Self-hosting
Configuration
Every Barazo environment variable, grouped by area, with whether it's required, its default, and what it does.
Barazo is configured through environment variables in your .env file. This page lists them by area. The ones you must set to get a forum running are covered in Installation. This page is the full reference.
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
COMMUNITY_NAME | Yes | "My Community" | Display name for your forum |
COMMUNITY_DOMAIN | Yes | None | Your domain (e.g. forum.example.com). Caddy uses it for SSL. |
COMMUNITY_DID | No | None | AT Protocol DID. Created automatically during first-run setup. |
COMMUNITY_MODE | No | single | single for one community, global for aggregator mode |
HOSTING_MODE | No | selfhosted | selfhosted or saas |
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
POSTGRES_USER | Yes | None | PostgreSQL superuser name |
POSTGRES_PASSWORD | Yes | None | PostgreSQL superuser password |
POSTGRES_DB | Yes | None | Database name |
POSTGRES_PORT | No | 5432 | Host port mapping (dev compose only) |
DATABASE_URL | Yes | None | API connection string. Format: postgresql://user:pass@postgres:5432/dbname |
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
VALKEY_PASSWORD | Prod: Yes | None | Valkey password. Dangerous commands are disabled. |
VALKEY_PORT | No | 6379 | Host port mapping (dev compose only) |
VALKEY_URL | No | Auto | API connection URL. Built automatically in compose. |
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
RELAY_URL | No | wss://bsky.network | Bluesky relay for the firehose |
TAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD | Yes | None | Tap admin API password |
TAP_PORT | No | 2480 | Host port mapping (dev compose only) |
OAUTH_CLIENT_ID | Yes | None | Your forum's public URL (e.g. https://forum.example.com) |
OAUTH_REDIRECT_URI | Yes | None | OAuth callback (e.g. https://forum.example.com/api/auth/callback) |
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
API_INTERNAL_URL | No | http://localhost:3000 | Internal API URL for server-side rendering. Set to http://barazo-api:3000 in Docker. |
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL | Yes | None | Public site URL (e.g. https://forum.example.com) |
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
BARAZO_API_VERSION | No | latest | API image tag. Pin to a version in production. |
BARAZO_WEB_VERSION | No | latest | Web image tag. Pin to a version in production. |
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
EMBEDDING_URL | No | None | Enables semantic search. Example: http://ollama:11434/api/embeddings |
AI_EMBEDDING_DIMENSIONS | No | 768 | Vector dimensions. Must match your embedding model. |
Full-text search works with no configuration. Setting EMBEDDING_URL adds semantic search on top.
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
AI_ENCRYPTION_KEY | Conditional | None | AES-256-GCM key that encrypts bring-your-own-key API keys at rest. Required if BYOK features are used. Generate: openssl rand -base64 32 |
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
FEATURE_CROSSPOST_FRONTPAGE | No | false | Enable Frontpage cross-posting. Bluesky cross-posting is always available. |
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
PLUGINS_ENABLED | No | true | Set to false to disable all plugins |
PLUGIN_REGISTRY_URL | No | https://registry.npmjs.org | npm registry for plugin installation |
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
GLITCHTIP_DSN | No | None | GlitchTip / Sentry DSN for error reporting |
LOG_LEVEL | No | info | Pino level: trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal |
