multica/SELF_HOSTING_ADVANCED.md

Self-Hosting — Advanced Configuration

This document covers advanced configuration for self-hosted Multica deployments. For the quick start guide, see SELF_HOSTING.md.

Configuration

All configuration is done via environment variables. Copy .env.example as a starting point.

Required Variables

Variable	Description	Example
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string	postgres://multica:multica@localhost:5432/multica?sslmode=disable
JWT_SECRET	Must change from default. Secret key for signing JWT tokens. Use a long random string.	openssl rand -hex 32
FRONTEND_ORIGIN	URL where the frontend is served (used for CORS)	https://app.example.com

Database Pool Tuning (Optional)

These have sensible defaults and only need to be set when tuning a large or constrained deployment. Precedence (highest first): env var → pool_* query params on DATABASE_URL → built-in default.

Variable	Description	Default
DATABASE_MAX_CONNS	pgxpool max connections per pod. pod_count × DATABASE_MAX_CONNS should stay well below the Postgres max_connections ceiling. With a connection pooler (PgBouncer / RDS Proxy / Supavisor) in front, this can be raised significantly.	25
DATABASE_MIN_CONNS	pgxpool warm baseline connections per pod. Auto-clamped to DATABASE_MAX_CONNS.	5

Email (Required for Authentication)

Multica supports two email backends. SMTP_HOST takes priority when set; otherwise RESEND_API_KEY is used. With neither configured, verification codes are printed to the server log — copy them from there to log in.

Option A: Resend (recommended for cloud deployments)

Variable	Description
RESEND_API_KEY	Your Resend API key
RESEND_FROM_EMAIL	Sender email address (default: noreply@multica.ai)

Option B: SMTP relay (for self-hosted / on-premise deployments)

Use this option when your deployment cannot reach the public internet or you already have an internal mail relay (e.g. Exchange, Postfix, SendGrid on-prem).

Variable	Description	Default
SMTP_HOST	SMTP relay hostname (setting this activates SMTP mode)	-
SMTP_PORT	SMTP port	25
SMTP_USERNAME	SMTP username (leave empty for unauthenticated relay)	-
SMTP_PASSWORD	SMTP password	-
SMTP_TLS	TLS mode. implicit (aliases smtps, ssl) forces SMTPS on connect; port 465 auto-enables it. Unset / starttls upgrades via STARTTLS	starttls
SMTP_TLS_INSECURE	Set true to skip TLS certificate verification (self-signed / private CA certs)	false
SMTP_EHLO_NAME	EHLO/HELO name announced to the relay. Set a real FQDN when a strict relay (e.g. Google Workspace) rejects the default greeting from a public IP	machine hostname

STARTTLS is used automatically when advertised by the server. Port 465 (SMTPS / implicit TLS) is supported and auto-enables implicit TLS; set SMTP_TLS=implicit (aliases smtps, ssl) to force it on a non-standard port.

Note: If neither Resend nor SMTP is configured, generated verification codes are printed to backend logs — copy them from there to log in. A fixed local testing code (e.g. 888888) is opt-in only: set MULTICA_DEV_VERIFICATION_CODE=888888 in .env and keep APP_ENV non-production. The Docker self-host stack pins APP_ENV=production, so the shortcut is ignored there. Never enable a fixed code on a publicly reachable instance.

Google OAuth (Optional)

Variable	Description
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID	Google OAuth client ID
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET	Google OAuth client secret
GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI	OAuth callback URL (e.g. https://app.example.com/auth/callback)

Changes take effect after restarting the backend / compose stack. The web UI reads GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID from /api/config at runtime, so no web rebuild is needed.

Signup Controls (Optional)

Variable	Description
ALLOW_SIGNUP	Set to false to disable new user signups on a private instance
ALLOWED_EMAIL_DOMAINS	Optional comma-separated allowlist of email domains
ALLOWED_EMAILS	Optional comma-separated allowlist of exact email addresses
DISABLE_WORKSPACE_CREATION	Set to true to make POST /api/workspaces return 403 for every caller — users can only join workspaces they were invited to

Changes take effect after restarting the backend / compose stack. The web UI reads ALLOW_SIGNUP and DISABLE_WORKSPACE_CREATION from /api/config at runtime, so no web rebuild is needed.

Locking down workspace creation

ALLOW_SIGNUP=false blocks new accounts from being created, but it does not block an already-signed-in user from creating another workspace via POST /api/workspaces. On a self-hosted instance where every issue/repo/agent must be visible to the platform admin, set DISABLE_WORKSPACE_CREATION=true to close that gap. The recommended bootstrap sequence is:

1. Start the instance with DISABLE_WORKSPACE_CREATION=false (the default).
2. Sign in as the admin and create the shared workspace.
3. Set DISABLE_WORKSPACE_CREATION=true and restart the backend. Optionally set ALLOW_SIGNUP=false at the same time if you also want to block new account creation.
4. Going forward, additional users join via invitation only — the "Create workspace" affordance is hidden in the UI and any direct API call returns 403.

Note: setting ALLOW_SIGNUP=false blocks all new account creation, including users who already have a pending invitation. If you need invited users to be able to sign up but not create their own workspaces, keep ALLOW_SIGNUP=true (optionally combined with ALLOWED_EMAIL_DOMAINS / ALLOWED_EMAILS) and only flip DISABLE_WORKSPACE_CREATION=true.

File Storage (Optional)

For file uploads and attachments, configure S3 and (optionally) CloudFront:

Variable	Description
S3_BUCKET	Bucket name only (e.g. my-bucket). Do not include the .s3.<region>.amazonaws.com suffix — the server constructs the public URL from S3_BUCKET + S3_REGION
S3_REGION	AWS region (default: us-west-2). Must match the bucket's actual region — used for both SDK signing and public URLs
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID / AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	Static credentials. When both are unset, the AWS SDK default credential chain is used
AWS_ENDPOINT_URL	Custom S3-compatible endpoint (e.g. MinIO, R2, B2). Setting this switches to path-style URLs
ATTACHMENT_DOWNLOAD_MODE	Attachment download behavior: auto (default), cloudfront, presign, or proxy. Use proxy for private buckets behind Docker/VPC-only endpoints such as http://rustfs:9000
ATTACHMENT_DOWNLOAD_URL_TTL	TTL for CloudFront signed URLs and S3 presigned download URLs (default: 30m)
CLOUDFRONT_DOMAIN	CloudFront distribution domain — when set, public URLs use this host instead of the S3 host
CLOUDFRONT_KEY_PAIR_ID	CloudFront key pair ID for signed URLs
CLOUDFRONT_PRIVATE_KEY	CloudFront private key (PEM format)

Cookies

Variable	Description
COOKIE_DOMAIN	Optional Domain attribute for session + CloudFront cookies. Leave empty for single-host deployments (localhost, LAN IP, or a single hostname). Only set it when the frontend and backend sit on different subdomains of one registered domain (e.g. .example.com). Do not use an IP literal — RFC 6265 forbids IP addresses in the cookie Domain attribute and browsers will drop such Set-Cookie headers.

The Secure flag on session cookies is derived automatically from the scheme of FRONTEND_ORIGIN: HTTPS origins get Secure cookies; plain-HTTP origins (LAN / private-network self-host) get non-secure cookies so the browser can actually store them.

Server

Variable	Default	Description
PORT	8080	Backend server port
METRICS_ADDR	empty	Optional Prometheus metrics listener, for example 127.0.0.1:9090
FRONTEND_PORT	3000	Frontend port
CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS	Value of FRONTEND_ORIGIN	Comma-separated list of allowed origins. Governs both the HTTP CORS allowlist and the WebSocket Origin check. A browser origin that isn't listed here (and isn't localhost) has its real-time WebSocket upgrade rejected with 403, so live updates stop working until a manual refresh.
LOG_LEVEL	info	Log level: debug, info, warn, error

CLI / Daemon

These are configured on each user's machine, not on the server:

Variable	Default	Description
MULTICA_SERVER_URL	ws://localhost:8080/ws	WebSocket URL for daemon → server connection
MULTICA_APP_URL	http://localhost:3000	Frontend URL for CLI login flow
MULTICA_DAEMON_POLL_INTERVAL	3s	How often the daemon polls for tasks
MULTICA_DAEMON_HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL	15s	Heartbeat frequency

Agent-specific overrides:

Variable	Description
MULTICA_CLAUDE_PATH	Custom path to the claude binary
MULTICA_CLAUDE_MODEL	Override the Claude model used
MULTICA_CODEX_PATH	Custom path to the codex binary
MULTICA_CODEX_MODEL	Override the Codex model used
MULTICA_COPILOT_PATH	Custom path to the copilot (GitHub Copilot CLI) binary
MULTICA_COPILOT_MODEL	Override the Copilot model used (note: GitHub Copilot routes models through your account entitlement, so this may not be honoured)
MULTICA_OPENCODE_PATH	Custom path to the opencode binary
MULTICA_OPENCODE_MODEL	Override the OpenCode model used
MULTICA_OPENCLAW_PATH	Custom path to the openclaw binary
MULTICA_OPENCLAW_MODEL	Override the OpenClaw model used
MULTICA_HERMES_PATH	Custom path to the hermes binary
MULTICA_HERMES_MODEL	Override the Hermes model used
MULTICA_GEMINI_PATH	Custom path to the gemini binary
MULTICA_GEMINI_MODEL	Override the Gemini model used
MULTICA_PI_PATH	Custom path to the pi binary
MULTICA_PI_MODEL	Override the Pi model used
MULTICA_CURSOR_PATH	Custom path to the cursor-agent binary
MULTICA_CURSOR_MODEL	Override the Cursor Agent model used

Database Setup

Multica requires PostgreSQL 17 with the pgvector extension.

Using Docker Compose (Recommended)

The docker-compose.selfhost.yml includes PostgreSQL. No separate setup needed.

Using Your Own PostgreSQL

If you prefer to use an existing PostgreSQL instance, ensure the pgvector extension is available:

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS vector;

Set DATABASE_URL in your .env and remove the postgres service from the compose file.

Running Migrations Manually

The Docker Compose setup runs migrations automatically. If you need to run them manually:

# Using the built binary
./server/bin/migrate up

# Or from source
cd server && go run ./cmd/migrate up

Usage Dashboard Rollup

The Usage and Runtime dashboards read from task_usage_hourly, a derived table populated by rollup_task_usage_hourly(). As of MUL-2957 the backend runs this rollup in-process on every replica via a DB-backed scheduler (sys_cron_executions); a fresh self-host install needs no operator action — the bundled pgvector/pgvector:pg17 image works without changes.

How the in-process scheduler works

Every backend replica ticks every 30 seconds and tries to claim the current 5-minute UTC plan in sys_cron_executions. The unique key (job_name, scope_kind, scope_id, plan_time) makes the claim a single-winner contest across all replicas, so multi-instance deployments do not double-write. The handler then calls SELECT rollup_task_usage_hourly(); the SQL function holds advisory lock 4246 internally, so a stray pg_cron job or manual call can run alongside the scheduler without ever colliding on the rollup itself. Inspect the audit table for steady-state operation:

SELECT plan_time, status, attempt, runner_id,
       error_code, error_msg, started_at, finished_at
  FROM sys_cron_executions
 WHERE job_name = 'rollup_task_usage_hourly'
 ORDER BY plan_time DESC
 LIMIT 20;

Compatibility — existing pg_cron registrations

If you previously registered the rollup as a pg_cron job (SELECT cron.schedule('rollup_task_usage_hourly', '*/5 * * * *', …)), it is safe to leave it in place: advisory lock 4246 prevents double-writes, and the loser path no-ops cleanly. To drop the redundant entry once the in-process scheduler is up:

SELECT cron.unschedule('rollup_task_usage_hourly')
  FROM cron.job WHERE jobname = 'rollup_task_usage_hourly';

External cron / systemd / Kubernetes CronJob setups that call SELECT rollup_task_usage_hourly() directly are also still valid — they were the only option before MUL-2957 and remain a supported compatibility path. They are no longer the recommended setup; new deployments should rely on the in-process scheduler.

Standalone backfill command

rollup_task_usage_hourly() only processes new buckets after it starts running. If you already have task_usage rows from before the rollup was claimed for the first time — most commonly when upgrading from v0.3.4 to v0.3.5+ on a database that already has months of usage — you can run backfill_task_usage_hourly to seed historical buckets:

# Docker Compose
docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhost.yml exec backend \
  ./backfill_task_usage_hourly --sleep-between-slices=2s

# Kubernetes
kubectl -n multica exec deploy/multica-backend -- \
  ./backfill_task_usage_hourly --sleep-between-slices=2s

The command walks task_usage's full time range in monthly slices and calls the same idempotent primitive the in-process scheduler uses, so it's safe to re-run, to interrupt with Ctrl-C, and to run concurrently with the scheduler (advisory lock 4246 serialises them). Flags:

Flag	Description
--sleep-between-slices	Pause between monthly slices to throttle read pressure on busy databases (e.g. 2s). Recommended on production DBs with years of history.
--months-back N	Only backfill the last N months. Requires --force-partial because the watermark still advances past the skipped older buckets — those are permanently abandoned.
--dry-run	Log slices that would be processed without writing anything.

After backfill completes, the rollup-state watermark is stamped to now() - 5 minutes, so the first scheduled tick after backfill does not redo history.

v0.3.4 → v0.3.5+ upgrade order

Migration 103 adds a fail-closed guard that refuses to drop the legacy daily rollups until task_usage_hourly has caught up. As of MUL-2957 the migrate command runs an idempotent monthly-slice backfill (under advisory lock 4246) automatically immediately before applying migration 103, so v0.3.4 → v0.3.5+ upgrades complete in a single migrate up invocation — no operator step is required.

If you are upgrading from a binary that pre-dates MUL-2957 (or the auto-hook fails for an environmental reason), recovery is the manual path: run backfill_task_usage_hourly against the database, then re-run migrate up (or restart the backend container — migrations run automatically on startup). Fresh installs are exempt — the guard short-circuits when task_usage is empty, and the in-process scheduler picks up new buckets from the first tick.

Manual Setup (Without Docker Compose)

If you prefer to build and run services manually:

Prerequisites: Go 1.26+, Node.js 20+, pnpm 10.28+, PostgreSQL 17 with pgvector.

# Start your PostgreSQL (or use: docker compose up -d postgres)

# Build the backend
make build

# Run database migrations
DATABASE_URL="your-database-url" ./server/bin/migrate up

# Start the backend server
DATABASE_URL="your-database-url" PORT=8080 JWT_SECRET="your-secret" ./server/bin/server

For the frontend:

pnpm install
pnpm build

# Start the frontend (production mode)
cd apps/web
REMOTE_API_URL=http://localhost:8080 pnpm start

Reverse Proxy

In production, put a reverse proxy in front of both the backend and frontend to handle TLS and routing.

Caddy (Recommended)

Single-domain layout — frontend and backend served on the same hostname (this is what docker-compose.selfhost.yml defaults to):

multica.example.com {
    # WebSocket route — must come before the catch-all
    @multica_ws path /ws /ws/*
    handle @multica_ws {
        reverse_proxy localhost:8080 {
            flush_interval -1
        }
    }

    # Everything else → frontend
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

Even on a single domain, set FRONTEND_ORIGIN / CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS to that public origin (e.g. https://multica.example.com) on the backend. The backend's default origin allowlist is localhost only, so without this it rejects the WebSocket upgrade from the public URL with 403 and real-time updates silently stop working. See LAN / Non-localhost Access.

Separate-domain layout — frontend and backend on different hostnames:

app.example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

api.example.com {
    @multica_ws path /ws /ws/*
    handle @multica_ws {
        reverse_proxy localhost:8080 {
            flush_interval -1
        }
    }

    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Two non-obvious bits inside the /ws block are worth calling out — both are common reasons real-time updates "stop working" on a Caddy-fronted self-host:

• path /ws /ws/* (not /ws*) — bare handle /ws is an exact match, so future path variants under /ws/ fall through to the frontend block. The obvious shortcut handle /ws* overcorrects in the other direction: Caddy's * is a glob without a path-segment boundary, so it would also catch unrelated paths like /ws-foo, which is a legitimate workspace URL (only the exact slug ws is reserved). Listing /ws and /ws/* explicitly covers both real cases without overreach.
• flush_interval -1 — disables response buffering so WebSocket frames are forwarded as soon as they arrive. Without it, frames can sit behind Caddy's default flush window, which looks like delayed comments, missing typing indicators, or "comments only appear after a page refresh."

Nginx

# Frontend
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name app.example.com;

    ssl_certificate     /path/to/cert.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/key.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

# Backend API
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name api.example.com;

    ssl_certificate     /path/to/cert.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/key.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }

    # WebSocket support
    location /ws {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_read_timeout 86400;
    }
}

When using separate domains for frontend and backend, set these environment variables accordingly:

# Backend
FRONTEND_ORIGIN=https://app.example.com
CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS=https://app.example.com

# Frontend (only if you are building the web image from source via docker-compose.selfhost.build.yml)
REMOTE_API_URL=https://api.example.com
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=https://api.example.com
NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL=wss://api.example.com/ws

LAN / Non-localhost Access

By default, Multica works on localhost. If you access it from another machine on the LAN (e.g. http://192.168.1.100:3000), you need to tell the backend to accept that origin:

# .env — replace with your server's LAN IP
FRONTEND_ORIGIN=http://192.168.1.100:3000
CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS=http://192.168.1.100:3000

Then restart the stack:

docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhost.yml up -d

WebSocket for LAN / Non-localhost Access

HTTP requests (issues, comments, uploads) work on LAN out of the box — Next.js rewrites proxy /api, /auth, and /uploads to the backend. WebSockets do not: Next.js rewrites only forward HTTP requests, not the Upgrade handshake a WebSocket needs. If you open the app on http://<lan-ip>:3000, real-time features (chat streaming, live issue updates, notifications) will fail to connect until you do one of the following:

1. Put a reverse proxy in front of the stack (recommended). Nginx or Caddy terminates the WebSocket upgrade and forwards it to the backend on port 8080. See the Reverse Proxy section above — the Nginx example already includes a location /ws { ... } block with the correct Upgrade / Connection headers. Once a proxy is in place the browser connects directly through it, so no frontend rebuild is needed.

2. Bake a WebSocket URL into the web image. If you are not running a reverse proxy, rebuild the web image with NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL pointing straight at the backend (port 8080 must be reachable from the browser):

   # In .env
   NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL=ws://<lan-ip>:8080/ws
   
   # Rebuild the web image so the build-time value is baked in
   docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhost.yml -f docker-compose.selfhost.build.yml up -d --build
   

   NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL is a build-time variable (see Dockerfile.web), so setting it only in environment: on the pre-built image has no effect — you must use the selfhost.build.yml override that rebuilds the image.

Also required: allowlist the browser origin. The two options above fix the WebSocket upgrade proxying, but a second, independent setting gates the connection: the backend validates the WebSocket Origin header against an allowlist that defaults to localhost only. When you open Multica from any other origin — a LAN IP or a public domain behind a reverse proxy — set CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS (or FRONTEND_ORIGIN) on the backend to that exact origin and restart, exactly as shown under LAN / Non-localhost Access above. Otherwise the upgrade is refused with 403: the backend logs websocket: request origin not allowed by Upgrader.CheckOrigin and the browser console loops disconnected, reconnecting in 3s, while HTTP requests (and manual page refreshes) keep working because they are same-origin to the page. The single value covers both HTTP CORS and the WebSocket origin check.

Note: If you need to hard-code a different public API / WebSocket endpoint into the web image for any other reason, use the same source-build override: docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhost.yml -f docker-compose.selfhost.build.yml up -d --build.

Health Check

The backend exposes public health endpoints:

GET /health
→ {"status":"ok"}

GET /readyz
→ {"status":"ok","checks":{"db":"ok","migrations":"ok"}}

GET /healthz
→ same response as /readyz

Use /health for basic liveness / reachability checks. Use /readyz for dependency-aware readiness probes and external monitoring that should fail when the database is unavailable or migrations are not fully applied. /healthz is kept as an alias for operator familiarity.

Prometheus Metrics

The backend can expose Prometheus metrics on a separate management listener:

METRICS_ADDR=127.0.0.1:9090 ./server/bin/server
curl http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics

METRICS_ADDR is empty by default, so no metrics listener is started. The public API port does not serve /metrics; keep it that way for internet-facing deployments. HTTP request metrics start accumulating only after the metrics listener is enabled. Metrics can reveal internal routes, traffic volume, dependency state, and runtime health.

For Docker or Kubernetes deployments, prefer a private scrape path: bind the metrics listener to an internal interface and protect it with private networking, allowlists, NetworkPolicy, or proxy authentication. If you bind METRICS_ADDR=0.0.0.0:9090 inside a container, only publish that port to a trusted network, for example a host-local mapping such as 127.0.0.1:9090:9090.

Upgrading

docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhost.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhost.yml up -d

Pin MULTICA_IMAGE_TAG in .env to an exact release like v0.2.4 if you want to stay on a specific version. Migrations run automatically on backend startup. They are idempotent — running them multiple times has no effect. If the selected GHCR tag has not been published yet, fall back to docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhost.yml -f docker-compose.selfhost.build.yml up -d --build.