2025/11/11 17:17:32 failed to create modcache index dir: mkdir /.cache: permission denied
time=2025-11-11T17:17:32.524Z level=INFO msg=“No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.”
time=2025-11-11T17:17:32.524Z level=ERROR msg=“service.publicurl is required when cors.enable is true”
I’m trying to get started self-hosting on Mac OS. I got this same error using the Docker Desktop application and also using the command line script from the getting started documentation
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I’ve basically ran into similar problems with the latest docker image, still trying to figure out what the heck is going on and how to resolve it.
2025-11-21T07:54:34.424298479Z 2025/11/21 07:54:34 failed to create modcache index dir: mkdir /.cache: permission denied
2025-11-21T07:54:34.428906455Z time=2025-11-21T07:54:34.428Z level=INFO msg="No config file found, using default or config from environment variables."
2025-11-21T07:54:34.429431497Z time=2025-11-21T07:54:34.429Z level=INFO msg="Running migrations…"
2025-11-21T07:54:34.431463349Z time=2025-11-21T07:54:34.431Z level=ERROR msg="could not check for paradedb extension: dial tcp: lookup db on 127.0.0.11:53: server misbehaving"
2025-11-21T07:54:34.432422059Z time=2025-11-21T07:54:34.432Z level=ERROR msg="Migration failed: dial tcp: lookup db on 127.0.0.11:53: server misbehaving"
This sounds like Vikunja can’t reach your database. The server misbehaving indicates something is wrong with the docker dns resolution.
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Okay, at least I was able to figure out the last two log snippets:
I’ve crated my own docker-compose.yaml fiule as I don’t like to map the container ports to 127.0.0.1, I use dedicated virtual networks for the containers. And I dont bind host folders into the containers, I use persistent docker volumes.
As I have quite a large number of containers already running on my docker instance I also renamed the containers for better differenciation - and of course I changed the name of the postgres container for vikunja, but I forgot to adapt the environment variable for the vikunja container pointing vikunja to it’s datanbase.
I just corrected the configuration, deleted the two vikunja related containers AND the volumes, just to make sure everything is now created correctly from scratch - and voilà, now everything is working as expected.
Only THIS error remains:
2025-11-21T08:03:21.683175432Z 2025/11/21 08:03:21 failed to create modcache index dir: mkdir /.cache: permission denied
Sometimes the only thing I need to do as an AuDHD person is to write the damn thing down once.
It often helps enough to get my thoughts back on track again. After I wrote my comment here it struck me hard: damn, I renamed the db container but forgot to adapt the environment variables for vikunja.
Thank you for time and effort to reply. I really appreciate your help.
If you have the containers in different compose projects and don’t set a custom container_name, they already get the compose project name as prefix applied but are still visible to each other using the compose name. That means for a config like this:
service:
vikunja:
image: vikunja/vikunja
# ...
db:
image: postgres
# ...
the vikunja container will be able to talk to the db container using just db as hostname, but it will be called vikunja-db-1 if you run docker ps.
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Yeah, I know that the project name gets prefixed to the container name. I’ts just a personal preference that I didn’t like “db”, I just called it “postgres-db”. It’s just pure cosmetics, everything would have been fine technically if I just didn’t have fiddled around with the proposed container names. 
Hey all,
I’m also experiencing the modcache error with rc3 and was wondering if any of you solved it by now? I am not sure if it ocurred before rc3 as well…
docker exec -it vikunja-app /app/vikunja/vikunja user list
2025/12/12 06:47:44 failed to create modcache index dir: mkdir /.cache: permission denied
time=2025-12-12T06:47:44.545Z level=INFO msg=“Using config file: /etc/vikunja/config.yml”
time=2025-12-12T06:47:44.546Z level=INFO msg=“Running migrations…”
time=2025-12-12T06:47:44.573Z level=INFO msg=“Ran all migrations successfully.”
It appears the modcache issue is a problem in Go: x/tools/imports: always print 'failed to create modcache index dir' · Issue #75505 · golang/go · GitHub
But it should not affect Vikunja’s startup. Is this really the only error you’re seeing?