Self-Hosting Delivr

Delivr is designed to be self-hosted in minutes. This guide covers the API backend, the web client, database setup, and a few production notes.

Prerequisites

  • Bun 1.x installed on the server.
  • An email account or server reachable over IMAP (read) and SMTP (send).
  • A public domain and reverse proxy if you want HTTPS in production.

1. Delivr API

Clone the repository, install dependencies, configure the environment, and run migrations.

git clone https://github.com/Delivr-Project/Delivr-API.git
cd Delivr-API
cp example.env .env
bun install
bun run db:sqlite:migrate
bun run dev

Required environment variables

  • DLA_ENCRYPTION_KEY — a 32-character key used to encrypt mail-server credentials. Keep it secret and back it up; losing it means losing access to stored mail account credentials.
  • DLA_APP_URL — the public URL of your Delivr Web client, e.g. https://app.delivr.email.

Database options

SQLite is the default and works out of the box. For heavier deployments you can use PostgreSQL or MySQL:

  • SQLite: set DLA_DB_CONNECTION_URL=./data/db.sqlite.
  • PostgreSQL/MySQL: update DLA_DB_CONNECTION_URL and run the matching migration commands.

API ports and docs

By default the API listens on port 14123. The interactive Scalar OpenAPI reference is available at /docs/v1, and the raw spec at /docs/v1/openapi.

2. Delivr Web

The web client is a Nuxt 4 app that talks to the API. Point it at the running API, install dependencies, and start it. 

git clone https://github.com/Delivr-Project/Delivr-Web.git
cd Delivr-Web
cp example.env .env
# Edit .env and set DELIVR_API_URL=https://api.example.com/v1
# and DELIVR_APP_URL=https://app.example.com
bun install
bun run dev

The web client runs on port 14128 by default.

Regenerating the API client

Delivr Web uses a generated type-safe client from the API's OpenAPI spec. When the API changes, keep the client up to date: 

# Start the API first, then:
bun run api-client:generate

Never hand-edit the generated *.gen.ts files.

3. Production checklist

  • Run the API behind an HTTPS reverse proxy.
  • Set DLA_APP_URL and DELIVR_APP_URL to your public HTTPS URLs.
  • Keep DLA_ENCRYPTION_KEY safe; it is needed to decrypt stored credentials.
  • Back up the database directory and the API's data/ folder.
  • Configure outbound SMTP (DLA_SMTP_*) if you want password-reset and other system emails.
  • Build the static docs site with bun run generate if you also deploy this website.
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