HackMD/docs/configuration-config-file.md

Configuration Using Config file

You can choose to configure CodiMD with either a config file or with environment variables. The config file is processed in lib/config/index.js - so this is the first place to look if anything is missing not obvious from this document. The default values are defined in lib/config/default.js, in case you wonder if you even need to override it.

Environment variables take precedence over configurations from the config files. To get started, it is a good idea to take the config.json.example and copy it to config.json before filling in your own details.

Node.JS

variables	example values	description
debug	true or false	set debug mode, show more logs

CodiMD basics

variables	example values	description
allowPDFExport	true	Whether or not PDF export is offered.
db	{ "dialect": "sqlite", "storage": "./db.codimd.sqlite" }	set the db configs, see more here
dbURL	mysql://localhost:3306/database	set the db URL; if set, then db config (below) won't be applied
forbiddenNoteIDs	['robots.txt']	disallow creation of notes, even if allowFreeUrl is true
loglevel	info	Defines what kind of logs are provided to stdout.
imageUploadType	imgur, s3, minio, azure, lutim or filesystem(default)	Where to upload images. For S3, see our Image Upload Guides for S3 or Minio
sourceURL	https://github.com/codimd/server/tree/<current commit>	Provides the link to the source code of CodiMD on the entry page (Please, make sure you change this when you run a modified version)
staticCacheTime	1 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000	static file cache time
heartbeatInterval	5000	socket.io heartbeat interval
heartbeatTimeout	10000	socket.io heartbeat timeout
documentMaxLength	100000	note max length

CodiMD paths stuff

these are rarely used for various reasons.

variables	example values	description
defaultNotePath	./public/default.md	default note file path1, empty notes will be created with this template.
dhParamPath	./cert/dhparam.pem	SSL dhparam path1 (only need when you set useSSL)
sslCAPath	['./cert/COMODORSAAddTrustCA.crt']	SSL ca chain1 (only need when you set useSSL)
sslCertPath	./cert/codimd_io.crt	SSL cert path1 (only need when you set useSSL)
sslKeyPath	./cert/client.key	SSL key path1 (only need when you set useSSL)
tmpPath	./tmp/	temp directory path1
docsPath	./public/docs	docs directory path1
viewPath	./public/views	template directory path1
uploadsPath	./public/uploads	uploads directory1 - needs to be persistent when you use imageUploadType filesystem

CodiMD Location

variables	example values	description
domain	localhost	domain name
urlPath	codimd	sub URL path, like www.example.com/<urlpath>
host	localhost	interface/ip to listen on
port	80	port to listen on
path	/var/run/codimd.sock	path to UNIX domain socket to listen on (if specified, host and port are ignored)
protocolUseSSL	true or false	set to use SSL protocol for resources path (only applied when domain is set)
useSSL	true or false	set to use SSL server (if true, will auto turn on protocolUseSSL)
urlAddPort	true or false	set to add port on callback URL (ports 80 or 443 won't be applied) (only applied when domain is set)
allowOrigin	['localhost']	domain name whitelist

CSP and HSTS

variables	example values	description
hsts	{"enable": true, "maxAgeSeconds": 31536000, "includeSubdomains": true, "preload": true}	HSTS options to use with HTTPS (default is the example value, max age is a year)
csp	{"enable": true, "directives": {"scriptSrc": "trustworthy-scripts.example.com"}, "upgradeInsecureRequests": "auto", "addDefaults": true}	Configures Content Security Policy. Directives are passed to Helmet - see their documentation for more information on the format. Some defaults are added to the configured values so that the application doesn't break. To disable this behaviour, set addDefaults to false. Further, if usecdn is on, some CDN locations are allowed too. By default (auto), insecure (HTTP) requests are upgraded to HTTPS via CSP if useSSL is on. To change this behaviour, set upgradeInsecureRequests to either true or false.

Privacy and External Requests

variables	example values	description
allowGravatar	true or false	set to false to disable gravatar as profile picture source on your instance
useCDN	true or false	set to use CDN resources or not (default is true)

Users and Privileges

variables	example values	description
allowAnonymous	true or false	set to allow anonymous usage (default is true)
allowAnonymousEdits	true or false	if allowAnonymous is true: allow users to select freely permission, allowing guests to edit existing notes (default is false)
allowFreeURL	true or false	set to allow new note creation by accessing a nonexistent note URL
defaultPermission	freely, editable, limited, locked, protected or private	set notes default permission (only applied on signed users)
sessionName	connect.sid	cookie session name
sessionLife	14 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000	cookie session life
sessionSecret	secret	cookie session secret

Login methods

Most of these have never been documented for the config.json, feel free to expand these

Email (local account)

variables	example values	description
email	true or false	set to allow email signin
allowEmailRegister	true or false	set to allow email register (only applied when email is set, default is true. Note bin/manage_users might help you if registration is false.)

Dropbox Login

Facebook Login

GitHub Login

GitLab Login

Google Login

LDAP Login

Mattermost Login

OAuth2 Login

variables	example values	description
oauth2	{baseURL: ..., userProfileURL: ..., userProfileUsernameAttr: ..., userProfileDisplayNameAttr: ..., userProfileEmailAttr: ..., tokenURL: ..., authorizationURL: ..., clientID: ..., clientSecret: ...}	An object detailing your OAuth2 provider. Refer to the Mattermost or Nextcloud examples for more details!

SAML Login

Twitter Login

Upload Storage

Most of these have never been documented for the config.json, feel free to expand these

Amazon S3

variables	example values	description
s3	{ "accessKeyId": "YOUR_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID", "secretAccessKey": "YOUR_S3_ACCESS_KEY", "region": "YOUR_S3_REGION" }	When imageuploadtype be set to s3, you would also need to setup this key, check our S3 Image Upload Guide
s3bucket	YOUR_S3_BUCKET_NAME	bucket name when imageUploadType is set to s3 or minio

Azure Blob Storage

imgur

Minio

variables	example values	description
minio	{ "accessKey": "YOUR_MINIO_ACCESS_KEY", "secretKey": "YOUR_MINIO_SECRET_KEY", "endpoint": "YOUR_MINIO_HOST", port: 9000, secure: true }	When imageUploadType is set to minio, you need to set this key. Also check out our Minio Image Upload Guide

Lutim

variables	example values	description
lutim	{"url": "YOUR_LUTIM_URL"}	When imageUploadType is set to lutim, you can setup the lutim url

¹: relative paths are based on CodiMD's base directory