Database Setup

Concourse uses two databases: a primary database for application data and a separate audit database for security event logging.

SQLite (default)

SQLite is the default and requires no external dependencies. The database file is created automatically in the /data volume.

database:
  url: sqlite:///data/concourse.db

Or equivalently:

database:
  url: file:///data/concourse.db

SQLite is suitable for single-server deployments. It requires a persistent volume at /data.

Turso (cloud SQLite)

For cloud-native deployments, Concourse supports Turso, a distributed SQLite service.

database:
  url: libsql://your-database.turso.io

Set the authentication token via environment variable:

-e DATABASE_URL=libsql://your-database.turso.io?authToken=your-token

In-memory

For development and testing only:

database:
  url: ":memory:"

All data is lost when the container stops.

Audit database

The audit database is configured separately under the audit section:

audit:
  enabled: true
  database:
    url: file:///data/audit.db

Keeping the audit database separate from the primary database provides tamper resistance. An application-level compromise cannot alter audit records through the primary database connection.

Backup

Both databases are stored in the /data volume by default. To back up:

# Stop the container (recommended for consistency)
docker stop concourse

# Copy the volume
docker run --rm \
  -v concourse-data:/data \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  alpine tar czf /backup/concourse-backup.tar.gz /data

# Restart
docker start concourse

For zero-downtime backups, use SQLite’s .backup command or a filesystem snapshot if your storage supports it.

Database URLs

Format	Example	Description
sqlite://	sqlite:///data/concourse.db	Local SQLite file
file://	file:///data/concourse.db	Local SQLite file (alias)
libsql://	libsql://your-db.turso.io	Turso cloud SQLite
:memory:	:memory:	In-memory (development only)