Self-Host Markdawn
Self-hosting runs Markdawn on infrastructure you control instead of using the hosted service. The maintained path uses one Fedora VPS, Caddy, rootless Podman containers, and PostgreSQL.
The documented deployment path uses one Fedora VPS with Caddy, rootless Podman containers, and self-hosted PostgreSQL. This is the path covered by the included setup and deployment scripts.
Markdawn is made up of containerized application services, so an experienced operator can adapt the deployment to Ubuntu, another Linux distribution, Docker Compose, or another compatible container environment. Those deployments require manual adaptation and verification rather than using the Fedora setup script unchanged.
Choose Your Guide
Section titled “Choose Your Guide”- Deploy Markdawn on a VPS covers the documented first installation.
- Maintain a Self-Hosted Markdawn covers updates, service checks, logs, and common failures.
- Move a Markdawn Deployment covers moving a compatible installation to another server.
What You Run
Section titled “What You Run”- Caddy or another public reverse proxy.
- PostgreSQL 17 with persistent storage.
- The Markdawn API service.
- The Markdawn collaboration service.
- The built web application.
- Persistent storage for the database and uploads.
The API and collaboration services must be reachable through the public web origin. PostgreSQL should remain private to the application services.
Important Data Rule
Section titled “Important Data Rule”Use the checked-in database migrations. Do not use db:push on a database that has migration history.
Deployment Choices
Section titled “Deployment Choices”Use the documented Fedora and Podman path when you want the shortest route from a clean server to a working installation.
Use Ubuntu, Docker Compose, or another container runtime when you are comfortable translating the service definitions and maintaining the result yourself. Keep the same application boundaries, environment variables, persistent volumes, database migrations, health checks, OAuth callback paths, and collaboration WebSocket routing.
Before You Choose This Path
Section titled “Before You Choose This Path”Self-hosting means you are responsible for DNS, TLS, backups, updates, database migrations, secrets, storage, and service health. Use the maintained Fedora path when you want the documented setup. Adapt the deployment only when you are prepared to verify the equivalent services yourself.
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”Start with Deploy Markdawn on a VPS, then keep Maintain a Self-Hosted Markdawn available for updates and recovery.