EffectCraft Web — Docker Image

A community-maintained Docker image for EffectCraft, bringing its WebAssembly-based motion graphics and compositing studio to a self-hosted web interface.
Automated weekly builds and image publication to GitHub Container Registry (GHCR).

GHCR image tag

Why this repository?

The upstream EffectCraft project provides a WebAssembly build that can be served as a static website. This repository automates building that web application from upstream source and packages the generated files into a lightweight NGINX-based Docker image.

The goals are to:

• Build the web app from the current main branch of storytold/effectcraft.
• Rebuild the image automatically each week and publish it to GHCR.
• Provide a simple image that can later be offered through Unraid Community Applications.
• Keep this packaging project separate from the upstream EffectCraft source code.

This is an independent community packaging project. It is not an official EffectCraft release and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the EffectCraft or ArtCraft maintainers.

How it works

EffectCraft is a motion graphics and visual effects application written in Rust. Its web application runs the same engine and egui interface in the browser using WebAssembly, with WebGPU and a WebGL2 fallback. The container serves the compiled static web files through NGINX; it does not run a remote desktop or server-side rendering service.

• Browser-based studio: create compositions from layers, animate properties with keyframes, apply effects and render through the Render Queue.
• Local-first projects: projects, imported media, settings and auto-saves stay in browser-managed storage and on the user's device. They are not uploaded to this container.
• Background processing: Web Workers handle long-running render and analysis jobs without blocking the interface.
• Offline-capable PWA: the service worker precaches the application after the first visit, allowing it to load offline.
• Export downloads: rendered files are downloaded by the browser; the container does not store render outputs.

Important: browser storage belongs to the browser profile and origin on a particular device. It is not shared between users or browsers, and it is not a server-side backup. Use the application's save and backup workflows and keep independent copies of important projects and source media.

EffectCraft is in alpha and is under active development. The upstream project explicitly cautions that it is not yet recommended for production client work. Test updates and verify your workflows before relying on it for important projects.

Docker image

The published image is:

ghcr.io/mikapst/effectcraft-web:latest

Quick start with Docker Compose

A docker-compose.yml file is provided at the repository root:

services:
  effectcraft-web:
    image: ghcr.io/mikapst/effectcraft-web:latest
    container_name: effectcraft-web
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"

Start EffectCraft Web from the repository directory:

docker compose up -d

Then open:

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8080

Replace YOUR_SERVER_IP with the IP address or hostname of your server. On the same computer, use http://localhost:8080.

Run directly with Docker

docker run -d \
  --name effectcraft-web \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  ghcr.io/mikapst/effectcraft-web:latest

Useful commands

# View logs
docker compose logs -f

# Pull the latest image and recreate the container
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Stop and remove the container
docker compose down

No .env file or persistent Docker volume is required for the default configuration. The host port is 8080; to use a different host port, change the left-hand side of the port mapping, for example 8081:8080.

Reverse proxy and browser requirements

The NGINX configuration follows the upstream hosting guidance:

• serves .wasm files with the application/wasm MIME type;
• serves .js files with the text/javascript MIME type;
• enables gzip compression for WebAssembly, JavaScript and HTML;
• applies Cache-Control: no-cache to index.html, sw.js, .wasm and .js because their filenames stay the same between releases;
• serves the site using relative URLs, so it can be hosted at a domain root or under a URL prefix when the reverse proxy preserves the path.

HTTPS is recommended and required for full browser capabilities. WebGPU and clipboard access need a secure context (https:// or http://localhost). Service workers also require a secure context. On other plain-HTTP origins, EffectCraft falls back to WebGL2.

The upstream hosting guide does not require COOP or COEP isolation headers. If another layer in your infrastructure adds Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy: require-corp, it must also provide an appropriate Cross-Origin-Resource-Policy header for the application's files.

Renderer and startup options

EffectCraft selects WebGPU when available and otherwise falls back to WebGL2. URL query parameters can override the startup behaviour:

For example:

https://YOUR_DOMAIN/?webgl

To choose the initial project mode for every visitor, an optional effectcraft-config.json can be placed next to index.html:

{"startup":"empty"}

Supported values are empty, demo and last (default). If you add this file to a custom build, serve it with Cache-Control: no-cache.

Automated builds

GitHub Actions builds the EffectCraft web application and publishes the container image automatically.

Published tags

• latest — the latest successful build.
• upstream-<commit> — identifies the exact EffectCraft source commit used for the build.

The image is published for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. The container serves static web assets through NGINX; the generated web files are architecture-independent.

A scheduled rebuild does not guarantee that upstream changes are compatible or stable. If a build fails, the previous published image remains available.

First-time GHCR setup: after the first successful publication, check the package's visibility in GitHub Packages. Set effectcraft-web to Public if you want users to pull the image without authenticating to GHCR.

Build pipeline

The workflow:

1. Checks out this repository.
2. Checks out the upstream EffectCraft repository.
3. Installs the Rust WebAssembly target and the exact wasm-bindgen-cli version required by the upstream project (0.2.129).
4. Runs cargo xtask web from the upstream repository.
5. Checks the generated static site in upstream/target/web/dist, including the WebAssembly module, JavaScript glue, render worker, audio worklet and service worker.
6. Generates the Dockerfile and NGINX configuration in a temporary build context.
7. Packages the static site into an NGINX image and publishes it to GHCR.

EffectCraft bundles its web fonts in the upstream application; this build does not need a separate craft-fonts checkout.

The WebAssembly module is large. The upstream documentation reports approximately 58 MB before optimization, with gzip reducing it to about 17 MB for the documented version. The build uses NGINX gzip compression to reduce transfer size. The browser's service worker caches the application after the first successful visit.

The workflow generates the Dockerfile and NGINX configuration during the GitHub Actions run. Separate Dockerfile, nginx.conf and .dockerignore files are therefore not required in this packaging repository.

The repository is primarily intended as an automated image-build and publication pipeline; the normal way to consume it is to pull the published image.

Unraid Community Applications

This image is intended to be usable on Unraid.

An Unraid Community Applications template will be added after the image build and runtime configuration have been tested and validated.

In the meantime, EffectCraft Web can be deployed on Unraid using the Docker Compose configuration above or by configuring the container manually with:

• Repository: ghcr.io/mikapst/effectcraft-web:latest
• Container port: 8080
• Host port: 8080 by default

Remember that projects and imported media are stored in each user's browser storage, not in the Unraid appdata directory. Clearing browser data, changing browser profiles or using a different origin can make that data unavailable. Keep independent backups.

Upstream project and attribution

• EffectCraft source code: storytold/effectcraft
• EffectCraft web build and browser architecture: docs/web.md
• EffectCraft web hosting instructions: packaging/web/README.md
• Official releases: EffectCraft releases

EffectCraft is dual-licensed under the MIT License or Apache License 2.0, at the user's option, as specified by the upstream project. Required notices and third-party asset attributions are maintained in the upstream repository; consult its NOTICE and ATTRIBUTION.md files.

The ArtCraft name, wordmark and logos in the upstream docs/brand/ directory are trademarks and are not covered by the software license. Their use is subject to the upstream docs/brand/LICENSE-brand.txt. The license of the upstream application and its assets does not automatically determine the license of the packaging files maintained in this repository. If you want to grant reuse rights for your own workflow, Compose file and documentation, select and include a separate LICENSE for this repository.

Disclaimer

This repository is maintained independently and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by the EffectCraft project or its maintainers.

EffectCraft is alpha software. Keep independent backups of important projects and source media, and test updates before relying on the application for important work.