Self-Hosting LaterBox (100% Private)

Self-Hosting Philosophy#

LaterBox is designed to give you 100% data sovereignty. You do not need to rely on any hosted cloud service. You can run your own private Supabase instance on a VPS, Raspberry Pi, or home server.

Docker Compose Architecture#

Run the official Supabase self-hosted Docker stack:

# Clone official self-hosted Supabase Docker configuration
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/supabase/supabase
cd supabase/docker

# Copy environment template
cp .env.example .env

# Generate secure secrets
# (Set POSTGRES_PASSWORD, JWT_SECRET, ANON_KEY, SERVICE_ROLE_KEY in .env)

# Launch the entire backend stack
docker compose up -d

Services started:

• PostgreSQL Database (Port 5432)
• Supabase Studio UI (Port 8000 or 3000)
• GoTrue Auth Service (Port 9999)
• Realtime Server (Port 4000)
• Storage Server (Port 5000)
• Kong API Gateway (Port 8000)

Initializing Database Schema#

Apply the LaterBox database migrations to your self-hosted PostgreSQL:

cd /path/to/laterbox
supabase db push --db-url "postgresql://postgres:your_password@localhost:5432/postgres"

This creates the items, collections, tags, and item_collections tables, along with all security policies and indexes.

Connecting Desktop & Mobile Apps#

In your self-hosted setup, configure your client apps:

1. Web Dashboard: Set NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=https://supabase.yourdomain.com and your self-hosted NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY.
2. Desktop & Mobile Apps: Pass your self-hosted URL and Anon Key via --dart-define during build or update settings in the app.
3. Browser Extensions: Set your custom domain in extension/.env.

Backup & Vault Exports#

• Database Dumps:

  docker exec -t supabase-db pg_dump -U postgres postgres > laterbox_backup.sql

• 1-Click Vault Export: Inside the LaterBox Web or Desktop App, go to Settings > Export Vault to download your complete data as a single JSON or Markdown archive.