pgAdmin

What is pgAdmin?

pgAdmin is the standard web-based admin GUI for PostgreSQL, browse schemas, run queries, manage roles, and inspect query plans. There's nothing to "install", Laradock runs it straight from the official dpage/pgadmin4 image and points it at your postgres container.

Start pgAdmin

Start it alongside Postgres:

docker compose up -d postgres pgadmin

pgadmin depends on postgres in pgadmin/compose.yml, so Compose starts postgres first automatically if you just run docker compose up -d pgadmin.

Stop pgAdmin

docker compose stop pgadmin

This stops the container without deleting its saved server list. Data lives under DATA_PATH_HOST/pgadmin.

Configuration

All settings live in pgadmin/defaults.env and can be overridden by adding the same line to your own .env:

Variable	Default	What it does
PGADMIN_PORT	5050	Host-side port for the web UI (container port 80).
PGADMIN_DEFAULT_EMAIL	[email protected]	Login email for the pgAdmin app itself (not a Postgres credential).
PGADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD	admin	Login password for the pgAdmin app itself.

Log in

Open http://localhost:5050 and sign in with PGADMIN_DEFAULT_EMAIL / PGADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD ([email protected] / admin by default).

Connect to your Postgres server

Once logged in, add a new server in pgAdmin's UI:

• Host: postgres (the container name)
• Port: 5432 (container-internal port)
• Username/Password: your POSTGRES_USER/POSTGRES_PASSWORD

Common issues

• pgAdmin login and Postgres login are different things. PGADMIN_DEFAULT_EMAIL/PGADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD only get you into the pgAdmin app itself, you still add and authenticate against your actual Postgres server separately inside the UI.
• Credential changes don't take effect. PGADMIN_DEFAULT_EMAIL/PGADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD are only applied when DATA_PATH_HOST/pgadmin is created for the first time. If you change them afterward, either drop that folder (loses saved servers/settings) or change the user from inside pgAdmin's own user management.
• Can't reach Postgres by container name. Use postgres as the host inside pgAdmin's server dialog, not localhost, that only works from your host machine, not from inside another container.
• Port already in use on your host. Change PGADMIN_PORT in .env and restart: docker compose up -d pgadmin.

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Need a MySQL/MariaDB GUI instead? See phpMyAdmin. Back to the Getting Started guide.