Self-Hosting Keila: Configuration

When self-hosting Keila, you can configure most aspects of the application with environment variables.

Database

Configure the PostgreSQL database used by Keila:

Variable	Required	Default	Description
DB_URL	yes	-	URL following the schema postgres://user:password@host/database
DB_ENABLE_SSL	no	false	Use SSL/TLS for the database connection
DB_VERIFY_SSL_HOST	no	true	Enable SSL hostname verification (disable if connecting to an IP directly)
DB_CA_CERT	no	-	SSL certificate (PEM) for connecting to the database

Root User

When you start Keila for the first time, a root user is created. If you don’t specify otherwise, a user with a random password is created printed to stdout.

Variable	Required	Default	Description
KEILA_USER		root@localhost	Email address for the root user
KEILA_PASSWORD		random	Password for the root user

URL

Configure publicly-visible URLs generated by Keila with the following variables:

Variable	Required	Default	Description
URL_HOST	yes	-	Domain of your Keila instance
URL_PATH		/	Path of your Keila instance
URL_SCHEMA		http	http or https. URL scheme of your Keila instance
URL_PORT		443 if URL_SCHEMA is https value of PORT otherwise	Port of your Keila instance

Deployment

Variable	Required	Default	Description
PORT		4000	Port on which Keila will listen
SECRET_KEY_BASE	yes	-	Strong secret with at least 64 characters. Can be generated with head -c 48 /dev/urandom | base64
HASHID_SALT		derived from SECRET_KEY_BASE	Salt for creating Hashids. More information
DISABLE_REGISTRATION		false	Disable user registration by setting this variable to true
DISABLE_PRECEDENCE_HEADER		false	Disable the Precedence: Bulk header by settings this variable to true
USER_CONTENT_DIR		./uploads	Path to a directory where user uploads will be stored. When deploying using containers, this should point to the path of a volume to make sure uploads are persisted.
USER_CONTENT_BASE_URL		-	Base URL at which files in USER_CONTENT_DIR are available on the web. It’s recommended to set up a separate server (such as Nginx or Apache) to serve user content. If not set, Keila wil serve user content files directly.

System mailer

Keila needs to be able to send system emails, e.g. for registration and password reset emails. Configure an SMTP sender for this purpose with the following variables:

Variable	Required	Default	Description
MAILER_TYPE		smtp	Currently only smtp is supported
MAILER_SMTP_HOST	yes	-	Hostname of the SMTP server
MAILER_SMTP_PORT		587	Port of the SMTP server
MAILER_SMTP_USER	yes	-	Username for the SMTP server
MAILER_SMTP_PASSWORD	yes	-	Password for the SMTP server
MAILER_SMTP_FROM_EMAIL		MAILER_SMTP_USER	FROM email address
MAILER_ENABLE_SSL		false	Enable SSL/TLS by setting to true
MAILER_ENABLE_STARTTLS		false	Enable STARTTLS by setting to true

Captcha

Keila can use hCaptcha or Friendly Captcha to protect your sign-up forms. Configure the captcha provider with the following variables:

Variable	Required	Default	Description
CAPTCHA_PROVIDER		hcaptcha	Captcha provider, one of hcaptcha or friendly_captcha
CAPTCHA_SITE_KEY		-	Captcha provider site key
CAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY		-	Captcha provider secret key
CAPTCHA_URL		variable	Captcha provider verification URL, defaults to https://hcaptcha.com/siteverify for hcaptcha and https://api.friendlycaptcha.com/api/v1/siteverify for friendly_captcha