Quick start

This page takes you from a computer with Docker to your own Tesria, open in your browser and ready for its guided setup. You type a handful of commands and fill in one settings file; the rest is waiting while Tesria builds itself.

If you have not yet, read Prerequisites first: it explains Docker, and what to have ready.

Step 1: Download Tesria

Open a terminal (Terminal on a Mac, PowerShell on Windows) on the computer Tesria will run on, go to the folder you want Tesria in, and run:

git clone https://github.com/Tesria/Tesria.git
cd Tesria

That makes a folder called Tesria with everything in it, and moves into it. Run the rest of the commands on this page from there.

Step 2: Make your settings file

Tesria reads its settings from a plain text file called .env in that folder. It comes with an example to copy:

cp .env.example .env

Open .env in a plain text editor (nano .env in a Mac or Linux terminal, notepad .env on Windows). Each line is a setting, in the form NAME=value. Change these before the first start:

• POSTGRES_PASSWORD: the password for Tesria’s database. Any long random string.

• APP_DB_PASSWORD: a second long random string, different from the first. Tesria creates a restricted database account with it and runs as that account, which cannot alter or delete the audit log.

• BACKUP_ENCRYPTION_KEY: required. Another long random string, which encrypts your backups. Save a copy in your password manager now: backups cannot be restored without it.

• DOMAIN: your web address, such as wiki.example.com, if you have one pointed at this computer. Otherwise leave it as localhost. Tesria is still reachable from other devices on your network, by the computer’s name.

• ACME_EMAIL: your email address, if you set a web address above. The certificate service writes to it about your certificate.

• COLLAB_SHARED_SECRET: optional, but worth setting. Any long random string turns on editing a page with several people at the same time.

• PDF_SHARED_SECRET: optional, but worth setting. Any long random string turns on exporting pages as PDFs.

On a Mac or Linux, this makes a good long random string each time you run it:

openssl rand -hex 32

A password manager’s generator works just as well, on any computer.

Step 3: Start Tesria

docker compose up -d --build

This builds Tesria’s software and starts every part of it. --build builds it first, and -d lets it carry on in the background, so you get your terminal back. The first time takes several minutes; later starts are much quicker.

While it starts, Tesria sets up its database and backups by itself. There is nothing else to install.

Step 4: Open Tesria in your browser

Go to https://your-server, or https://localhost on the computer Tesria runs on.

• With a web address of your own, you see a padlock and Tesria straight away.

• With localhost or your computer’s name, the browser warns that the connection is not private the first time. Your server is fine: it has made its own certificate, which the browser does not know yet. Trusting the local certificate explains why and makes the warning go away for good, one device at a time.

To check that Tesria is up, open https://your-server/api/health. It answers with a short line of text that includes "status":"ok".

Step 5: Follow the setup wizard

Tesria opens its setup wizard, which creates your account as the owner and asks a few questions about who can join and how much backup history to keep. It takes a few minutes; First-run setup wizard goes through every step.

Next

Once the wizard is done, Your first space and page walks you through writing something. When other devices on your network need to reach Tesria, see Opening Tesria by name. And Installing with Docker Compose explains what each part of Tesria does and where it keeps your data.