Introduction

draw.io is a whiteboarding / diagramming software application. This project contains various docker implementations of draw.io and associated tools:

• draw.io docker image that is always up-to-date with draw.io releases
• draw.io export server image which allow exporting draw.io diagrams to pdf and images
• docker-compose to run draw.io with the export server
• docker-compose to run draw.io integrated within nextcloud
• docker-compose to run draw.io self-contained without any dependency on diagrams.net website (with the export server, Google Drive support, and OneDrive support)

Description

The Dockerfile builds from tomcat:9-jre11 (see https://hub.docker.com/_/tomcat/)

Note: Starting from version 16.5.3, alpine and debian images are no longer maintained. We changed to a single image that uses the tomcat image with the least security vulnerabilities.

Forked from fjudith/draw.io

Features

• Based on Tomcat so it can be used directly or behind a reverse-proxy
• Self-Signed certificate autogen
• Let's encrypt certificate autogen
• Support SSL Keystore mount to /user/local/tomcat/.keystore

Quick Start

Run the container.

docker run -it --rm --name="draw" -p 8080:8080 -p 8443:8443 jgraph/drawio

Start a web browser session to http://localhost:8080/?offline=1&https=0 or https://localhost:8443/?offline=1

If you're running Docker Toolbox then start a web browser session to http://192.168.99.100:8080/?offline=1&https=0 or https://192.168.99.100:8443/?offline=1

?offline=1 is a security feature that disables support of cloud storage.

Running as a non-root user

Both images already run as a dedicated non-root user by default — tomcat (UID 1001, GID 999) in jgraph/drawio and pptruser (UID 999) in jgraph/export-server — so nothing needs to be configured just to avoid root.

Users have reported it working with [rootless] Podman, but we haven't tested ourselves.

To run under a different UID (a compose user: override, Kubernetes runAsUser, or OpenShift's arbitrary UIDs), the user must carry the root group (GID 0). Configuration is applied at startup by rewriting files inside the container (main/docker-entrypoint.sh), and both images grant GID 0 owner-equivalent permissions on those paths, following the OpenShift image guidelines. Membership of group 0 grants no other privileges — it is not root.

docker run -it --rm -p 8080:8080 --user 1234:0 jgraph/drawio

docker-compose — either set group 0 directly or keep your own GID and add it as a supplementary group:

services:
  drawio:
    image: jgraph/drawio
    user: "1234:1234"
    group_add:
      - "0"

Kubernetes:

securityContext:
  runAsNonRoot: true
  runAsUser: 1234
  runAsGroup: 0        # or keep your own runAsGroup and add supplementalGroups: [0]

On OpenShift, restricted SCCs already run pods with an arbitrary UID and GID 0, so both images work there without any extra configuration.

Without GID 0 the main container still starts, but the entrypoint logs a warning and skips all runtime configuration (DRAWIO_* variables, SSL, context path), and the export server fails to render because Chrome cannot write its profile directory.

readOnlyRootFilesystem: true is not currently supported, since configuration is written into the webapp at startup.

Environment variables

All container behaviour is controlled by environment variables, processed by main/docker-entrypoint.sh at startup and written into PreConfig.js / PostConfig.js inside the deployed webapp.

Certificate and SSL

Deployment URL

• DRAWIO_SERVER_URL: Public deployment URL with a trailing slash, e.g. https://drawio.example.com/, or https://www.example.com/drawio/ if deployed into a sub-path. When a sub-path is present the entrypoint also updates the Tomcat context path automatically. Default unset (the webapp is served at /).
• DRAWIO_BASE_URL: (Optional, backwards-compat) Same URL without a trailing slash, used by the viewer/lightbox/embed code paths. Only needed if DRAWIO_SERVER_URL is not set; the entrypoint derives whichever one is missing. If both are set, both pass through unchanged.
• DRAWIO_VIEWER_URL: Optional URL of a hosted viewer JS bundle, e.g. https://drawio.example.com/js/viewer.min.js.
• DRAWIO_LIGHTBOX_URL: Optional lightbox URL, e.g. https://drawio.example.com.

Editor configuration

• DRAWIO_CONFIG: JSON configuration object for the diagram editor — written verbatim into window.DRAWIO_CONFIG. See https://www.drawio.com/doc/faq/configure-diagram-editor. Must be valid JSON, not arbitrary JavaScript.
• DRAWIO_CSP_HEADER: Override the default Content-Security-Policy <meta> injected into the page. Defaults to a hard-coded policy in docker-entrypoint.sh — start from that policy when customising.
• ENABLE_DRAWIO_PROXY: Set to 1 to enable the /proxy endpoint (ProxyServlet) which allows embedding images from external URLs; default disabled.

Enabling AI diagram generation: the AI options (enableAi, gptApiKey, geminiApiKey, claudeApiKey, aiModels, aiConfigs, ...) are editor configuration settings, not standalone environment variables — there is no DRAWIO_ENABLE_AI. Set them inside DRAWIO_CONFIG, for example:

DRAWIO_CONFIG={"enableAi":true,"claudeApiKey":"sk-ant-...","aiModels":[{"name":"Claude 4.5 Sonnet","model":"claude-sonnet-4-5","config":"claude"}]}

enableAi defaults to true only on app.diagrams.net, and the custom AI actions only appear once an API key and model are configured, so a self-hosted deployment needs both enableAi: true and a key. See Customise LLM backends for diagram generation for the full list of options.

Custom fonts

Fonts are needed in two different places, configured independently — mounting font files into this container does not make them appear in the editor:

• Editor fonts (browser): the editor renders text in the user's browser, which can only use fonts installed on the viewer's device or loaded over HTTP(S). Make a web font selectable in the font picker with defaultFonts (or customFonts, which prepends to the list) inside DRAWIO_CONFIG:

  DRAWIO_CONFIG={"defaultFonts":["Helvetica",{"fontFamily":"My Font","fontUrl":"https://drawio.example.com/fonts/MyFont.woff2"}]}
  

  Plain string entries must be installed on every viewer's device; entries with fontFamily + fontUrl (a direct font file or a Google-Fonts-style CSS URL) are downloaded by the browser, and the URL is stored in the diagram so other viewers and exports can resolve it — use an absolute URL reachable from every browser that will open the diagram. To serve font files from this container, mount them into the webapp: -v ./fonts:/usr/local/tomcat/webapps/draw/fonts serves them at https://your-host/fonts/….

  fontCss (also inside DRAWIO_CONFIG) injects raw @font-face rules; it makes text using that family render, but does not add anything to the font picker — combine it with a plain font name in defaultFonts/customFonts, or just use a fontUrl entry instead. The default CSP allows fonts from any origin (font-src *); if you override DRAWIO_CSP_HEADER, keep your font host allowed there.

• Export fonts (server-side rendering): PDF/image export renders with the fonts installed inside the export-server container, not this one. Mount extra fonts at /usr/share/fonts/drawio on the jgraph/export-server container — see image-export/README.md and self-contained/README.md. This affects exported files only; it does not add fonts to the editor.

See the draw.io documentation on external fonts for how fonts behave in the editor itself.

Export server integration

• DRAWIO_SELF_CONTAINED: Set to 1 to route export requests through Tomcat's ExportProxyServlet (/service/0) instead of calling the export server directly. Use this when the export server is only reachable inside the docker network.
• EXPORT_URL: Without DRAWIO_SELF_CONTAINED, set this to any value to make the webapp call /service/0 for exports. With DRAWIO_SELF_CONTAINED=1 the same routing is enabled automatically. The actual upstream URL is read by the proxy servlet from web.xml.

Google Drive integration

See self-contained/README.md for how to register the OAuth app.

• DRAWIO_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID: OAuth client ID. Unset = Google Drive integration disabled.
• DRAWIO_GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET: OAuth client secret.
• DRAWIO_GOOGLE_APP_ID: Google project number (the numeric prefix of the client ID, before the first -).
• DRAWIO_GOOGLE_VIEWER_CLIENT_ID / DRAWIO_GOOGLE_VIEWER_CLIENT_SECRET / DRAWIO_GOOGLE_VIEWER_APP_ID: Optional separate read-only credentials for a viewer deployment.

Microsoft OneDrive integration

See self-contained/README.md for redirect-URI requirements.

• DRAWIO_MSGRAPH_CLIENT_ID: Azure app client ID. Unset = OneDrive integration disabled.
• DRAWIO_MSGRAPH_CLIENT_SECRET: Azure app client secret.
• DRAWIO_MSGRAPH_TENANT_ID: Tenant ID for single-tenant Azure apps.

GitLab integration

See self-contained/README.md for OAuth-app setup.

• DRAWIO_GITLAB_ID: OAuth application ID. Unset = GitLab integration disabled.
• DRAWIO_GITLAB_SECRET: OAuth application secret.
• DRAWIO_GITLAB_URL: GitLab base URL without any path, e.g. https://gitlab.com or https://gitlab.example.com. The entrypoint appends /oauth/token itself for server-side auth, and uses this value as the base of the client-side /oauth/authorize URL — adding a path here breaks both. When this is set to anything other than https://gitlab.com the entrypoint also writes Editor.enableCustomGitLabUrl = true; into PostConfig.js, which is required by the client to allow self-hosted instances.

HTTPS SSL Certificate via Let's Encrypt

Prerequisites:

1. A Linux machine connected to the Internet with ports 443 and 80 open
2. A domain/subdomain name pointing to this machine's IP address. (e.g., drawio.example.com)

Method:

1. Create a directory to store the letsencrypt data. (e.g., /opt/docker/drawiodata/letsencrypt-log, /opt/docker/drawiodata/letsencrypt-etc, /opt/docker/drawiodata/letsencrypt-lib)
2. Using jgraph/drawio docker image, run the following command

docker run -it -m1g -v "/opt/docker/drawiodata/letsencrypt-log:/var/log/letsencrypt/" -v "/opt/docker/drawiodata/letsencrypt-etc:/etc/letsencrypt/" -v "/opt/docker/drawiodata/letsencrypt-lib:/var/lib/letsencrypt" -e LETS_ENCRYPT_ENABLED=true -e PUBLIC_DNS=drawio.example.com --rm --name="draw" -p 80:80 -p 443:8443 jgraph/drawio

Notice that mapping port 80 to container's port 80 allows certbot to work in stand-alone mode. Mapping port 443 to container's port 8443 allows the container tomcat to serve https requests directly.

Changing draw.io configuration

All draw.io configuration is driven by the DRAWIO_* environment variables listed in the Environment variables section above. For integrations that need an OAuth app (Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, GitLab), the step-by-step app-registration instructions live in self-contained/README.md.

Reference

• https://github.com/jgraph/drawio