Vaze | Local File Storage & Hosting

Vaze is a self-hosted, local-first file storage and hosting service built with Next.js. Run it easily as a Docker container on your own server or home network. It provides a clean web interface for managing your files and a powerful API to use as a backend for your other applications.

Features

• File & Folder Management: Create, rename, and delete files and folders directly from the web UI, including multi-select for deleting many files at once.
• Path-addressed storage: Files keep the name you upload them with, so you choose the public URL — https://your-vaze/api/hosting/projects/demo/photo.png.
• Streaming uploads: Upload bodies go straight to disk, so file size is bounded by your volume rather than by memory.
• Download & Public Hosting: Download files directly, or embed them from a public hosting URL that serves untrusted content sandboxed.
• Private files & signed URLs: Mark any file (or a whole folder) private so it stops being world-readable, then hand out time-limited signed links that work without an API key.
• Range requests & caching: Byte-range support means audio and video seek properly, and ETag/Last-Modified revalidation keeps repeat embeds down to a bodiless 304.
• API Key Management: Generate and manage API keys from a dedicated dashboard to securely interact with your storage from other apps.
• Powerful API: Use Vaze as a backend service for any application that needs file hosting or storage, with simple RESTful endpoints.
• Dockerized: Get up and running in minutes with the official Docker image.

Roadmap

Not built yet: moving files between folders, folder upload and drag-and-drop, zip download of a folder, and API-key scopes.

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Getting Started

All you need is Docker with the Compose plugin.

Quick Install

One command sets up everything — it checks Docker, downloads compose.prod.yaml, generates your AUTH_SECRET into a .env, and starts the container:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/darseen/vaze/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

The only thing it asks for is the URL you'll open Vaze on, and it defaults to this machine's LAN address. Pass it in to skip the prompt entirely:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/darseen/vaze/main/scripts/install.sh \
  | BASE_URL=https://files.example.com sh

Re-run it from the same directory to upgrade: it refreshes the compose file, pulls the newer image, and recreates the container — while never overwriting a value already in your .env and never touching the volume your uploads and database live in. Skip to Initial setup once it finishes.

Options: --dir=PATH to choose the install directory (default ./vaze), and --no-start to write the config without starting. BASE_URL, VAZE_PORT, VAZE_VERSION, VAZE_BIND_ADDR and TZ can all be set in the environment or edited in .env afterwards.

Prefer to read a script before piping it to a shell? Download it first, or follow the manual steps below.

Manual install with Docker Compose

Grab compose.prod.yaml, put a .env next to it:

AUTH_SECRET=generate-with-openssl-rand-base64-32
BASE_URL=http://your-server-ip-or-domain:3000
VAZE_PORT=3000
VAZE_VERSION=latest

then start it:

docker compose -f compose.prod.yaml up -d

Manual install with docker run

docker run -d \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -v vaze_data:/app/data \
  -e BASE_URL="http://your-server-ip-or-domain:3000" \
  -e AUTH_SECRET="$(openssl rand -base64 32)" \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --name vaze \
  ghcr.io/darseen/vaze:latest

• -p 3000:3000 maps port 3000 on your host to the container's port 3000.
• -v vaze_data:/app/data persists uploads and the SQLite database outside the container, so they survive updates and removals.

Initial setup (admin registration)

1. Open http://<your-server-ip>:3000 in your browser.
2. You will be prompted to register — the first user to register becomes the admin.
3. Log in with your new credentials.

That's it! You can now start uploading and managing your files.

Managing your instance

Run these from your install directory (./vaze by default):

docker compose -f compose.prod.yaml logs -f   # follow logs
docker compose -f compose.prod.yaml ps        # status and health
docker compose -f compose.prod.yaml restart   # restart
docker compose -f compose.prod.yaml down      # stop (keeps your data)

To upgrade, re-run the installer from that directory — or do it by hand:

docker compose -f compose.prod.yaml pull && docker compose -f compose.prod.yaml up -d

Warning

docker compose -f compose.prod.yaml down -v also deletes the vaze_vaze_data volume — every uploaded file and account goes with it.

Environment Variables

Everything lives in the .env the installer writes next to compose.prod.yaml. Edit it and apply with docker compose -f compose.prod.yaml up -d.

Variable	Required	Description
BASE_URL	Yes	Public base URL of your instance, e.g. https://files.example.com. Public file links are built from it.
AUTH_SECRET	Yes	Long random string signing session tokens and signed URLs. Replacing it logs everyone out and invalidates every outstanding signed link.
VAZE_PORT	No (3000)	Host port published by the container.
VAZE_BIND_ADDR	No (0.0.0.0)	Host address to bind to. Set 127.0.0.1 when a reverse proxy fronts Vaze.
VAZE_VERSION	No (latest)	Image tag to run — pin it for reproducible deploys.
TZ	No (UTC)	Container timezone.
MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE	No (5gb)	Largest single file accepted by an upload, e.g. 500mb.
MAX_FILES_PER_REQUEST	No (100)	Cap on files in one multipart request.
API_REQUEST_RETENTION_DAYS	No (90)	How long API request-log rows are kept.
DEFAULT_FILE_VISIBILITY	No (public)	Visibility for uploads that don't specify one. Set private for a private-first instance.
DEFAULT_PRESIGN_TTL_SECONDS	No (3600)	Lifetime of a signed URL when the caller doesn't specify one.
MAX_PRESIGN_TTL_SECONDS	No (604800)	Longest lifetime a signed URL may be minted with.
HOSTING_CACHE_MAX_AGE	No (0)	max-age for public hosted responses. Zero revalidates every time via ETag.

The installer generates AUTH_SECRET for you. To make one by hand:

openssl rand -base64 32

All data lives at /app/data inside the container, backed by the vaze_data volume. Keep it on a volume or you will lose every file and account when the container is removed.

API Usage

Vaze can be used as a file-hosting backend for your other projects. You can use Vaze's official NPM package to interact with the API.

Screenshots

Here are a few screenshots of the Vaze interface.

Main Dashboard View

File Management Page

API Keys Management Page

Registration Page

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to help improve Vaze, please feel free to fork the repository, make changes, and submit a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.