BetterFrame/deploy

BetterFrame deployment

Deployment shapes

BetterFrame ships as two artifacts, deployable in any combination:

Variant	What it runs	Where it runs
bf-server	Docker compose (server + Angie + Node-RED)	Coolify / VM / on-prem box
bf-client	Rust kiosk binary + cage + plymouth	Pi 5 (LAN-attached)
bf-aio	Both, single Pi	Demo / single-site only

The bf-aio mode (server + kiosk colocated on one Pi) is the simplest install but couples failure domains — when the Pi dies, you lose both the displays it drives AND the management plane for any other kiosks. Use for demos or a single-display site. For anything else, run bf-server separately and have bf-client Pis point at it.

bf-server (Docker compose, Coolify-friendly)

Pull the repo on the host. Configure via env (overrides sec-config.yaml):

BF_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/betterframe
BF_SQLITE_PATH=/var/lib/betterframe/betterframe.db
BF_NODERED_URL=http://nodered:1880
BF_SELF_URL=http://server:18080
BF_FIRMWARE_SIGNING_KEY=        # paste Ed25519 PEM for stable signing key
BF_MQTT_URL=                     # optional MQTT telemetry export

In Coolify: create a Docker compose stack pointing at the repo's docker-compose.yml (repo root), inject the env vars, set a domain on the angie service. Backups via the admin UI (/admin/backup) — Coolify's S3 hook can pull these on a schedule.

bf-client (kiosk Pi)

sudo apt install -y git
git clone https://github.com/BetterCorp/BetterFrame.git ~/betterframe
sudo ~/betterframe/deploy/scripts/setup-pi-kiosk.sh client

Pairs with whichever bf-server is set in /etc/default/betterframe-kiosk (BETTERFRAME_SERVER=http://<server-host>).

Recommended: Docker services + native kiosk

Run server, Angie/nginx, and Node-RED in Docker Compose. Only Angie publishes a host port. The BetterFrame backend ports and Node-RED are internal to the Docker network, which forces /nrdp/, /in/kiosk/, and admin traffic through the proxy auth rules.

cd /opt/betterframe
docker compose up -d --build      # from repo root

Published:

• 80 -> Angie/nginx public edge

Internal only:

• 18080 -> admin service
• 18081 -> kiosk API service
• 18082 -> kiosk WebSocket service
• 1880 -> Node-RED

Access first-run setup at:

http://<pi-ip>/setup

Node-RED editor is reachable only through:

http://<pi-ip>/nrdp/

The proxy has four route surfaces:

• BetterFrame web/API: /, /setup, /admin/*, /auth/*, /static/*, /api/admin/*, /api/kiosk/*, /api/pair/*, /ws/kiosk
• Kiosk-only Node-RED ingress: /in/kiosk/<node-red-path>
• Kiosk-only Node-RED dashboards: /dash/*
• Public Node-RED HTTP-in URLs: any otherwise-unmatched root path, plus /in/public/<node-red-path>

For example, a Node-RED http in node at /test1 is public at http://<pi-ip>/test1 and also available at http://<pi-ip>/in/public/test1. Kiosk-authenticated traffic to that same Node-RED path uses http://<pi-ip>/in/kiosk/test1.

Do not publish 18080, 18081, 18082, or 1880 on the host.

If migrating from an older native install, stop the old host daemons first:

sudo systemctl disable --now betterframe-server betterframe-nodered angie nginx 2>/dev/null || true

Kiosk

The kiosk still runs natively on the Pi because it needs Wayland/HDMI, GTK, GStreamer, display power control, and local hardware access.

sudo apt install -y libgtk-4-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev \
    libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
    gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-libav \
    gstreamer1.0-gtk4 libwebkitgtk-6.0-dev libssl-dev

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source ~/.cargo/env

cd /opt/betterframe/kiosk
cargo build --release
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/betterframe-kiosk /opt/betterframe/kiosk/betterframe-kiosk

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
cp /opt/betterframe/deploy/systemd/betterframe-kiosk.service ~/.config/systemd/user/
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now betterframe-kiosk

Kiosks should point at the proxy URL, not direct backend ports:

BETTERFRAME_SERVER=http://<pi-ip> /opt/betterframe/kiosk/betterframe-kiosk

Native server mode

Native server mode is for development only. Run it manually when debugging; do not install host daemons for BetterFrame server, Angie, or Node-RED in production. The Docker stack owns those services.