--- title: "Deploy Bonfire" description: "Federated Social Networking Toolkit" category: "CMS" url: https://railway.com/deploy/bonfire --- # Deploy Bonfire Federated Social Networking Toolkit **[Deploy Bonfire on Railway](https://railway.com/template/bonfire)** Machine-readable deploy manifest (JSON, validated by TemplateCI): https://railway.com/deploy/bonfire/manifest.json - **Creator:** OpenSource Templates - **Category:** CMS ## Template content ### search https://dashboardicons.com/pb/api/files/community_gallery/wqhhtkb6qqq8cmw/bonfire_lpgp2bfg5s.svg - **Image:** getmeili/meilisearch:v1.11 ### db https://devicons.railway.app/i/postgresql.svg - **Image:** postgis/postgis:17-3.5-alpine ### bonfire https://dashboardicons.com/pb/api/files/community_gallery/wqhhtkb6qqq8cmw/bonfire_lpgp2bfg5s.svg - **Image:** bonfirenetworks/bonfire:1.0.5-social-amd64 - **Health check:** / - **Public domain:** Yes ## Documentation [![Deploy on Railway](https://railway.com/button.svg)](https://railway.com/new/template/bonfire) ### Deploy and Host Bonfire on Railway **Bonfire** is an open-source, modular, federated social networking platform built with Elixir and Phoenix. It empowers communities to create custom digital spaces with ActivityPub federation. This Railway template deploys a complete **Bonfire** stack featuring the core application server (`bonfire`), a **PostGIS** geospatial database (`db`), and a **Meilisearch** search engine instance (`search`). --- #### About Hosting Bonfire Hosting Bonfire on Railway runs a modern three-tier infrastructure stack: * **Bonfire App Server (`bonfire`)**: The core Elixir/Phoenix backend and social web interface (`bonfirenetworks/bonfire:1.0.5-social-amd64`). It handles user interactions, ActivityPub federation protocol messages, and media processing. It mounts a persistent volume at `/opt/app/data/uploads` for media storage and listens on port `4000`. * **PostGIS Database (`db`)**: PostgreSQL database with geospatial extensions (`postgis/postgis:17-3.5-alpine`). It stores application state, user profiles, posts, and social graph data with persistent storage mounted at `/var/lib/postgresql/data`. * **Meilisearch (`search`)**: Lightning-fast full-text search engine (`getmeili/meilisearch:v1.11`) configured with `SEARCH_ADAPTER=meili` to power instant search across social feeds, users, topics, and federated content. Persistent storage is mounted at `/meili_data`. --- #### Common Use Cases * **Self-hosted federated social networks**: Launch an independent node connected to the broader ActivityPub Fediverse (Mastodon, Pleroma, Misskey, etc.). * **Custom community platforms**: Build tailored digital spaces for discussions, collaboration, and content sharing. * **Privacy-focused social networking**: Maintain full ownership of community data, uploaded media, and social analytics. * **Full-text search enabled community hubs**: Provide high-performance search across discussions, posts, tags, and user profiles via Meilisearch integration. --- #### Dependencies for Bonfire Hosting * **Bonfire Application image:** `bonfirenetworks/bonfire:1.0.5-social-amd64` * **PostGIS Database image:** `postgis/postgis:17-3.5-alpine` * **Meilisearch image:** `getmeili/meilisearch:v1.11` * **Three persistent volumes:** * `bonfire`: `/opt/app/data/uploads` (User media and file attachments) * `db`: `/var/lib/postgresql/data` (PostgreSQL database files) * `search`: `/meili_data` (Meilisearch indices and internal state) * **Railway public domain** for the `bonfire` web interface (port `4000`) * **Auto-generated secrets:** `SECRET_KEY_BASE` (64 chars) and `POSTGRES_PASSWORD` (32 chars) **Upstream:** [Bonfire Networks](https://bonfirenetworks.org/) · [GitHub Repo](https://github.com/bonfire-networks/bonfire-app) · [Meilisearch Docs](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs) ##### Implementation Details | Service | Image | Role | Port | Volume Mount | | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | | **bonfire** | `bonfirenetworks/bonfire:1.0.5-social-amd64` | Social Network Core & Web UI | `4000` | `/opt/app/data/uploads` | | **db** | `postgis/postgis:17-3.5-alpine` | Relational & Geospatial Database | `5432` | `/var/lib/postgresql/data` | | **search** | `getmeili/meilisearch:v1.11` | Full-Text Search Engine | `7700` | `/meili_data` | --- ###### Volumes (drives) — what to mount | Service | Mount path | What is stored | | ------ | ------ | ------ | | **bonfire** | `/opt/app/data/uploads` | User avatars, images, media attachments, and uploaded files | | **db** | `/var/lib/postgresql/data` | PostgreSQL tables, PostGIS spatial data, indexes, and transaction logs | | **search** | `/meili_data` | Meilisearch indexes, documents, and search engine state | --- #### Quick Start 1. Click the **[Deploy on Railway](https://railway.com/deploy)** button above. 2. Sign in (or create a free Railway account) and click **Deploy**. 3. Allow 2–3 minutes for all three services (`db`, `search`, and `bonfire`) to build and provision. 4. Open the **bonfire** service → **Settings** → **Networking** and click the generated public domain URL. 5. Complete the initial admin setup in the Bonfire web onboarding wizard. 6. *(Optional)* Configure SMTP settings in the `bonfire` environment variables if email verification or notification delivery is required for your network. --- #### Configuration ##### Core Application Variables (`bonfire`) | Variable | Default / Source | Description / Notes | | ------ | ------ | ------ | | `HOSTNAME` | `${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}` | Canonical public hostname for web traffic and ActivityPub federation | | `SERVER_PORT` | `4000` | HTTP listening port for the Elixir application server | | `PUBLIC_PORT` | `80` | Public HTTP port exposed to clients | | `APP_NAME` | `Bonfire` | Name of your social networking instance | | `LANG` | `en_US.UTF-8` | System locale setting | | `SECRET_KEY_BASE` | Auto-generated secret (64 chars) | Cryptographic secret for session signing and cookies | | `SIGNING_SALT` | `${{db.POSTGRES_PASSWORD}}` | Salt for security token signing | | `ENCRYPTION_SALT` | `${{db.POSTGRES_PASSWORD}}` | Salt for data encryption at rest | | `RELEASE_COOKIE` | `${{db.POSTGRES_PASSWORD}}` | Erlang cluster distribution release cookie | | `POSTGRES_HOST` | `${{db.RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}` | Private network hostname of the PostGIS database | | `POSTGRES_USER` | `postgres` | Database username | | `POSTGRES_DB` | `bonfire_db` | Main database name | | `POSTGRES_PASSWORD` | `${{db.POSTGRES_PASSWORD}}` | Database authentication password | | `DB_MIGRATE_INDEXES_CONCURRENTLY` | `false` | Disable concurrent index creation during database migrations | | `SEARCH_ADAPTER` | `meili` | Enables Meilisearch integration for full-text search | | `SEARCH_MEILI_INSTANCE` | `https://${{search.RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}:7700` | Internal Meilisearch connection URL | | `MEILI_MASTER_KEY` | `${{db.POSTGRES_PASSWORD}}` | Master API key for Meilisearch authentication | | `UPLOAD_LIMIT` | `20` | Maximum file upload size limit in MB | | `MAIL_BACKEND` | `none` | Email delivery backend (`none`, `smtp`, etc.) | | `MAIL_SERVER` | `""` | SMTP mail server hostname | | `MAIL_PORT` | `""` | SMTP mail server port | | `MAIL_USER` | `""` | SMTP authentication username | | `MAIL_PASSWORD` | `""` | SMTP authentication password | | `PORT` | `4000` | Web server listening port | ##### Database Variables (`db`) | Variable | Default / Source | Description / Notes | | ------ | ------ | ------ | | `PGDATA` | `/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata` | Internal data path inside the PostgreSQL container | | `POSTGRES_DB` | `bonfire_db` | Initial database created on startup | | `POSTGRES_USER` | `postgres` | Default superuser name | | `POSTGRES_PASSWORD` | Auto-generated secret (32 chars) | Database password secret | | `DATABASE_URL` | `postgresql://${{PGUSER}}:${{POSTGRES_PASSWORD}}@${{RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}:5432/${{PGDATABASE}}` | Internal database connection string | ##### Search Variables (`search`) | Variable | Default / Source | Description / Notes | | ------ | ------ | ------ | | `MEILI_MASTER_KEY` | `${{db.POSTGRES_PASSWORD}}` | Authentication key shared with `bonfire` | | `MEILI_ENV` | `production` | Production environment mode | | `MEILI_NO_ANALYTICS` | `true` | Disables telemetry reporting | ##### Custom Domain 1. Open the **bonfire** service → **Settings** → **Networking** → **Custom Domain**. 2. Enter your custom domain (e.g., `social.yourdomain.com`) and configure the CNAME record in your DNS provider. 3. Update the `HOSTNAME` environment variable on the `bonfire` service to match your custom domain (`social.yourdomain.com`). 4. Railway automatically handles SSL/TLS certificate provisioning. --- #### Updating Bonfire 1. Open the **bonfire** service → **Settings** → **Source**. 2. Update the image tag to a newer release (e.g., `bonfirenetworks/bonfire:1.0.5-social-amd64`). 3. Click **Redeploy**. Database schema migrations run automatically on startup. All database state, uploaded files, and search indexes remain safe inside their attached volumes. --- #### Traps **Common pitfalls and failure modes:** * **`HOSTNAME` Mismatch for ActivityPub Federation** — Federation protocol messages embed canonical URLs. Changing `HOSTNAME` after creating federated accounts or posts can break existing ActivityPub actor IDs and remote follower connections. * **Unconfigured Mail Backend (`MAIL_BACKEND=none`)** — With email disabled by default, password reset emails and user registration confirmations will not be delivered. Configure SMTP settings (`MAIL_SERVER`, `MAIL_USER`, `MAIL_PASSWORD`, `MAIL_FROM`) for production deployments. * **Database Connection Race Condition** — On cold starts or first-time deploys, the `bonfire` container may attempt to run database migrations before PostGIS is fully initialized. Railway will auto-restart `bonfire` until `db` accepts connections. * **Meilisearch Master Key Mismatch** — Ensure `MEILI_MASTER_KEY` in the `search` service matches the `MEILI_MASTER_KEY` variable in `bonfire`. They both derive from `${{db.POSTGRES_PASSWORD}}` by default. --- #### Why Deploy Bonfire on Railway? Railway delivers a powerful cloud platform for deploying multi-container federated architectures. Hosting Bonfire on Railway provides high-performance PostGIS database support, private inter-service networking, persistent storage volumes, automated SSL encryption, and simple scale-out capabilities without managing underlying servers. ## Similar templates - [Libredesk - Complete Setup](https://railway.com/deploy/libredesk-complete-setup) — Complete self-hosted omnichannel customer support desk. - [Paperless-ngx](https://railway.com/deploy/paperless-ngx-3) — Paperless-ngx — document management with OCR and full-text search - [Instatic CMS - Postgres](https://railway.com/deploy/instatic-cms-postgres) — Design, build and manage powerful static sites from state-of-the-art CMS Open this page in a browser: https://railway.com/deploy/bonfire