Self-Hosting Guide

Run LiveFolio on your own infrastructure — installation, configuration, database, AI providers, sharing, and upgrades.

Overview

LiveFolio is open-source software. You can run it on your own machine with full control over your data, configuration, and infrastructure.

This section covers everything you need to self-host:

Quickstart — Clone, install, and run
Configuration — Environment variables and settings
Database — Flat-file storage, backups, and migration
AI Providers — Gemini, Claude, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Ollama
Public Sharing — Tunnel setup for public folio access
Upgrading — Pulling updates and handling migrations

Architecture

A self-hosted LiveFolio instance consists of:

your-machine/
├── database.json        # All folio data (flat file) — the only thing to back up
├── settings.json        # MCP master key, optional custom tunnel URL
├── content/docs/        # This documentation
├── app/                 # Next.js application
├── lib/                 # Core libraries
└── design-systems/      # 141 portable design system specs

Installed via npx @livefolio-cloud/cli, the same data lives under ~/.livefolio/data/ instead, with the app cached in ~/.livefolio/versions/.

There is no .env to create — provider keys can live in the app UI, and everything else has a working default.

Key Characteristics

Local-first — all data stored in a flat database.json file
No login required — single local user
Works offline — no internet needed (except for tunnel sharing and AI providers)
Full MCP support — AI agents publish folios via the MCP server
Unlimited usage — no rate limits, no usage caps
Your API keys — bring your own provider keys, or run Ollama locally
Zero telemetry — nothing phones home

Quick Reference

Command	What it does
`npx @livefolio-cloud/cli`	Install and run — no clone needed
`npm run dev`	Dev server on port 3001
`npm run build`	Production build (pinned to OSS mode)
`npm start`	Serve the production build on port 3000
`npm test`	Run the test suite

Data Ownership

Your data stays on your machine. The flat-file database.json contains all your folios, versions, comments, and settings. Back it up with cp database.json database.backup.json. No data leaves your machine unless you explicitly share folios via the public tunnel.