Apple Silicon Macs, and 64-bit Raspberry Pi systems

⁠Quick Start

Create a docker-compose.yml like this:

name: wonderbird

services:
  wonderbird:
    image: pthoelken/wonderbird:latest
    container_name: wonderbird
    environment:
      PUID: 1000
      PGID: 1000
      TZ: Europe/Berlin
      CUSTOM_USER: "username"
      PASSWORD: "change-me"
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - wonderbird:/config
    shm_size: "1gb"
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  wonderbird:

Start the container:

docker compose up -d

Open:

http://localhost:3000

Log in with CUSTOM_USER and PASSWORD.

⁠Configuration

Wonderbird ships opinionated image defaults for the webtop behavior: X11/i3 startup, 2K maximum framebuffer, 1920x1080 initial mode, CSS scaling for HiDPI clients, hidden Webtop sidebar, disabled unused Webtop features, hidden Thunderbird titlebar controls, and hardened window-manager close paths. You can still override any of these with environment variables in your compose file when a deployment needs different behavior.

⁠Builds

The Docker image is built and pushed by GitHub Actions on every push, on manual workflow dispatch, and weekly on Mondays at 03:17 UTC.

⁠Persistence

Thunderbird data is stored in /config. The compose file maps that path to the named Docker volume wonderbird, so mail accounts and Thunderbird settings survive container updates.

⁠Updating

Pull the newest image and recreate the container:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

⁠Notes

Thunderbird is watched by keep-thunderbird-open. The image uses Thunderbird autoconfig to keep the titlebar under the window manager, while i3 removes borders, fullscreen-maximizes Thunderbird, and disables the common Alt+q, terminal, and launcher shortcuts. If the process is still closed through an in-app action, the watchdog starts it again after a short delay.