# Community Solid Server
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[](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer/blob/main/LICENSE.md)
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@solid/community-server)
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@solid/community-server)
[](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer/actions)
[](https://coveralls.io/github/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer)
[](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer/discussions)
[](https://gitter.im/CommunitySolidServer/community)
**The Community Solid Server is open software
that provides you with a [Solid](https://solidproject.org/) Pod and identity.
This Pod acts as your own personal storage space
so you can share data with people and Solid applications.**
As an open and modular implementation of the
[Solid specifications](https://solidproject.org/TR/),
the Community Solid Server is a great companion:
- 🧑🏽 **for people** who want to try out having their own Pod
- 👨🏿💻 **for developers** who want to create and test Solid apps
- 👩🏻🔬 **for researchers** who want to design new features for Solid
And, of course, for many others who like to experience Solid.
You can install the software locally or on your server
and get started with Solid immediately.
## ⚡ Running the server
To run the server, you will need [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/).
We support versions 14.2 and up.
If you do not use Node.js,
you can run a [Docker](https://www.docker.com/) version instead.
### 💻 Installing and running locally
After installing Node.js,
install the latest server version
from the [npm package repository](https://www.npmjs.com/):
```shell
npm install -g @solid/community-server
```
To run the server with in-memory storage, use:
```shell
community-solid-server # add parameters if needed
```
To run the server with your current folder as storage, use:
```shell
community-solid-server -c @css:config/file.json
```
### 📃 Installing and running from source
If you rather prefer to run the latest source code version,
or if you want to try a specific [branch](https://www.npmjs.com/) of the code,
you can use:
```shell
git clone https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer.git
cd CommunitySolidServer
npm ci
npm start -- # add parameters if needed
```
### 📦 Running via Docker
Docker allows you to run the server without having Node.js installed. Images are built on each tagged version and hosted on [Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/solidproject/community-server).
```shell
# Clone the repo to get access to the configs
git clone https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer.git
cd CommunitySolidServer
# Run the image, serving your `~/Solid` directory on `http://localhost:3000`
docker run --rm -v ~/Solid:/data -p 3000:3000 -it solidproject/community-server:latest
# Or use one of the built-in configurations
docker run --rm -p 3000:3000 -it solidproject/community-server -c config/default.json
# Or use your own configuration mapped to the right directory
docker run --rm -v ~/solid-config:/config -p 3000:3000 -it solidproject/community-server -c /config/my-config.json
```
### 🗃️ Helm Chart
The official [Helm](https://helm.sh/) Chart for Kubernetes deployment is maintained at [CommunitySolidServer/css-helm-chart](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/css-helm-chart) and published on [ArtifactHUB](https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/community-solid-server/community-solid-server). There you will find complete installation instructions.
```
# Summary
helm repo add community-solid-server https://communitysolidserver.github.io/css-helm-chart/charts/
helm install my-css community-solid-server/community-solid-server
```
## 🔧 Configuring the server
The Community Solid Server is designed to be flexible
such that people can easily run different configurations.
This is useful for customizing the server with plugins,
testing applications in different setups,
or developing new parts for the server
without needing to change its base code.
### ⏱️ Parameters
An easy way to customize the server is
by passing parameters to the server command.
These parameters give you direct access
to some commonly used settings:
| parameter name | default value | description |
|------------------------|----------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `--port, -p` | `3000` | The TCP port on which the server should listen. |
| `--baseUrl, -b` | `http://localhost:$PORT/` | The base URL used internally to generate URLs. Change this if your server does not run on `http://localhost:$PORT/`. |
| `--loggingLevel, -l` | `info` | The detail level of logging; useful for debugging problems. Use `debug` for full information. |
| `--config, -c` | `@css:config/default.json` | The configuration for the server. The default only stores data in memory; to persist to your filesystem, use `@css:config/file.json` |
| `--rootFilePath, -f` | `./` | Root folder where the server stores data, when using a file-based configuration. |
| `--sparqlEndpoint, -s` | | URL of the SPARQL endpoint, when using a quadstore-based configuration. |
| `--showStackTrace, -t` | false | Enables detailed logging on error output. |
| `--podConfigJson` | `./pod-config.json` | Path to the file that keeps track of dynamic Pod configurations. Only relevant when using `@css:config/dynamic.json`. |
| `--seededPodConfigJson` | | Path to the file that keeps track of seeded Pod configurations. |
| `--mainModulePath, -m` | | Path from where Components.js will start its lookup when initializing configurations. |
### 🧶 Custom configurations
More substantial changes to server behavior can be achieved
by writing new configuration files in JSON-LD.
The Community Solid Server uses [Components.js](https://componentsjs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
to specify how modules and components need to be wired together at runtime.
Examples and guidance on configurations
are available in the [`config` folder](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer/tree/main/config).
Recipes for configuring the server can be found at [CommunitySolidServer/recipes](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/recipes).
## 👩🏽💻 Developing server code
The server allows writing and plugging in custom modules
without altering its base source code.
The [📗 API documentation](https://communitysolidserver.github.io/CommunitySolidServer/docs/) and
the [📐 architectural diagram](https://rubenverborgh.github.io/solid-server-architecture/solid-architecture-v1-3-0.pdf)
can help you find your way.
If you want to help out with server development,
have a look at the [📓 user documentation](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer/blob/main/documentation/) and
[🛠️ good first issues](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22).
## 📜 License
The Solid Community Server code
is copyrighted by [Inrupt Inc.](https://inrupt.com/)
and [imec](https://www.imec-int.com/)
and available under the [MIT License](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer/blob/main/LICENSE.md).
Core contributors are
[Joachim Van Herwegen](https://github.com/joachimvh),
[Ruben Verborgh](https://github.com/RubenVerborgh),
[Ruben Taelman](https://github.com/rubensworks),
and
[Matthieu Bosquet](https://github.com/matthieubosquet).
## 🎤 Feedback and questions
Don't hesitate to [start a discussion](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer/discussions)
or [report a bug](https://github.com/CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer/issues).
Learn more about Solid at [solidproject.org](https://solidproject.org/).