PostgreSQL

To keep feeds and notes in PostgreSQL instead of files, set NOTEFEED_STORAGE=postgres, give notefeed the database in NOTEFEED_DATABASE_URL and a NOTEFEED_SECRET. This page is a Docker Compose setup with both containers. Storage says what changes compared with files.

# compose.yaml
services:
  notefeed:
    image: ghcr.io/notefeed/notefeed:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      NOTEFEED_STORAGE: postgres
      NOTEFEED_DATABASE_URL: postgres://notefeed:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db:5432/notefeed
      NOTEFEED_SECRET: ${NOTEFEED_SECRET}      # openssl rand -hex 32
      # PUBLIC_URL: https://notes.example.com
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy

  db:
    image: postgres:17-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: notefeed
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_DB: notefeed
    volumes:
      - notefeed-db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U notefeed"]
      interval: 5s
      retries: 10

volumes:
  notefeed-db:

Put POSTGRES_PASSWORD and NOTEFEED_SECRET in a .env file next to it (openssl rand -hex 32 for each), then docker compose up -d. notefeed creates its tables when it starts; there is nothing to set up by hand. It needs no data folder, so the compose file has no volume for it.

• Several containers can use the same database. Give each the same NOTEFEED_SECRET, or cookies and tokens made by one are refused by another.
• A password in the URL with characters like @ or / must be percent-encoded (%40, %2F).
• A wrong URL or password makes requests fail with cannot use the database named by NOTEFEED_DATABASE_URL and an error code in brackets (such as ECONNREFUSED or 28P01); the URL itself is never part of the message.
• Back up with docker compose exec db pg_dump -U notefeed notefeed > notefeed.sql, and keep NOTEFEED_SECRET with it.