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Getting started

You have two options to deploy Notifuse: This option includes an embedded PostgreSQL database for easy testing and development: 
# Clone the repository or download docker-compose.yml
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/notifuse/notifuse/main/docker-compose.yml

# Start Notifuse with embedded PostgreSQL
docker-compose up -d
This will start Notifuse on port 8080 with a PostgreSQL database. You’ll still need to configure the required environment variables in a .env file or directly in the docker-compose.yml.

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Option 2: Standalone Docker (Production)

For production deployments, use the standalone Docker image with your own PostgreSQL database: 
docker run -d --name notifuse -p 8080:8080 notifuse/notifuse:latest
Note: You’ll need to set the required environment variables and provide your own PostgreSQL database.

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PASETO keys

You can generate PASETO keys with https://paseto.notifuse.com Alternatively, you can generate keys manually using the built-in keygen command: 
# If you have the source code
make keygen

# Or directly with Go
go run cmd/keygen/main.go

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PostgreSQL database (Option 2 only)

If using the standalone Docker option, you can use any PostgreSQL database with root credentials. Notifuse automatically creates a system database for itself. A new database will be created for each Notifuse workspace to avoid multi-tenant issues (that’s why you need root credentials). Note: This is not required when using Docker Compose as PostgreSQL is included.

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An SMTP server

Notifuse needs an SMTP server to send system emails (e.g. password reset emails, invitation emails, etc.).

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A public API endpoint

Notifuse needs a public API endpoint to be accessible from the web. Example: https://emails.yourcompany.com

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A cron scheduler

The Notifuse API is 100% stateless: you can run many instances of it in parallel behind a load balancer. However, to trigger the automatic sending of emails, you will need to run a cron job that will call the https://YOUR_ENDPOINT/api/cron endpoint every minute. 
# Run every minute
* * * * * curl https://YOUR_ENDPOINT/api/cron > /dev/null 2>&1
When a newsletter campaign is being sent, the task is executed for at most 55 seconds and will wait for the next cron tick to continue its execution.

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Environment Variables

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Required Variables

VariableDescription
ROOT_EMAILRoot administrator email (e.g., admin@yourcompany.com)
API_ENDPOINTPublic API endpoint URL (e.g., https://emails.yourcompany.com)
DB_HOSTPostgreSQL host (e.g., localhost or db.yourcompany.com)
DB_PORTPostgreSQL port (e.g., 5432)
DB_USERDatabase username (e.g., postgres)
DB_PASSWORDDatabase password (e.g., postgres)
PASETO_PRIVATE_KEYBase64 encoded PASETO private key (e.g., 1IC3m5Hk2jkVW...) - generate at https://paseto.notifuse.com
PASETO_PUBLIC_KEYBase64 encoded PASETO public key (e.g., 5p36ZqXdo7...) - generate at https://paseto.notifuse.com
| SMTP_HOST | SMTP server host (e.g., smtp.gmail.com) | | SMTP_PORT | SMTP server port (e.g., 587 or 465) | | SMTP_USERNAME | SMTP username (e.g., noreply@yourcompany.com) | | SMTP_PASSWORD | SMTP password (e.g., your_smtp_password) | | SMTP_FROM_EMAIL | From email address (e.g., noreply@yourcompany.com) | | SMTP_FROM_NAME | From name (e.g., Your Company Name) |

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Optional Variables

VariableDescriptionDefault
Server Configuration
SERVER_PORTPort for the server to listen on (e.g., 8080)8080
SERVER_HOSTHost address to bind to (e.g., 0.0.0.0)0.0.0.0
CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINCORS allowed origins (e.g., https://yourapp.com,https://admin.yourapp.com)*
ENVIRONMENTEnvironment mode (e.g., production)production
LOG_LEVELLogging level (e.g., debug or warn)info
Database Configuration
DB_PREFIXDatabase table prefix (e.g., notifuse)notifuse
DB_NAMEDatabase name (e.g., notifuse_system)${DB_PREFIX}_system
DB_SSLMODESSL mode for database (e.g., require or disable)require
Tracing Configuration
TRACING_ENABLEDEnable tracing (e.g., true)false
TRACING_SERVICE_NAMEService name for tracing (e.g., notifuse-production)notifuse-api
TRACING_SAMPLING_PROBABILITYSampling probability (e.g., 0.05)0.1
TRACING_TRACE_EXPORTERTrace exporter: jaeger/zipkin/stackdriver/datadog/xray/none (e.g., jaeger or datadog)none
TRACING_JAEGER_ENDPOINTJaeger endpoint (e.g., http://jaeger:14268/api/traces)http://localhost:14268/api/traces
TRACING_ZIPKIN_ENDPOINTZipkin endpoint (e.g., http://zipkin:9411/api/v2/spans)http://localhost:9411/api/v2/spans
TRACING_STACKDRIVER_PROJECT_IDStackdriver project ID (e.g., my-gcp-project-id)-
TRACING_AZURE_INSTRUMENTATION_KEYAzure Monitor instrumentation key (e.g., 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012)-
TRACING_DATADOG_AGENT_ADDRESSDatadog agent address (e.g., datadog-agent:8126)localhost:8126
TRACING_DATADOG_API_KEYDatadog API key (e.g., 1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef)-
TRACING_XRAY_REGIONAWS X-Ray region (e.g., us-east-1)us-west-2
TRACING_AGENT_ENDPOINTGeneral agent endpoint (e.g., monitoring-agent:8126)localhost:8126
TRACING_METRICS_EXPORTERMetrics exporter: stackdriver/prometheus/datadog/none (e.g., prometheus)none
TRACING_PROMETHEUS_PORTPrometheus metrics port (e.g., 9464)9464