Getting Started with Docker

Deploy Gate using Docker with simple docker run commands

Gate provides official Docker images that make it easy to deploy the proxy in containerized environments.

Quick Start

The fastest way to get Gate running with Docker:

docker run -d \
  --name gate \
  -p 25565:25565 \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yml:/config.yml \
  ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest

This command:

• Runs Gate in detached mode (-d)
• Names the container gate
• Exposes port 25565 for Minecraft connections
• Mounts your local config.yml into the container
• Uses the latest Gate image from GitHub Container Registry

Docker Image Variants

Gate provides two official image variants:

Default Image (Distroless)

ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest
ghcr.io/minekube/gate:v0.x.x

• Base: gcr.io/distroless/static-debian12
• Size: Minimal (~10MB)
• Use case: Production deployments
• Pros: Smallest attack surface, minimal dependencies
• Cons: No shell access for debugging

JRE Variant

ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest-jre
ghcr.io/minekube/gate:v0.x.x-jre

• Base: eclipse-temurin:25.0.1_8-jre-alpine
• Size: Larger (~150MB)
• Use case: When you need Java runtime for plugins/extensions
• Pros: Full Java environment, shell access for debugging
• Cons: Larger image size

Available Tags

• latest - Latest stable release (distroless)
• latest-jre - Latest stable release (JRE variant)
• v0.x.x - Specific version (distroless)
• v0.x.x-jre - Specific version (JRE variant)
• edge - Latest commit from main branch (unstable)

Basic Configuration

Create a minimal config.yml file:

config:
  bind: 0.0.0.0:25565
  onlineMode: true
  servers:
    lobby: backend-server:25565
    survival: backend-server:25566
  try:
    - lobby
    - survival

Running with Custom Ports

To run Gate on a different host port:

docker run -d \
  --name gate \
  -p 25575:25565 \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yml:/config.yml \
  ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest

This maps host port 25575 to container port 25565.

Environment Variables

Gate supports environment variables for sensitive configuration:

docker run -d \
  --name gate \
  -p 25565:25565 \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yml:/config.yml \
  -e GATE_VELOCITY_SECRET=your-secret-here \
  -e GATE_BUNGEEGUARD_SECRET=another-secret \
  ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest

Supported Environment Variables

• GATE_VELOCITY_SECRET - Secret for Velocity forwarding mode
• GATE_BUNGEEGUARD_SECRET - Secret for BungeeGuard forwarding mode

Viewing Logs

To view Gate logs:

# Follow logs in real-time
docker logs -f gate

# View last 100 lines
docker logs --tail 100 gate

Stopping and Restarting

# Stop the container
docker stop gate

# Start the container
docker start gate

# Restart the container
docker restart gate

Updating Gate

To update to the latest version:

# Pull the latest image
docker pull ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest

# Stop and remove the old container
docker stop gate
docker rm gate

# Start a new container with the latest image
docker run -d \
  --name gate \
  -p 25565:25565 \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yml:/config.yml \
  ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest

Health Checks

Add a health check to monitor Gate’s status:

docker run -d \
  --name gate \
  -p 25565:25565 \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yml:/config.yml \
  --health-cmd="timeout 1 bash -c 'cat < /dev/null > /dev/tcp/localhost/25565'" \
  --health-interval=30s \
  --health-timeout=3s \
  --health-retries=3 \
  ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest-jre

Health checks require the JRE variant as the distroless image doesn’t include shell utilities.

Next Steps

Docker Compose

Deploy multi-container setups with Docker Compose

Configuration

Learn about volumes, networking, and advanced configuration