Deployment

Deploy OwnDocs with one click, or build it manually on your own infrastructure. By the end you'll have a live documentation site answering on a public URL, or on port 3000 of your own host.

Prerequisites

• A GitHub account, for the one-click deploy buttons that clone the repository for you
• Node.js 20.9.0 or newer and npm 10 or newer, for a manual build
• Docker with the Compose plugin, for the self-hosted container path
• Values ready for the environment variables listed below; run bash scripts/setup-env.sh to generate the secret ones

One-Click Deploy

Click a button below to clone, configure, and deploy OwnDocs:

Each platform clones the repository into your account, asks for the environment variables, and deploys a live site.

Vercel

Vercel is Next.js's native hosting platform. It detects the framework, sets up the build, and deploys without any config. The deploy button asks for every required environment variable during setup.

What happens when you click Deploy:

Netlify

Netlify runs Next.js through the OpenNext adapter, which it installs during the build. The included netlify.toml asks for environment variables when you deploy.

What happens when you click Deploy:

Render

Render deploys OwnDocs as a web service using the included render.yaml blueprint. It generates secrets like JWT_SECRET and COOKIE_SALT during deployment.

What happens when you click Deploy:

Environment Variables

All platforms use the same environment variables. The setup script (scripts/setup-env.sh) generates them for local development. For cloud deployments, set them in your platform's dashboard or during the one-click deploy flow.

• ACCESS_MODE
  • public (open access) or private (password-protected)
  • Default: public
• APP_PASSWORD
  • Site access password
  • Required for private mode
• JWT_SECRET
  • JWT token signing key
  • Required for private mode
• COOKIE_SALT
  • Salt for cookie name generation
  • Required for private mode
• THEME_VARIANT
  • Color theme, from 26 options
  • Default: violet
• NEXT_PUBLIC_FOOTER_COMPANY_NAME
  • Company name shown in the footer
  • No default
• NEXT_PUBLIC_FOOTER_COMPANY_URL
  • Company URL linked in the footer
  • No default
• NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL
  • Full site URL for the sitemap and OpenGraph tags
  • No default

Manual Deployment

For any Node.js hosting provider, build and start OwnDocs with:

npm install
npm run build
npm start

The production server starts on port 3000 by default. Set environment variables through your hosting provider's dashboard or a .env.local file before building.

Docker Self-Host

OwnDocs ships a Dockerfile and a docker-compose.yml so you can run it as a container on your own infrastructure. This is the recommended self-hosted path when you want a single isolated service without installing a Node toolchain on the host.

The compose file maps 3000:3000, loads environment variables from .env.local, and restarts the container automatically with restart: unless-stopped. The Dockerfile builds a production image with a non-root user and runs npm start on port 3000. The image copies the docs content into the runtime, so on-demand revalidation and the MCP fetch_page tool work inside the container. It also sets FEEDBACK_DIR=/app/data/feedback, a writable directory owned by the non-root user where the daily feedback files land. The compose file maps no volume, so votes are lost on rebuild or recreate — mount a volume at /app/data/feedback to keep them. See Configuration for the full environment variable reference.

Result

Open the deployed URL. On Vercel it ends in .vercel.app, on Netlify .netlify.app, on Render .onrender.com, and on a manual or Docker host it is http://localhost:3000. You should land on the OwnDocs home page with the sidebar, the theme toggle, and working search. Two checks confirm the deploy took your configuration:

• GET /api/health returns {"status":"pass"}.
• With ACCESS_MODE set to private, any page redirects you to /login until you enter APP_PASSWORD.

If either check fails, the environment variables didn't reach the running process. Re-check them against Configuration.