13ft Ladder self-hosted reader that strips paywalls and ads from articles, with Docker Compose.
Last updated: Oct 2026
13ft Ladder is a tiny self-hosted web app that fetches an article the way a search-engine crawler would and shows you a clean, readable copy without pop-ups, cookie walls or most soft paywalls. Paste a link, or prefix any article URL with your 13ft address.
Why you'd want it: Read news and blog posts without trackers, overlays or sign-up nags, from any device on your network.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Stack folder | /opt/stacks/13ft |
| Category | Productivity and reading |
| Main image | ghcr.io/wasi-master/13ft:latest |
| Services | 1 |
| Web UI | http://<SERVER_IP>:30002 |
| Official docs | https://github.com/wasi-master/13ft |
.env/.secret files from Docker Folders and EnvironmentFolder layout:
/opt/stacks/
├── _shared/
│ ├── .env # shared, non-secret settings
│ └── .secret # passwords, tokens and keys (chmod 600, never commit)
└── 13ft/
└── compose.yaml
/opt/appdata/13ft/ # persistent application data
/opt/stacks/13ft/compose.yaml:
---
services:
13ft:
image: ghcr.io/wasi-master/13ft:latest
container_name: 13ft
hostname: 13ft
env_file:
- /opt/stacks/_shared/.env
- /opt/stacks/_shared/.secret
logging:
driver: json-file
options:
max-file: ${DOCKERLOGGING_MAXFILE:-10} # Max number of log files
max-size: ${DOCKERLOGGING_MAXSIZE:-200k} # Max file size
ports:
- 30002:5000
restart: unless-stopped
Compose reads these from the shared files with --env-file. Replace every <PLACEHOLDER> with your own value.
/opt/stacks/_shared/.env:
PUID=1000
PGID=1000
TZ=<TZ>
DOCKERLOGGING_MAXFILE=10
DOCKERLOGGING_MAXSIZE=200k
| Variable | File | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
PUID |
.env |
User ID the container runs as (see Docker Folders) | 1000 |
PGID |
.env |
Group ID the container runs as | 1000 |
TZ |
.env |
Time zone in tz database format, e.g. America/New_York | <TZ> |
DOCKERLOGGING_MAXFILE |
.env |
Number of rotated container log files to keep | 10 |
DOCKERLOGGING_MAXSIZE |
.env |
Maximum size of each container log file | 200k |
| Host port | Container port | Protocol | Service | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30002 | 5000 | tcp | 13ft |
Web UI |
No volumes.
No limits are set. This app is light, so add deploy.resources.limits only if you need to cap it.
sudo mkdir -p /opt/stacks/13ft /opt/appdata/13ft
sudo chown -R $USER: /opt/stacks/13ft
/opt/stacks/_shared/.env and /opt/stacks/_shared/.secret (chmod 600 .secret)./opt/stacks/13ft/compose.yaml.cd /opt/stacks/13ft
docker compose --env-file ../_shared/.env --env-file ../_shared/.secret config --quiet
docker compose --env-file ../_shared/.env --env-file ../_shared/.secret up -d
docker compose logs -f.http://<SERVER_IP>:30002, paste an article URL and click Submit.http://<SERVER_IP>:30002/<ARTICLE_URL> directly, or make a browser bookmarklet that does it.Tip: create a small wrapper such as
alias dc='docker compose --env-file /opt/stacks/_shared/.env --env-file /opt/stacks/_shared/.secret'so every stack uses the same env files.
cd /opt/stacks/13ft
docker compose --env-file ../_shared/.env --env-file ../_shared/.secret pull
docker compose --env-file ../_shared/.env --env-file ../_shared/.secret up -d
docker image prune -f
Back up /opt/appdata/13ft before major upgrades. Watchtower can automate updates for stateless apps.
docker compose ps and docker compose logs --tail=100.:?err): run the config command above to see which variable is not set in your env files.Educational example. Review every path, port and credential before you deploy, and never publish your .secret file.