I self-hosted an AI support bot with FastGPT + Docker — 3 gotchas that will break your install

I spent the last few days installing FastGPT v4.15 (open-source knowledge-base chatbot) on a fresh Linux box with Docker. It mostly works out of the box, but three things will stop you cold:

The MinIO image no longer pulls from Docker Hub. pull access denied for minio/minio — MinIO pulled their public images. The fix that worked for me: use the same version from FastGPT's own mirror (registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/fastgpt/minio). Slow from outside China, but it works.

CSV FAQ import needs a third column. The header must be q,a,indexes, not q,a, or the import is rejected with a format error.

You need an embedding model, not just a chat model. Without one, you can't even create a knowledge base ("System not embedding model"). DeepSeek alone isn't enough.

Bonus: Docker can bypass your firewall (ufw). Bind FastGPT's ports to 127.0.0.1 and put a reverse proxy in front.

Idle memory on my test box was ~2.1 GB, so 2 GB RAM VPSes won't cut it — plan for 4 GB.

I wrote the whole process up as a step-by-step guide with templates (compose fixes, backup/restore scripts, website widget snippet): https://zhutiandiba.gumroad.com/l/ibgouh

Happy to answer questions here either way.