Docassemble for Cloudron

Status: 0.1.0 published (docassemble 1.10.15). Install on Cloudron 10 from the community versions feed: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OrcVole/docassemble-cloudron/main/CloudronVersions.json (App Store, then "Install from URL"; or cloudron install --versions-url <that URL>). The gate evidence behind this release is in docs/DEBUGGING.md.

Docassemble (MIT) runs guided interviews written in YAML and Python that produce letters, forms and PDFs. It is widely used in legal aid. This package runs docassemble 1.10.15 on Cloudron, built from cloudron/base and docassemble's published Python packages.

How it is built

• Cloudron supplies the services: PostgreSQL, Redis (also the background-task broker), outgoing mail, sign-in through Cloudron's LDAP, TLS and the scheduled jobs. Nothing in the container keeps a database of its own.
• The program lives in the image; your data lives in /app/data: configuration, the secret key, uploaded files and add-on packages. Updates replace the program; backups hold only your data.
• Your settings stay put. config.yml is written once on first install and is yours to edit through docassemble's configuration editor. Values Cloudron controls (database, Redis, mail, hostname) are supplied fresh on every start, so they follow credential and domain changes.
• Python 3.15, the newest release, installed alongside the base image's own Python.
• The package follows every docassemble release.

The decisions behind this, and how it differs from the earlier v0.1 package, are in docs/decisions/, starting with ADR 0001.

Who can run code

Docassemble interviews can contain Python. Anyone with a developer or administrator account can write and run that code in the Playground, and it runs with the same access as the app itself, which includes every stored answer and account in this app's database. People who only answer interviews cannot run code. Give developer and administrator roles only to people you would trust with all of this app's data, install add-on packages only from sources you trust, and use a separate docassemble app if you need authors who should not see each other's users.

Background tasks are passed between processes in Python's pickle format, as upstream does. The channel is this app's own password-protected Redis, which only this app can reach.

Differences from upstream's Docker image

• No inbound email. Receiving mail needs a mail server inside the container, which this package does not run. Outgoing mail works through Cloudron.
• SMS, fax, text-to-speech and machine translation start switched off, which saves memory. They use outside services (for example Twilio) and can be turned on in the configuration.
• Add-on packages must ship wheels (the runtime image has no compiler), and must work with the library versions docassemble itself pins. An add-on that needs a different version of one of those libraries fails to install with a "read-only file system" error, and nothing changes.
• Four small code changes, each offered upstream: live help sends the Redis password (ADR 0003), the default PDF font is Tinos (ADR 0006), and two bugs that stopped background OCR returning text are fixed (ADR 0007), and LDAP sign-in works with Cloudron's directory (ADR 0008).

Fonts for PDFs

docassemble's default PDF template asks for Times New Roman, which this package cannot redistribute. It uses Tinos instead (ADR 0006): every character has the same width and the line spacing is the same, so lines and pages break where they would in Times New Roman. PDFs name Tinos in their font list.

Two modern faces are also installed. Choose one per document with fontfamily: in the attachment's metadata: STIX Two Text (a current design in the Times tradition, about 3% longer) or Source Serif 4 (optical sizes, every figure style, about 8% longer).

Your own fonts (a house style, or Times New Roman itself where a court rule names it and you hold a licence): put the .ttf or .otf files in /app/data/fonts with the app's file manager and restart the app. They are then available to PDFs and included in backups.

Credits

The icon is docassemble's own logo (from docassemble.org) on a dark tile.

timconsidine's community package showed the way on running docassemble with Cloudron's addons only, using Redis as the task broker and generating secrets per install. Thank you.

For maintainers

• AGENTS.md: the working contract and settled decisions.
• docs/FOR-UPSTREAM.md and docs/FOR-CLOUDRON.md: notes for the two projects this package sits between.
• test/secret-scan.sh: the release gate for secrets and private detail.