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	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`