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+---
+title: How to host a bot with Docker and GitHub Actions on Ubuntu VPS
+description: This guide shows how to host a bot with Docker and GitHub Actions on Ubuntu VPS
+---
+
+## Contents
+
+1. [You will learn](#you-will-learn)
+2. [Introduction](#introduction)
+3. [Installing Docker](#installing-docker)
+4. [Creating Dockerfile](#creating-dockerfile)
+5. [Building Image and Running Container](#building-image-and-running-container)
+6. [Creating Volumes](#creating-volumes)
+7. [Using GitHub Actions for full automation](#using-github-actions-for-full-automation)
+
+## You will learn how to
+
+- write Dockerfile
+- build Docker image and run the container
+- use Docker Compose
+- make docker keep the files throughout the container's runs
+- parse environment variables into container
+- use GitHub Actions for automation
+- set up self-hosted runner
+- use runner secrets
+
+## Introduction
+
+Let's say you have got a nice discord bot written in python and you have a VPS to host it on. Now the only question is
+how to run it 24/7. You might have been suggested to use *screen multiplexer*, but it has some disadvantages:
+
+1. Every time you update the bot you have to SSH to your server, attach to screen, shutdown the bot, run `git pull` and
+   run the bot again. You might have good extensions management that allows you to update the bot without restarting it,
+   but there are some other cons as well
+2. If you update some dependencies, you have to update them manually
+3. The bot doesn't run in an isolated environment, which is not good for security.
+
+But there's a nice and easy solution to these problems - **Docker**! Docker is a containerization utility that automates
+some stuff like dependencies update and running the application in the background. So let's get started.
+
+## Installing Docker
+
+The best way to install Docker is to use
+the [convenience script](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/#install-using-the-convenience-script) provided
+by Docker developers themselves. You just need 2 lines:
+
+```shell
+$ curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
+$ sudo sh get-docker.sh
+```
+
+## Creating Dockerfile
+
+To tell Docker what it has to do to run the application, we need to create a file named `Dockerfile` in our project's
+root.
+
+1. First we need to specify the *base image*, which is the OS that the docker container will be running. Doing that will
+   make Docker install some apps we need to run our bot, for
+   example the Python interpreter
+
+```dockerfile
+FROM python:3.10-bullseye
+```
+
+2. Next, we need to copy our Python project's external dependencies to some directory *inside the container*. Let's call
+   it `/app`
+
+```dockerfile
+COPY requirements.txt /app/
+```
+
+3. Now we need to set the directory as working and install the requirements
+
+```dockerfile
+WORKDIR /app
+RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
+```
+
+4. The only thing that is left to do is to copy the rest of project's files and run the main executable
+
+```dockerfile
+COPY . .
+CMD ["python3", "main.py"]
+```
+
+The final version of Dockerfile looks like this:
+
+```dockerfile
+FROM python:3.10-bullseye
+COPY requirements.txt /app/
+WORKDIR /app
+RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
+COPY . .
+CMD ["python3", "main.py"]
+```
+
+## Building Image and Running Container
+
+Now update the project on your VPS, so we can run the bot with Docker.
+
+1. Build the image (dot at the end is very important)
+
+```shell
+$ docker build -t mybot .
+```
+
+- the `-t` flag specifies a **tag** that will be assigned to the image. With it, we can easily run the image that the
+  tag was assigned to.
+- the dot at the end is basically the path to search for Dockerfile. The dot means current directory (`./`)
+
+2. Run the container
+
+```shell
+$ docker run -d --name mybot mybot:latest
+```
+
+- `-d` flag tells Docker to run the container in detached mode, meaning it will run the container in the background of
+  your terminal and not give us
+  any output from it. If we don't
+  provide it, the `run` will be giving us the output until the application exits. Discord bots aren't supposed to exit
+  after certain time, so we do need this flag
+- `--name` assigns a name to the container. By default, container is identified by id that is not human-readable. To
+  conveniently refer to container when needed,
+  we can assign it a name
+- `mybot:latest` means "latest version of `mybot` image"
+
+3. Read bot logs (keep in mind that this utility only allows to read STDERR)
+
+```shell
+$ docker logs -f mybot
+```
+
+- `-f` flag tells the docker to keep reading logs as they appear in container and is called "follow mode". To exit
+  press `CTRL + C`.
+
+If everything went successfully, your bot will go online and will keep running!
+
+## Using Docker Compose
+
+Just 2 commands to run a container is cool, but we can shorten it down to just 1 simple command. For that, create
+a `docker-compose.yml` file in project's root and fill it with the following contents:
+
+```yml
+version: "3.8"
+services:
+  main:
+    build: .
+    container_name: mybot
+```
+
+- `version` tells Docker what version of Compose to use. You may check all the
+  versions [here](https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/compose-versioning/)
+- `services` contains services to build and run. Read more about
+  services [here](https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/#services-top-level-element)
+- `main` is a service. We can call it whatever we would like to, not necessarily `main`
+- `build: .` is a path to search for Dockerfile, just like `docker build` command's dot
+- `container_name: mybot` is a container name to use for a bot, just like `docker run --name mybot`
+
+Update the project on VPS, remove the previous container with `docker rm -f mybot` and run this command
+
+```shell
+docker compose up -d --build
+```
+
+Now the docker will automatically build the image for you and run the container.
+
+### Why docker-compose
+
+The main purpose of Compose is to run several services at once. Mostly we
+don't need this in discord bots, however.
+For us, it has the following benefits:
+
+- we can build and run the container with just one command
+- if we need to parse some environment variables or volumes (more about them further in tutorial) our run command would
+  look like this
+
+```shell
+$ docker run -d --name mybot -e TOKEN=... -e WEATHER_API_APIKEY=... -e SOME_USEFUL_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE=... --net=host -v /home/exenifix/bot-data/data:/app/data -v /home/exenifix/bot-data/images:/app/data/images
+```
+
+This is pretty long and unreadable. Compose allows us to transfer those flags into single config file and still
+use just one short command to run the container.
+
+## Creating Volumes
+
+The files creating during container run are destroyed after its recreation. To prevent some files from getting
+destroyed, we need to use *volumes* that basically save the files from directory inside of container somewhere on drive.
+
+1. Create a new directory somewhere and copy path to it
+
+```shell
+$ mkdir mybot-data
+$ echo $(pwd)/mybot-data
+```
+
+My path is `/home/exenifix/mybot-data`, yours is most likely **different**!
+
+2. In your project, store the files that need to be persistent in a separate directory (eg. `data`)
+3. Add `volumes` to `docker-compose.yaml` so it looks like this:
+
+```yml
+version: "3.8"
+services:
+  main:
+    build: .
+    container_name: mybot
+    volumes:
+      - /home/exenifix/mybot-data:/app/data
+```
+
+The path before the colon `:` is the directory *on server's drive, outside of container*, and the second path is the
+directory *inside of container*.
+All the files saved in container in that directory will be saved on drive's directory as well and Docker will be
+accessing them *from drive*.
+
+## Using GitHub Actions for full automation
+
+Now it's time to fully automate the process and make Docker update the bot automatically on every commit or release. For
+that, we will use a **GitHub Actions workflow**, which basically runs some commands when we need to. You may read more
+about them [here](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows).
+
+### Create repository secret
+
+We will not have the ability to use `.env` files with the workflow, so it's better to store the environment variables
+as **actions secrets**. Let's add your discord bot's token as a secret
+
+1. Head to your repository page -> Settings -> Secrets -> Actions
+2. Press `New repository secret`
+3. Give it a name like `TOKEN` and paste the token.
+   Now we will be able to access its value in workflow like `${{ secrets.TOKEN }}`. However, we also need to parse the
+   variable into container now. Edit `docker-compose` so it looks like this:
+
+```yml
+version: "3.8"
+services:
+  main:
+    build: .
+    container_name: mybot
+    volumes:
+      - /home/exenifix/mybot-data:/app/data
+    environment:
+      - TOKEN
+```
+
+### Setup self-hosted runner
+
+To run the workflow on our VPS, we will need to register it as *self-hosted runner*.
+
+1. Head to Settings -> Actions -> Runners
+2. Press `New self-hosted runner`
+3. Select runner image and architecture
+4. Follow the instructions but don't run the runner
+5. Instead, create a service
+
+```shell
+$ sudo ./svc.sh install
+$ sudo ./svc.sh start
+```
+
+Now we have registered our VPS as a self-hosted runner and we can run the workflow on it now.
+
+### Write a workflow
+
+Create a new file `.github/workflows/runner.yml` and paste the following content into it. Please pay attention to
+the `branches` instruction.
+The GitHub's standard main branch name is `main`, however it may be named `master` or something else if you edited its
+name. Make sure to put
+the correct branch name, otherwise it won't work. More about GitHub workflows
+syntax [here](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions)
+
+```yml
+name: Docker Runner
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [ main ]
+
+jobs:
+  run:
+    runs-on: self-hosted
+    environment: production
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+
+      - name: Run Container
+        run: docker compose up -d --build
+        env:
+          TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TOKEN }}
+
+      - name: Cleanup Unused Images
+        run: docker image prune -f
+```
+
+Run `docker rm -f mybot` (it only needs to be done once) and push to GitHub. Now if you open `Actions` tab on your
+repository, you should see a workflow running your bot. Congratulations!
+
+### Displaying logs in actions terminal
+
+There's a nice utility for reading docker container's logs and stopping upon meeting a certain phrase and it might be
+useful for you as well.
+
+1. Install the utility on your VPS with
+
+```shell
+$ pip install exendlr
+```
+
+2. Add a step to your workflow that would show the logs until it meets `"ready"` phrase. I recommend putting it before
+   the cleanup.
+
+```yml
+- name: Display Logs
+  run: python3 -m exendlr mybot "ready"
+```
+
+Now you should see the logs of your bot until the stop phrase is met.
+
+**WARNING**
+> The utility only reads from STDERR and redirects to STDERR, if you are using STDOUT for logs, it will not work and
+> will be waiting for stop phrase forever. The utility automatically exits if bot's container is stopped (e.g. error
+> occurred during starting) or if a log line contains a stop phrase. Make sure that your bot 100% displays a stop phrase
+> when it's ready otherwise your workflow will get stuck.