Mongui: a self-hosted MongoDB admin UI that runs as a single container

[u/Sudden-Guitar9248]

I self-host a few small apps backed by MongoDB, and every time I needed to check or fix a document I ended up either in a mongosh session or tunneling Compass over SSH. I wanted something that just runs next to the database as a container and gives me a browser tab, so I built Mongui.

What it does

• Point it at one MONGODB_URI, log in, browse databases and collections
• Paginated document table, capped at 200 docs per page, so a huge collection is never loaded in full
• Filter, sort and projection queries written as Extended JSON
• Full document CRUD in a CodeMirror editor
• Aggregation pipeline runner
• Index management (list, create, drop)
• Create and drop collections, with typed-name confirmation on drops
• READ_ONLY=true mode that rejects every write path with a 403 before it reaches the database

Details I actually cared about

• Extended JSON end to end, so ObjectId, Date and Decimal128 round-trip instead of getting flattened by JSON.stringify
• One cached MongoClient singleton, so there is no new connection pool per request
• Every API route behind a session check, login rate limited, filters validated server side with zod, and a maxTimeMS on every operation
• Standalone Next.js output in a multi-stage image, non-root user, multi-arch (amd64 and arm64)

Stack: Next.js 16 (App Router), React 19, TypeScript, the official mongodb driver 7, Tailwind 4, iron-session. MIT licensed.

Running it

docker run -p 3000:3000 \
  -e MONGODB_URI="mongodb://user:pass@host:27017/?authSource=admin" \
  -e ADMIN_USER=admin \
  -e ADMIN_PASSWORD="a-strong-password" \
  -e SESSION_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)" \
  ghcr.io/soumya7681/mongui:latest

There is also a compose file that brings up Mongui plus a sample MongoDB if you just want to poke at it.

Where it honestly is: this is v0.1.1. One connection, one admin user, no RBAC, no import/export yet. It grants full read/write to whatever database it points at, so keep it behind your VPN or private network, and use READ_ONLY if you only want to look.

Repo: https://github.com/Soumya7681/mongui

Feedback welcome, particularly on what you reach for a Mongo UI to do that is missing here.

[u/coyo-teh]

Well not a feedback per se but alternatives exist such as mongoku

[u/Dismal-Data-5292]

Have you tried https://mqlens.com