3o14

Deploying the backend

Environment Variables

Basic Settings

• PORT (Optional) Specifies the port the application will listen on. Default is 3000.

• DATABASE_URL The connection string for the PostgreSQL database, formatted as: postgresql://username:password@host/database_name

• SECRET_KEY A secret key used for session security. Generate one using: openssl rand -base64 32

• BEHIND_PROXY (Optional) Enables trust for reverse proxy headers like X-Forwarded-For. Set to true if running behind a load balancer. Disabled by default.

Additional Features

• REMOTE_ACTOR_FETCH_POSTS (Optional) Determines how many recent public posts are fetched when a remote user is first discovered. Default is 10.

• TIMELINE_INBOXES (Optional) If enabled (true), posts visible in the timeline are physically stored in the database instead of being filtered in real-time. Useful for large instances. Default is false.

Logging & Debugging

• LOG_LEVEL (Optional) Controls the log level. Options include debug, info, warning, error, and fatal. Default is info.

Media & Asset Storage

• DRIVE_DISK Determines where media files (avatars, images, etc.) are stored. Options: fs → Uses local filesystem storage. s3 → Uses S3-compatible object storage. Default is s3.

Local Storage Settings (For fs)

• FS_ASSET_PATH (Required if using fs) The directory where media files are stored. Example: /var/lib/hollo. Must exist and be writable. Recommended permissions: 755 for folders, 644 for files. Ensure sufficient storage space and create backups.

S3 Storage Settings (For s3)

These are required if using S3 storage:

• ASSET_URL_BASE

  • Public URL where assets are served from
  • Must be publicly accessible for proper functionality.
  • HTTPS is required for production.

• S3_REGION The region of the S3-compatible storage, e.g., us-east-1. Some non-AWS services may not require this.

• S3_BUCKET The name of the S3 storage bucket, e.g., hollo.

• S3_ENDPOINT_URL The base URL for the S3 storage, e.g., https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com.

• S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE (Optional) If true, forces path-style URLs instead of virtual-hosted URLs. Useful for non-AWS S3-compatible services. Default is false.

• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID & AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY Credentials for accessing the S3 bucket. Required for S3 storage.

Deploying Using Docker

1. Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/3o14-com/backend.git

2. Setup the environment variables Read more about environment variables on Environment Variables section. make a .env file and add the following entries

• SECRET_KEY=secret_key generate using openssl rand -base64 32
• LOG_LEVEL=info
• BEHIND_PROXY=true

3. Configure compose.yaml if you want to use the local filesystem for media storage then copy compose-fs.yaml to compose.yaml and if you want to use S3 storage then copy compose-minio.yaml to compose.yaml. Then change the entry for ASSET_URL_BASE to <your base address>/assets/.

4. Setup your proxys If you are using a custom domain, configure your reverse proxy to forward requests to the backend container.

5. Run the docker container Then run the docker container

docker compose --env-file .env up