Installation Guide

This guide will walk you through setting up Open Archiver using Docker Compose. This is the recommended method for deploying the application.

Prerequisites

Docker and Docker Compose installed on your server or local machine.
A server or local machine with at least 4GB of RAM (2GB of RAM if you use external Postgres, Redis (Valkey) and Meilisearch instances).
Git installed on your server or local machine.

1. Clone the Repository

First, clone the Open Archiver repository to your machine:

bash

git clone https://github.com/LogicLabs-OU/OpenArchiver.git
cd OpenArchiver

2. Configure Your Environment

The application is configured using environment variables. You'll need to create a .env file to store your configuration.

Copy the example environment file for Docker:

bash

cp .env.example.docker .env

Now, open the .env file in a text editor and customize the settings.

Important Configuration

You must change the following placeholder values to secure your instance:

POSTGRES_PASSWORD: A strong, unique password for the database.
REDIS_PASSWORD: A strong, unique password for the Valkey/Redis service.
MEILI_MASTER_KEY: A complex key for Meilisearch.
JWT_SECRET: A long, random string for signing authentication tokens.
ENCRYPTION_KEY: A 32-byte hex string for encrypting sensitive data in the database. You can generate one with the following command:
bash
```
openssl rand -hex 32
```

Storage Configuration

By default, the Docker Compose setup uses local filesystem storage, which is persisted using a Docker volume named archiver-data. This is suitable for most use cases.

If you want to use S3-compatible object storage, change the STORAGE_TYPE to s3 and fill in your S3 credentials (STORAGE_S3_* variables). When STORAGE_TYPE is set to local, the S3-related variables are not required.

Using External Services

For convenience, the docker-compose.yml file includes services for PostgreSQL, Valkey (Redis), and Meilisearch. However, you can use your own external or managed instances for these services.

To do so:

Update your .env file: Change the host, port, and credential variables to point to your external service instances. For example, you would update DATABASE_URL, REDIS_HOST, and MEILI_HOST.
Modify docker-compose.yml: Remove or comment out the service definitions for postgres, valkey, and meilisearch from your docker-compose.yml file.

This will configure the Open Archiver application to connect to your services instead of starting the default ones.

Environment Variable Reference

Here is a complete list of environment variables available for configuration:

Application Settings

Variable	Description	Default Value
`NODE_ENV`	The application environment.	`development`
`PORT_BACKEND`	The port for the backend service.	`4000`
`PORT_FRONTEND`	The port for the frontend service.	`3000`
`SYNC_FREQUENCY`	The frequency of continuous email syncing. See cron syntax for more details.	`* * * * *`

Docker Compose Service Configuration

These variables are used by docker-compose.yml to configure the services.

Variable	Description	Default Value
`POSTGRES_DB`	The name of the PostgreSQL database.	`open_archive`
`POSTGRES_USER`	The username for the PostgreSQL database.	`admin`
`POSTGRES_PASSWORD`	The password for the PostgreSQL database.	`password`
`DATABASE_URL`	The connection URL for the PostgreSQL database.	`postgresql://admin:password@postgres:5432/open_archive`
`MEILI_MASTER_KEY`	The master key for Meilisearch.	`aSampleMasterKey`
`MEILI_HOST`	The host for the Meilisearch service.	`http://meilisearch:7700`
`REDIS_HOST`	The host for the Valkey (Redis) service.	`valkey`
`REDIS_PORT`	The port for the Valkey (Redis) service.	`6379`
`REDIS_PASSWORD`	The password for the Valkey (Redis) service.	`defaultredispassword`
`REDIS_TLS_ENABLED`	Enable or disable TLS for Redis.	`false`

Storage Settings

Variable	Description	Default Value
`STORAGE_TYPE`	The storage backend to use (`local` or `s3`).	`local`
`BODY_SIZE_LIMIT`	The maximum request body size for uploads. Can be a number in bytes or a string with a unit (e.g., `100M`).	`100M`
`STORAGE_LOCAL_ROOT_PATH`	The root path for local file storage.	`/var/data/open-archiver`
`STORAGE_S3_ENDPOINT`	The endpoint for S3-compatible storage (required if `STORAGE_TYPE` is `s3`).
`STORAGE_S3_BUCKET`	The bucket name for S3-compatible storage (required if `STORAGE_TYPE` is `s3`).
`STORAGE_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	The access key ID for S3-compatible storage (required if `STORAGE_TYPE` is `s3`).
`STORAGE_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	The secret access key for S3-compatible storage (required if `STORAGE_TYPE` is `s3`).
`STORAGE_S3_REGION`	The region for S3-compatible storage (required if `STORAGE_TYPE` is `s3`).
`STORAGE_S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE`	Force path-style addressing for S3 (optional).	`false`

Security & Authentication

Variable	Description	Default Value
`JWT_SECRET`	A secret key for signing JWT tokens.	`a-very-secret-key-that-you-should-change`
`JWT_EXPIRES_IN`	The expiration time for JWT tokens.	`7d`
~~`SUPER_API_KEY`~~ (Deprecated)	An API key with super admin privileges. (The SUPER_API_KEY is deprecated since v0.3.0 after we roll out the role-based access control system.)
`RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS`	The window in milliseconds for which API requests are checked.	`900000` (15 minutes)
`RATE_LIMIT_MAX_REQUESTS`	The maximum number of API requests allowed from an IP within the window.	`100`
`ENCRYPTION_KEY`	A 32-byte hex string for encrypting sensitive data in the database.

3. Run the Application

Once you have configured your .env file, you can start all the services using Docker Compose:

bash

docker compose up -d

This command will:

Pull the required Docker images for the frontend, backend, database, and other services.
Create and start the containers in the background (-d flag).
Create the persistent volumes for your data.

You can check the status of the running containers with:

bash

docker compose ps

4. Access the Application

Once the services are running, you can access the Open Archiver web interface by navigating to http://localhost:3000 in your web browser.

Upon first visit, you will be redirected to the /setup page where you can set up your admin account. Make sure you are the first person who accesses the instance.

If you are not redirected to the /setup page but instead see the login page, there might be something wrong with the database. Restart the service and try again.

5. Next Steps

After successfully deploying and logging into Open Archiver, the next step is to configure your ingestion sources to start archiving emails.

Updating Your Installation

To update your Open Archiver instance to the latest version, run the following commands:

bash

# Pull the latest changes from the repository
git pull

# Pull the latest Docker images
docker compose pull

# Restart the services with the new images
docker compose up -d

Deploying on Coolify

If you are deploying Open Archiver on Coolify, it is recommended to let Coolify manage the Docker networks for you. This can help avoid potential routing conflicts and simplify your setup.

To do this, you will need to make a small modification to your docker-compose.yml file.

Modify `docker-compose.yml` for Coolify

Open your docker-compose.yml file in a text editor.
Remove all networks sections from the file. This includes the network configuration for each service and the top-level network definition.
Specifically, you need to remove:
- The networks: - open-archiver-net lines from the open-archiver, postgres, valkey, and meilisearch services.
- The entire networks: block at the end of the file.
Here is an example of what to remove from a service:
diff
```
services:
  open-archiver:
    image: logiclabshq/open-archiver:latest
    # ... other settings
-   networks:
-     - open-archiver-net
```
And remove this entire block from the end of the file:
diff
```
- networks:
-   open-archiver-net:
-     driver: bridge
```
Save the modified docker-compose.yml file.

By removing these sections, you allow Coolify to automatically create and manage the necessary networks, ensuring that all services can communicate with each other and are correctly exposed through Coolify's reverse proxy.

After making these changes, you can proceed with deploying your application on Coolify as you normally would.

Where is my data stored (When using local storage and Docker)?

If you are using local storage to store your emails, based on your docker-compose.yml file, your data is being stored in what's called a "named volume" (archiver-data). That's why you're not seeing the files in the ./data/open-archiver directory you created.

List all Docker volumes:

Run this command to see all the volumes on your system:

bash

docker volume ls

Identify the correct volume:

Look through the list for a volume name that ends with _archiver-data. The part before that will be your project's directory name. For example, if your project is in a folder named OpenArchiver, the volume will be openarchiver_archiver-data But it can be a randomly generated hash.

Inspect the correct volume:

Once you've identified the correct volume name, use it in the inspect command. For example:

bash

docker volume inspect <your_volume_name_here>

This will give you the correct Mountpoint path where your data is being stored. It will look something like this (the exact path will vary depending on your system):

json

{
	"CreatedAt": "2025-07-25T11:22:19Z",
	"Driver": "local",
	"Labels": {
		"com.docker.compose.config-hash": "---",
		"com.docker.compose.project": "---",
		"com.docker.compose.version": "2.38.2",
		"com.docker.compose.volume": "us8wwos0o4ok4go4gc8cog84_archiver-data"
	},
	"Mountpoint": "/var/lib/docker/volumes/us8wwos0o4ok4go4gc8cog84_archiver-data/_data",
	"Name": "us8wwos0o4ok4go4gc8cog84_archiver-data",
	"Options": null,
	"Scope": "local"
}

In this example, the data is located at /var/lib/docker/volumes/us8wwos0o4ok4go4gc8cog84_archiver-data/_data. You can then cd into that directory to see your files.

To save data to a specific folder

To save the data to a specific folder on your machine, you'll need to make a change to your docker-compose.yml. You need to switch from a named volume to a "bind mount".

Here’s how you can do it:

Edit docker-compose.yml:

Open the docker-compose.yml file and find the open-archiver service. You're going to change the volumes section.

Change this:

yaml

services:
    open-archiver:
    # ... other config
    volumes:
        - archiver-data:/var/data/open-archiver

To this:

yaml

services:
    open-archiver:
    # ... other config
    volumes:
        - ./data/open-archiver:/var/data/open-archiver

You'll also want to remove the archiver-data volume definition at the bottom of the file, since it's no longer needed.

Remove this whole block:

yaml

volumes:
    # ... other volumes
    archiver-data:
        driver: local

Restart your containers:

After you've saved the changes, run the following command in your terminal to apply them. The --force-recreate flag will ensure the container is recreated with the new volume settings.

bash

docker-compose up -d --force-recreate

After this, any new data will be saved directly into the ./data/open-archiver folder in your project directory.

Troubleshooting

403 Cross-Site POST Forbidden Error

If you are running the application behind a reverse proxy or have mapped the application to a different port (e.g., 3005:3000), you may encounter a 403 Cross-site POST from submissions are forbidden error when uploading files.

To resolve this, you must set the ORIGIN environment variable to the URL of your application. This ensures that the backend can verify the origin of requests and prevent cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks.

Add the following line to your .env file, replacing <your_host> and <your_port> with your specific values:

bash

ORIGIN=http://<your_host>:<your_port>

For example, if your application is accessible at http://localhost:3005, you would set the variable as follows:

bash

ORIGIN=http://localhost:3005

After adding the ORIGIN variable, restart your Docker containers for the changes to take effect:

bash

docker-compose up -d --force-recreate

This will ensure that your file uploads are correctly authorized.

Installation Guide ​

Prerequisites ​

1. Clone the Repository ​

2. Configure Your Environment ​

Important Configuration ​

Storage Configuration ​

Using External Services ​

Environment Variable Reference ​

Application Settings ​

Docker Compose Service Configuration ​

Storage Settings ​

Security & Authentication ​

3. Run the Application ​

4. Access the Application ​

5. Next Steps ​

Updating Your Installation ​

Deploying on Coolify ​

Modify docker-compose.yml for Coolify ​

Where is my data stored (When using local storage and Docker)? ​

To save data to a specific folder ​

Troubleshooting ​

403 Cross-Site POST Forbidden Error ​

Installation Guide

Prerequisites

1. Clone the Repository

2. Configure Your Environment

Important Configuration

Storage Configuration

Using External Services

Environment Variable Reference

Application Settings

Docker Compose Service Configuration

Storage Settings

Security & Authentication

3. Run the Application

4. Access the Application

5. Next Steps

Updating Your Installation

Deploying on Coolify

Modify `docker-compose.yml` for Coolify

Where is my data stored (When using local storage and Docker)?

To save data to a specific folder

Troubleshooting

403 Cross-Site POST Forbidden Error