--- title: "Run a Sblurp community" description: "Run a Sblurp community on your own server: one small program and one data folder. What you need, how to start it, and what it stores." nav: "Quick start" doc_version: 7 last_updated: 2026-10-18 --- # Run a community on your own server. A $5 a month server is enough for a busy community. See [How much does it cost?](/docs/hosting) for what each server size holds. ## Choose how to set it up Not a developer? You can probably do this with an AI assistant, such as Claude. You make the accounts, and the assistant does the setup with you. Read [Set up a server with AI](/docs/ai). Developer? [Pick a host](#pick-a-host) and follow its page. ## Pick a host Each page has the full steps, backups and updates for that host. - [Render](/docs/render): no server to look after. About $7.25 a month. - [Railway](/docs/railway): no server to look after. About $5 to $7 a month. - [Fly.io](/docs/fly): no server to look after. About $4 a month. - [Any VPS](/docs/vps), such as DigitalOcean, Hetzner or OVHcloud, with Docker Compose. From $4 a month. - [Docker and Compose](/docs/docker), on any Linux machine, with Caddy for TLS. - [Podman](/docs/podman), with automatic updates and rollback. You do not need to run sblurp.chat or the web client. People use the app at app.sblurp.chat and add your address. ## What every setup needs - A domain or subdomain, such as `chat.example.org`. - A disk that survives restarts, mounted at `/data`. Without it, a restart deletes your community. - Two settings: ```sh SBLURP_BASE_URL=https://chat.example.org SBLURP_TRUSTED_ISSUERS=https://sblurp.chat ``` `SBLURP_BASE_URL` is the address people use to reach your server. Sign-in tokens are made for that exact address, so it must match what the app connects to. `SBLURP_TRUSTED_ISSUERS` says whose accounts your server accepts. Use sblurp.chat so anyone with a Sblurp account can join. See [Configuration](/docs/configuration) for the other settings. ## Become the owner 1. Open [app.sblurp.chat](https://app.sblurp.chat) and sign in. 2. Click **Add a community** and enter your address. 3. Join. The first person to join becomes the owner. Do this before you tell anyone the address. ## Add bots A bot is a JavaScript file in the `plugins` folder inside the data directory. [Read how to make one.](/docs/plugins) ## Back it up Everything lives in the data directory. See [Backups](/docs/backups) for automatic backups to Cloudflare R2, or for a plain copy. ## What the server sees, and what we see Your server stores your community's messages, files and member list. sblurp.chat stores none of it. When someone joins, your server learns their account id, username, whether their email is verified, whether they declared they are over 13 and over 18, and the profile they chose to share. Encrypted in transit. Not end-to-end encrypted: the admins of a community can read its messages, including DMs. Tell your members this. It is the deal they are making with you. Your community's data lives wherever you put your Sblurp server. We do not market Sblurp to the EU in particular, but we must point this out: if you put your server in the EU, all data except accounts lives there, and only there. Accounts stay on sblurp.chat in the United States. See [Your data](/docs/data#where-the-data-lives). ## The code The community server is open source under the AGPL-3.0. Read it, change it, run your fork. If you change it and offer it to others over a network, share your changes. The repository link will be here when the first release ships. ## Sitemap - [Sblurp: chat for communities](https://sblurp.chat/index.md): Sblurp is group chat with channels, threads and roles. Each community runs on its own server, and one Sblurp account signs you in to all of them. - [About Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/about.md): Why Sblurp exists: chat for communities that each run their own server, with no ads, no unasked-for AI and an honest word on encryption. - [Privacy at Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/privacy.md): What sblurp.chat stores about you, what it never stores, what it shares with communities you join, and how to get a copy or delete it. - [Terms of use](https://sblurp.chat/terms.md): The terms for a sblurp.chat account: who can sign up, what you must not do, and what we do and do not promise. A first draft. - [Create your Sblurp account](https://sblurp.chat/signup.md): Create a Sblurp account: one account for every Sblurp community you join. You need an email, a username, a password and to be 13 or older. - [Sign in to Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/login.md): Sign in to your Sblurp account with your email or username and password, or with a passkey. One account works in every Sblurp community. - [Reset your password](https://sblurp.chat/forgot.md): Forgot your Sblurp password? Type the email you signed up with and we send a link to choose a new one. The link works once, for one hour. - [Sblurp docs](https://sblurp.chat/docs.md): Sblurp documentation: how accounts and communities work, how to run a community server, how to add bots, and the full API reference. - [Accounts and communities](https://sblurp.chat/docs/accounts.md): How a Sblurp account relates to the communities you join: what sblurp.chat keeps, what each community server sees, and what stays private. - [Join a community](https://sblurp.chat/docs/join.md): Join a Sblurp community: add it by address or invite link, answer its questions, choose what to share, and join. - [Sblurp glossary](https://sblurp.chat/docs/glossary.md): The words the Sblurp docs use, from account and community to issuer, track, bot token and seq, each with a link to the page that explains it. - [Run a Sblurp community](https://sblurp.chat/docs/self-host.md): Run a Sblurp community on your own server: one small program and one data folder. What you need, how to start it, and what it stores. - [Run a server](https://sblurp.chat/docs/create.md): For developers: start your own Sblurp community. Run the open-source server, join it first to become the owner, then set it up and invite people. - [Set up a server with AI](https://sblurp.chat/docs/ai.md): Not a developer? Ask an AI assistant such as Claude to set up your Sblurp community server. - [Sblurp server sizes and costs](https://sblurp.chat/docs/hosting.md): Which server size to rent for a Sblurp community and what it costs each month: measured limits per size and prices at Fly.io, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, OVHcloud and AWS Lightsail. - [Run Sblurp on Render](https://sblurp.chat/docs/render.md): Run a Sblurp community server on Render: one Starter web service with a persistent disk, the released image, and optional backups to Cloudflare R2. - [Run Sblurp on Railway](https://sblurp.chat/docs/railway.md): Run a Sblurp community server on Railway: one service from the released image, a volume for /data, and optional backups to Cloudflare R2. - [Run Sblurp on Fly.io](https://sblurp.chat/docs/fly.md): Run a Sblurp community server on Fly.io: one always-on machine with a volume, h2c streaming, and optional backups to Cloudflare R2. - [Run Sblurp on any VPS](https://sblurp.chat/docs/vps.md): Run a Sblurp community server on a small virtual server from Hetzner, OVHcloud, Akamai Linode, Vultr, DigitalOcean or any other host, with Docker Compose. - [Run Sblurp with Docker and Compose](https://sblurp.chat/docs/docker.md): Run a Sblurp community server with Docker Compose and Caddy: the files, the settings, where the data lives, and how to run it behind your own proxy. - [Run Sblurp with Podman](https://sblurp.chat/docs/podman.md): Run a Sblurp community server with a Podman Quadlet file, with daily automatic updates that roll back when a new image does not start. - [Sblurp server configuration](https://sblurp.chat/docs/configuration.md): Every flag and environment variable of the Sblurp community server, with defaults, plus the backup variables of the container image and the built-in limits. - [TLS and reverse proxies for Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/proxies.md): Put Caddy, nginx or Cloudflare in front of a Sblurp community server without breaking live streams: h2c, no buffering, no compression. - [Back up a Sblurp server](https://sblurp.chat/docs/backups.md): Back up a Sblurp community server: Litestream copies the database to Cloudflare R2 within 10 seconds, an encrypted backup tool copies the files, or make a plain copy. How to restore. - [Update a Sblurp server](https://sblurp.chat/docs/updates.md): Release tracks for the Sblurp server image, the daily update check, manual and automatic updates, and how to roll back. - [Verify a Sblurp release](https://sblurp.chat/docs/provenance.md): Check that a Sblurp server image was built by the public release workflow, with GitHub attestations or cosign. - [Troubleshooting a Sblurp server](https://sblurp.chat/docs/troubleshooting.md): Fix common problems with a Sblurp community server: sign-in fails, messages arrive late, certificates, file links, and where the logs are. - [Invites in Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/invites.md): Make a Sblurp community invite only, create invite links with an expiry and a use limit, and revoke them. - [Moderation and roles in Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/moderation.md): Permissions in a Sblurp community (owner, admin, moderator, member), custom roles that limit channels, channel modes, kicks and bans. - [Safety in Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/safety.md): Who can read your messages, how to protect your account, what to do about unwanted messages, how to report a message, what moderators can do, age rules, and how to reach sblurp.chat. - [Your data in Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/data.md): What sblurp.chat stores about your account, what a community server stores, who controls each, how long data is kept, backups, export and deletion. - [Sblurp bots](https://sblurp.chat/docs/bots.md): Two ways to add a bot to a Sblurp community: a JavaScript plugin on the server, or a program anywhere that uses the API with a bot token. - [Sblurp bot tokens](https://sblurp.chat/docs/bot-tokens.md): Make a Sblurp bot with a token, run the example bot, and call the API from any language: subscribe to events and reply to mentions. - [Connect an AI agent to Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/agents.md): How to connect a self-hosted AI agent, such as OpenClaw, NanoClaw or Hermes Agent, to a Sblurp community with a bot token. No built-in connector exists yet. - [Use Sblurp from Claude Code and other MCP clients](https://sblurp.chat/docs/mcp.md): Add a Sblurp community to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, VS Code or another MCP client by URL, sign in with your sblurp.chat account, and let the agent read and post as you. - [Sblurp plugins](https://sblurp.chat/docs/plugins.md): Write a Sblurp bot as one JavaScript file and install it in the app, with the API or in the plugins folder: hooks for joins, messages, slash commands and timers, replies, limits and the dice example. - [Sblurp API: protocol and transport](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api.md): How clients and bots talk to a Sblurp community server: Connect RPC over HTTP, the proto contract, JSON and binary bodies, auth, streaming and versioning. - [Sblurp API explorer](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/explorer.md): Browse and try every call of the Sblurp community server API in your browser, from the OpenAPI 3.1 description in openapi.json. - [Sblurp API: sign-in and tokens](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/auth.md): How sign-in works across Sblurp: OAuth 2.0 with PKCE at sblurp.chat, per-server access tokens, JWT claims, refresh token rotation, JWKS, and bot tokens. - [Sblurp API: events](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/events.md): The Sblurp live event stream: Subscribe, sequence numbers, replay and resync, heartbeats, every event kind, who receives it, and unread counts. - [Sblurp API: uploads and files](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/files.md): The plain HTTP endpoints of a Sblurp community server: uploads, signed file URLs, custom emoji, invite links and the health check. - [Sblurp API: errors and rate limits](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/errors.md): Error codes the Sblurp community server returns, what each one means for a client, and the rate limits for people and bots. - [ServerService API reference](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/server-service.md): Every ServerService call of the Sblurp community server: what it does, who may call it, and its request and response fields. - [ChatService API reference](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/chat-service.md): Every ChatService call of the Sblurp community server: what it does, who may call it, and its request and response fields. - [BotService API reference](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/bot-service.md): Every BotService call of the Sblurp community server: what it does, who may call it, and its request and response fields. - [API types](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/types.md): The messages and enums the Sblurp community server API shares between calls, with every field.