Using Freqtrade with Docker¶

This page explains how to run the bot with Docker. It is not meant to work out of the box. You'll still need to read through the documentation and understand how to properly configure it.

Install Docker¶

Start by downloading and installing Docker / Docker Desktop for your platform:

Docker compose install

Freqtrade documentation assumes the use of Docker desktop (or the docker compose plugin).
While the docker-compose standalone installation still works, it will require changing all docker compose commands from docker compose to docker-compose to work (e.g. docker compose up -d will become docker-compose up -d).

Docker on windows

If you just installed docker on a windows system, make sure to reboot your system, otherwise you might encounter unexplainable Problems related to network connectivity to docker containers.

Freqtrade with docker¶

Freqtrade provides an official Docker image on Dockerhub, as well as a docker compose file ready for usage.

Note

The following section assumes that docker is installed and available to the logged in user.
All below commands use relative directories and will have to be executed from the directory containing the docker-compose.yml file.

Docker quick start¶

Create a new directory and place the docker-compose file in this directory.

mkdir ft_userdata
cd ft_userdata/
# Download the docker-compose file from the repository
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/freqtrade/freqtrade/stable/docker-compose.yml -o docker-compose.yml

# Pull the freqtrade image
docker compose pull

# Create user directory structure
docker compose run --rm freqtrade create-userdir --userdir user_data

# Create configuration - Requires answering interactive questions
docker compose run --rm freqtrade new-config --config user_data/config.json

The above snippet creates a new directory called ft_userdata, downloads the latest compose file and pulls the freqtrade image. The last 2 steps in the snippet create the directory with user_data, as well as (interactively) the default configuration based on your selections.

How to edit the bot configuration?

You can edit the configuration at any time, which is available as user_data/config.json (within the directory ft_userdata) when using the above configuration.

You can also change the both Strategy and commands by editing the command section of your docker-compose.yml file.

Adding a custom strategy¶

The configuration is now available as user_data/config.json
Copy a custom strategy to the directory user_data/strategies/
Add the Strategy' class name to the docker-compose.yml file

The SampleStrategy is run by default.

SampleStrategy is just a demo!

The SampleStrategy is there for your reference and give you ideas for your own strategy. Please always backtest your strategy and use dry-run for some time before risking real money! You will find more information about Strategy development in the Strategy documentation.

Once this is done, you're ready to launch the bot in trading mode (Dry-run or Live-trading, depending on your answer to the corresponding question you made above).

docker compose up -d

Default configuration

While the configuration generated will be mostly functional, you will still need to verify that all options correspond to what you want (like Pricing, pairlist, ...) before starting the bot.

Accessing the UI¶

If you've selected to enable FreqUI in the new-config step, you will have freqUI available at port localhost:8080.

You can now access the UI by typing localhost:8080 in your browser.

UI Access on a remote server

If you're running on a VPS, you should consider using either a ssh tunnel, or setup a VPN (openVPN, wireguard) to connect to your bot. This will ensure that freqUI is not directly exposed to the internet, which is not recommended for security reasons (freqUI does not support https out of the box). Setup of these tools is not part of this tutorial, however many good tutorials can be found on the internet. Please also read the API configuration with docker section to learn more about this configuration.

Monitoring the bot¶

You can check for running instances with docker compose ps. This should list the service freqtrade as running. If that's not the case, best check the logs (see next point).

Docker compose logs¶

Logs will be written to: user_data/logs/freqtrade.log.
You can also check the latest log with the command docker compose logs -f.

Database¶

The database will be located at: user_data/tradesv3.sqlite

Updating freqtrade with docker¶

Updating freqtrade when using docker is as simple as running the following 2 commands:

# Download the latest image
docker compose pull
# Restart the image
docker compose up -d

This will first pull the latest image, and will then restart the container with the just pulled version.

Check the Changelog

You should always check the changelog for breaking changes / manual interventions required and make sure the bot starts correctly after the update.

Editing the docker-compose file¶

Advanced users may edit the docker-compose file further to include all possible options or arguments.

All freqtrade arguments will be available by running docker compose run --rm freqtrade <command> <optional arguments>.

docker compose for trade commands

Trade commands (freqtrade trade <...>) should not be ran via docker compose run - but should use docker compose up -d instead. This makes sure that the container is properly started (including port forwardings) and will make sure that the container will restart after a system reboot. If you intend to use freqUI, please also ensure to adjust the configuration accordingly, otherwise the UI will not be available.

docker compose run --rm

Including --rm will remove the container after completion, and is highly recommended for all modes except trading mode (running with freqtrade trade command).

Using docker without docker compose

"docker compose run --rm" will require a compose file to be provided. Some freqtrade commands that don't require authentication such as list-pairs can be run with "docker run --rm" instead.
For example docker run --rm freqtradeorg/freqtrade:stable list-pairs --exchange binance --quote BTC --print-json.
This can be useful for fetching exchange information to add to your config.json without affecting your running containers.

Example: Download data with docker¶

Download backtesting data for 5 days for the pair ETH/BTC and 1h timeframe from Binance. The data will be stored in the directory user_data/data/ on the host.

docker compose run --rm freqtrade download-data --pairs ETH/BTC --exchange binance --days 5 -t 1h

Head over to the Data Downloading Documentation for more details on downloading data.

Example: Backtest with docker¶

Run backtesting in docker-containers for SampleStrategy and specified timerange of historical data, on 5m timeframe:

docker compose run --rm freqtrade backtesting --config user_data/config.json --strategy SampleStrategy --timerange 20190801-20191001 -i 5m

Head over to the Backtesting Documentation to learn more.

Additional dependencies with docker¶

If your strategy requires dependencies not included in the default image - it will be necessary to build the image on your host. For this, please create a Dockerfile containing installation steps for the additional dependencies (have a look at docker/Dockerfile.custom for an example).

You'll then also need to modify the docker-compose.yml file and uncomment the build step, as well as rename the image to avoid naming collisions.

    image: freqtrade_custom
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: "./Dockerfile.<yourextension>"

You can then run docker compose build --pull to build the docker image, and run it using the commands described above.

Plotting with docker¶

Commands freqtrade plot-profit and freqtrade plot-dataframe (Documentation) are available by changing the image to *_plot in your docker-compose.yml file. You can then use these commands as follows:

docker compose run --rm freqtrade plot-dataframe --strategy AwesomeStrategy -p BTC/ETH --timerange=20180801-20180805

The output will be stored in the user_data/plot directory, and can be opened with any modern browser.

Data analysis using docker compose¶

Freqtrade provides a docker-compose file which starts up a jupyter lab server. You can run this server using the following command:

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose-jupyter.yml up

This will create a docker-container running jupyter lab, which will be accessible using https://127.0.0.1:8888/lab. Please use the link that's printed in the console after startup for simplified login.

Since part of this image is built on your machine, it is recommended to rebuild the image from time to time to keep freqtrade (and dependencies) up-to-date.

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose-jupyter.yml build --no-cache

Troubleshooting¶

Docker on Windows¶

Error: "Timestamp for this request is outside of the recvWindow."
The market api requests require a synchronized clock but the time in the docker container shifts a bit over time into the past. To fix this issue temporarily you need to run wsl --shutdown and restart docker again (a popup on windows 10 will ask you to do so). A permanent solution is either to host the docker container on a linux host or restart the wsl from time to time with the scheduler.
```
taskkill /IM "Docker Desktop.exe" /F
wsl --shutdown
start "" "C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\Docker Desktop.exe"
```

Cannot connect to the API (Windows)
If you're on windows and just installed Docker (desktop), make sure to reboot your System. Docker can have problems with network connectivity without a restart. You should obviously also make sure to have your settings accordingly.

Warning

Due to the above, we do not recommend the usage of docker on windows for production setups, but only for experimentation, datadownload and backtesting. Best use a linux-VPS for running freqtrade reliably.