Setting Up PocketBase’s First Superuser on Coolify

I’ve been playing around with Next.js, Stytch, Keycloak and Better Auth, but decided to return to experimenting with PocketBase for a SPA. I deployed a PocketBase instance with Coolify, but couldn’t remember how I managed to create a superuser in the past. The official docs and Google didn’t help.

Turns out, I needed to see my logs for the PocketBase service in Coolify.

2025-06-15T15:19:59.758659679Z 2025/06/15 15:19:59 Server started at http://0.0.0.0:8080
2025-06-15T15:19:59.758711719Z ├─ REST API:  http://0.0.0.0:8080/api/
2025-06-15T15:19:59.758715279Z └─ Dashboard: http://0.0.0.0:8080/_/
2025-06-15T15:19:59.856938100Z
2025-06-15T15:19:59.856969020Z (!) Launch the URL below in the browser if it hasn't been open already to create your first superuser account:
2025-06-15T15:19:59.857139780Z http://0.0.0.0:8080/_/#/pbinstal/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VySWQiOiJ1c2VyXzEyMzQ1Njc4OTAiLCJlbWFpbCI6ImpvaG4uZG9lQGV4YW1wbGUuY29tIiwiZXhwIjoxNzUwMTAwMDAwLCJpYXQiOjE3NDkxMDAwMDAsInJvbGUiOiJhZG1pbiJ9.K7_Wn2k8rZGLx5tP3QeYvA6j9mFh4sRt8xV1n0cQ2uE
2025-06-15T15:19:59.857146660Z (you can also create your first superuser by running: /app/pocketbase superuser upsert EMAIL PASS)
2025-06-15T15:19:59.857149180Z

Replace http://0.0.0.0:8080 with the domain in your Coolify service, e.g., https://pocketbase.domain.com. The URL contains the JWT that allows you to create a superuser.

The log above came from the version I was running in 2025 and printed superuser upsert. PocketBase’s current documentation uses:

/app/pocketbase superuser create EMAIL PASS

Use the command shown by your installed version. The installer link remains useful when you would rather finish setup in the browser.

Writing this for my future self too.