Getting Started
What you need to run your own Barazo forum, and a ten-minute path from a bare server to a live instance.
You can run a Barazo forum on your own server. It ships as a set of Docker containers you bring up with Docker Compose: database, cache, firehose consumer, API, web, and a reverse proxy that handles SSL for you.
This page is the short version: what you need, and the fastest path to a running forum. For the full walkthrough, see Installation.
What you need
- A server with a public IP. Minimum 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 20 GB SSD. A Hetzner CX22 is a good, cheap fit.
- Linux, with Ubuntu 22.04+ or Debian 12+ recommended.
- A domain name with a DNS A record pointing at your server.
- Docker v24+ and Docker Compose v2.
- SSH access to the server.
You'll also want an AT Protocol account (your Bluesky handle) to sign in as the first administrator once the forum is up.
The ten-minute path
# On your server, with Docker installed:
git clone https://github.com/singi-labs/barazo-deploy.git
cd barazo-deploy
cp .env.example .env
nano .env # set your domain, community name, and passwords
docker compose up -dCaddy obtains an SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt on the first request, so give DNS a moment to propagate, then open https://your-domain.com. The first person to finish the setup wizard becomes the administrator.
What runs
Six services come up together:
| Service | Role |
|---|---|
| PostgreSQL 16 | Primary database (with pgvector for search) |
| Valkey 8 | Cache, sessions, rate limiting, queues |
| Tap | AT Protocol firehose consumer, filters forum.barazo.* records |
| Barazo API | The AppView backend |
| Barazo Web | The Next.js frontend |
| Caddy | Reverse proxy with automatic SSL |
PostgreSQL and Valkey sit on an internal network only. From the outside, just ports 80 and 443 are open.
Next steps
- Installation: the full walkthrough, with troubleshooting
- Configuration: every environment variable explained