Fluxer Self-Host

Docker Compose setup for running your own Fluxer server — the free and open source Discord alternative.

All credit for the Fluxer platform goes to the Fluxer team. This repository only provides the hosting configuration. The Fluxer application and all associated intellectual property belong to the original developers. Official project: github.com/fluxerapp/fluxer · License: GNU AGPL v3

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What you get

Feature	Included	Notes
Fluxer server	✅	Official ghcr.io/fluxerapp/fluxer-server:stable image
SQLite database	✅	Zero-config, data stored in a Docker volume
HTTPS (Let's Encrypt)	✅	Auto-obtained and auto-renewed
Full-text search	⚙️ optional	Meilisearch — enable with --profile search
Voice & video calls	⚙️ optional	LiveKit — enable with --profile voice
Email (SMTP)	⚙️ optional	For registration / password reset

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Requirements

• A Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended)
• A domain name pointed at your server's IP (A record)
• Docker 24+ and Docker Compose v2
• Ports 80 and 443 open in your firewall
• If enabling voice/video: ports 7881 (TCP), 3478 (UDP), 50000–50100 (UDP) open

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Quick start

# 1. Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/shadowflee3/fluxer-selfhost
cd fluxer-selfhost

# 2. Run the setup script — it will ask a few questions then do everything
bash setup.sh

That's it. The script will:

1. Ask for your domain and email address
2. Ask which optional features to enable
3. Generate all secret keys automatically
4. Write config/config.json and .env
5. Obtain an SSL certificate via Let's Encrypt
6. Pull all Docker images and start the stack

When it finishes, open https://your-domain.com in your browser and create your first account.

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Manual setup (step by step)

If you prefer not to use the automated script:

1. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env
nano .env   # set DOMAIN and LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL at minimum

2. Generate secrets

You need random secret keys for the config. Generate them with:

openssl rand -hex 32   # run once per secret field

3. Create config.json

cp config/config.example.json config/config.json
nano config/config.json

Replace every REPLACE_… placeholder with a generated secret and set base_domain to your domain.

Required fields:

Field	Description
domain.base_domain	Your domain, e.g. chat.example.com
services.media_proxy.secret_key	64-char hex secret
services.admin.secret_key_base	64-char hex secret
services.admin.oauth_client_secret	64-char hex secret
services.gateway.admin_reload_secret	64-char hex secret
auth.sudo_mode_secret	64-char hex secret
auth.connection_initiation_secret	64-char hex secret
auth.vapid.public_key	VAPID public key (see below)
auth.vapid.private_key	VAPID private key (see below)

4. Generate VAPID keys

VAPID keys are needed for browser push notifications. If you have Node.js 15+:

node -e "
const crypto = require('crypto');
const { publicKey, privateKey } = crypto.generateKeyPairSync('ec', { namedCurve: 'P-256' });
const pub  = publicKey.export({ type: 'spki', format: 'der' }).slice(27).toString('base64url');
const priv = privateKey.export({ type: 'pkcs8', format: 'der' }).slice(36).toString('base64url');
console.log('Public: ', pub);
console.log('Private:', priv);
"

5. Obtain SSL certificate

# Start a temporary HTTP server for the ACME challenge
docker run -d --rm --name tmp_nginx -p 80:80 \
  -v $(pwd)/nginx/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro \
  -v fluxer-selfhost_certbot_webroot:/var/www/certbot \
  nginx:alpine

# Get the certificate
docker run --rm \
  -v fluxer-selfhost_certbot_certs:/etc/letsencrypt \
  -v fluxer-selfhost_certbot_webroot:/var/www/certbot \
  certbot/certbot certonly \
    --webroot --webroot-path=/var/www/certbot \
    --email you@example.com --agree-tos --no-eff-email \
    -d your-domain.com

docker stop tmp_nginx

6. Start the stack

docker compose up -d

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Enabling optional features

Full-text search (Meilisearch)

1. Set MEILI_MASTER_KEY in .env to any random secret (openssl rand -hex 32)
2. In config/config.json, set integrations.search.api_key to the same value
3. Start with the search profile:

docker compose --profile search up -d

Voice & video calls (LiveKit)

1. Open firewall ports: 7881/tcp, 3478/udp, 50000-50100/udp
2. In .env, set LIVEKIT_API_KEY and LIVEKIT_API_SECRET
3. Copy and edit the LiveKit config:

cp livekit/livekit.example.yaml livekit/livekit.yaml
nano livekit/livekit.yaml   # replace REPLACE_… values

4. In config/config.json, set integrations.voice.enabled = true and fill in the key/secret
5. Start with the voice profile:

docker compose --profile voice up -d

Email (registration, password reset)

In config/config.json, update the integrations.email block:

"email": {
  "enabled": true,
  "provider": "smtp",
  "from_email": "noreply@your-domain.com",
  "smtp": {
    "host": "smtp.example.com",
    "port": 587,
    "username": "your-smtp-user",
    "password": "your-smtp-password",
    "secure": false
  }
}

Then restart: docker compose restart fluxer

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Updating Fluxer

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Watchtower can automate this for you — see the Watchtower docs.

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Useful commands

# View live logs
docker compose logs -f

# View logs for one service
docker compose logs -f fluxer

# Stop everything
docker compose down

# Stop and wipe all data (destructive!)
docker compose down -v

# Restart a single service
docker compose restart fluxer

# Check container health
docker compose ps

# Open a shell inside the Fluxer container
docker compose exec fluxer sh

# Manually renew the SSL certificate
docker compose exec certbot certbot renew --force-renewal

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Backups

The important data lives in two Docker volumes:

Volume	Contents
fluxer_data	SQLite database + uploaded files
valkey_data	Cache (can be lost without data loss)

To back up:

# Stop Fluxer (recommended for a clean SQLite snapshot)
docker compose stop fluxer

# Export the data volume
# Note: Docker names volumes using the project directory name as a prefix.
# If you cloned into a directory other than "fluxer-selfhost", adjust accordingly.
PROJ=$(basename $(pwd))
docker run --rm \
  -v ${PROJ}_fluxer_data:/data \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  alpine tar czf /backup/fluxer-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /data .

# Restart
docker compose start fluxer

To restore:

PROJ=$(basename $(pwd))
docker compose down
docker volume rm ${PROJ}_fluxer_data
docker volume create ${PROJ}_fluxer_data
docker run --rm \
  -v ${PROJ}_fluxer_data:/data \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  alpine tar xzf /backup/fluxer-backup-YYYYMMDD.tar.gz -C /data
docker compose up -d

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Troubleshooting

Fluxer container won't start

docker compose logs fluxer

Usually a missing or malformed config/config.json.

SSL certificate errors Make sure your domain's DNS A record points to this server and ports 80/443 are reachable.

WebSocket disconnects Ensure proxy_read_timeout 86400s is in nginx/nginx.conf (it is by default).

Voice calls don't work Check that UDP ports 3478 and 50000-50100 are open in your firewall. LiveKit needs direct UDP reachability from clients.

"Health check failing" for Fluxer Give it up to 30 seconds on first start — it runs database migrations on boot.

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Project structure

fluxer-selfhost/
├── docker-compose.yml          # All services, with optional profiles
├── setup.sh                    # Automated first-run setup
├── .env.example                # Environment variable reference
├── config/
│   ├── config.example.json     # Annotated config template
│   └── config.json             # Your config (generated by setup.sh, gitignored)
├── nginx/
│   └── nginx.conf              # Reverse proxy + HTTPS
└── livekit/
    ├── livekit.example.yaml    # LiveKit config template
    └── livekit.yaml            # Your LiveKit config (generated, gitignored)

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Credits

• Fluxer — the application, server, and all platform code
  • GitHub: github.com/fluxerapp/fluxer
  • License: GNU AGPL v3
• This hosting configuration is maintained by shadowflee and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the official Fluxer project.

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License

This configuration repository is released under MIT. The Fluxer platform itself is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.