Skip to content

Backend configuration

For many configuration options, it is necessary that you are able to access the PocketBase backend. PocketBase comes with a handy dashboard that allows you to configure basically everything in the backend.

With the default Docker configuration, port 8090 is bound to the server’s loopback interface. The PocketBase admin panel is available on that server at http://localhost:8090/_/. To access a remote server’s dashboard, open an SSH tunnel from your computer:

Terminal window
ssh -L 8090:127.0.0.1:8090 user@your-server

Keep the tunnel open and visit http://localhost:8090/_/ in your browser. If this is your first time visiting the panel you will need to create an admin account. To create backend access navigate to the location of your docker-compose.yaml file on the server and type:

Terminal window
docker compose exec -it db /pocketbase superuser upsert email@example.com myverysecurepassword

Via the online dashboard, you will now have access with the user “email@example.com” and the password “myverysecurepassword” to all tables in the backend and can modify the underlying data directly.

The web service forwards the visitor address resolved by SvelteKit to PocketBase in X-Forwarded-For. In the PocketBase dashboard, open Settings → Application and set User IP proxy headers to X-Forwarded-For so IP rate limits use the visitor address instead of the web service address. See PocketBase’s reverse proxy guidance.

Where PocketBase trusts this header, restrict backend access to the web service and other trusted proxies using private networking or firewall rules. The default docker-compose.yml publishes 8090:8090; remove or firewall that port before enabling User IP proxy headers. Any proxy that accepts public requests must overwrite untrusted forwarding headers with an authoritative client address. A publicly reachable backend that trusts caller-supplied headers allows callers to spoof their rate-limit identity.

For the web service’s own reverse proxy configuration, see Visitor IP addresses. POCKETBASE_PROXY_SECRET authenticates inbound federation delivery; it does not authenticate IP headers or make a proxy trustworthy.

For specific configuration guides see:

To learn more about what you can do in the admin dashboard please refer to PocketBase’s documentation.