SurrealDB

What is SurrealDB?

SurrealDB is a multi-model database combining document, graph, and relational data behind a single SQL-like query language (SurrealQL), reachable over both REST and WebSocket. Laradock runs it from the official surrealdb/surrealdb image with a RocksDB storage backend.

Start SurrealDB

docker compose up -d surrealdb

Stop SurrealDB

docker compose stop surrealdb

This stops the container without deleting its data. Data is kept in the named surrealdb Docker volume, not under DATA_PATH_HOST.

Configuration

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

Variable	Default	What it does
SURREALDB_VERSION	v2.6.5	Image tag from SurrealDB's Docker Hub image.
SURREALDB_PORT	8010	Host-side port for the REST/WebSocket API (container port 8000).
SURREALDB_USER	root	Root user, passed to surreal start --user.
SURREALDB_PASSWORD	secret	Root password, passed to surreal start --pass.

The container runs as root (set in surrealdb/compose.yml) so the server can create its RocksDB store inside the named volume, and starts with:

start --user ${SURREALDB_USER} --pass ${SURREALDB_PASSWORD} --bind 0.0.0.0:8000 rocksdb:/data/database.db

Check it's up

curl http://localhost:8010/health

Connect

Use the SurrealDB CLI or any SurrealDB client library against http://localhost:8010 (from your host) or http://surrealdb:8000 (from another container), authenticating with SURREALDB_USER / SURREALDB_PASSWORD.

Common issues

• Changing SURREALDB_VERSION doesn't take effect. SurrealDB is pulled by image tag, not built locally, restart after changing it: docker compose up -d surrealdb.
• Credential changes don't take effect. --user/--pass are only meaningful the first time the RocksDB store is created inside the volume. If you change SURREALDB_USER/SURREALDB_PASSWORD afterward, either drop the surrealdb volume (data loss) or manage users through SurrealQL instead.
• Data isn't where you expect. Persists to a named Docker volume (surrealdb), not DATA_PATH_HOST. Use docker volume inspect <project>_surrealdb to find it, or docker compose down -v to wipe it (data loss).
• Port already in use on your host. Change SURREALDB_PORT in .env and restart.

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Need a different multi-model option? See ArangoDB. Back to the Getting Started guide.