Manual Deployment

This guide is a community contribution and may not always reflect the latest changes. If you encounter issues, please refer to the Docker or Docker Compose guides which are actively maintained.

Prerequisites

Node.js 20 or later
npm
PostgreSQL 14 or later
A Linux server (for systemd service setup)

Install and Build

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/documenso/documenso.git

Configure environment variables

Navigate to the documenso folder and create a .env file:

cp .env.example .env

Open the .env file and configure the required variables:

NEXTAUTH_SECRET="your-secret-here"
NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_KEY="your-encryption-key-min-32-chars"
NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_SECONDARY_KEY="your-secondary-key-min-32-chars"
NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL="https://your-domain.com"
NEXT_PRIVATE_INTERNAL_WEBAPP_URL="http://localhost:3000"
NEXT_PRIVATE_DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/documenso"
NEXT_PRIVATE_DIRECT_DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/documenso"
NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_FROM_NAME="Documenso"
NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS="noreply@your-domain.com"

If you use a reverse proxy in front of Documenso, set NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL to the public URL that users will access.

Install dependencies and build

npm ci
npm run build
npm run prisma:migrate-deploy

Start the application

npm run start

The server starts on localhost:3000 by default. To use a different port, set the PORT environment variable in your .env file:

PORT=3500

Run as a systemd Service

Create a service file to run Documenso as a background service on Linux:

# /etc/systemd/system/documenso.service

[Unit]
Description=Documenso
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/documenso
EnvironmentFile=/var/www/documenso/.env
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node apps/remix/build/server/main.js
TimeoutSec=15
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

The EnvironmentFile directive loads your .env file, so configuration (including PORT) is managed in one place. Alternatively, you can set environment variables directly in the service file with Environment= directives.

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl enable documenso
sudo systemctl start documenso

Reverse Proxy with Nginx

A minimal Nginx configuration for proxying to Documenso:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

For production, configure SSL termination with Let's Encrypt or your preferred certificate provider.