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Self-Hosting

This guide covers how to run the Hashdrop server locally using Docker — for development or testing purposes.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, you will need the following AWS resources set up:

  • S3 bucket — for encrypted file storage
  • CloudFront distribution — connected to your S3 bucket, with a key pair configured for signed URLs
  • SES — with a verified sender email address for OTP delivery
  • IAM credentials — with appropriate permissions for S3, CloudFront, and SES

You will also need a CloudFront private key (.pem file) corresponding to the key pair ID configured in your CloudFront distribution.

Running with Docker

1. Install Docker

Ensure Docker is installed and running on your machine. See the official Docker installation guide if needed.

2. Pull the image

docker pull anxhukumar/hashdrop-server

3. Set up the directory structure

Create a directory to hold the server's data:

hashdrop/
└── storage/

The storage/ directory should be left empty — the database file will be created automatically and all migrations will run on first boot.

4. Run the container

From the directory containing your hashdrop/ folder, run:

docker run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v ./hashdrop/storage:/app/storage \
  -e PORT="" \
  -e PLATFORM="" \
  -e DB="" \
  -e JWT_SECRET="" \
  -e CLOUDFRONT_KEY_PAIR_ID="" \
  -e CLOUDFRONT_PRIVATE_KEY="$(cat /path/to/hashdrop-private.pem)" \
  -e USERID_HASHING_SALT="" \
  -e OTP_HASHING_SECRET="" \
  -e REFRESH_TOKEN_HASHING_SECRET_VERSION_1="" \
  -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="" \
  -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="" \
  -e AWS_REGION="" \
  anxhukumar/hashdrop-server:latest

Replace /path/to/hashdrop-private.pem with the actual path to your CloudFront private key file. Set PLATFORM to dev for local development or prod for production. Fill in the remaining values with your AWS credentials and configuration.

Update the port mapping if you chose a different value for PORT.

The server will start and the database will be initialised automatically.

Note: If you are also using the Hashdrop CLI for local testing, update the API base URL in the CLI config to point to your local server (e.g. http://localhost:8080).