Flare v2.0.0

Original documentation published with v2.0.0 on 2026-09-13. This release predates the handbook. Commands and external services reflect that release.

Icon designed by xNefas

Flare is a modern, self-hostable file sharing platform designed to work seamlessly with popular screenshot and sharing tools like ShareX, Flameshot, and KDE Spectacle. Built with Next.js and designed with simplicity in mind, it offers a complete solution for all your file sharing needs with a strong focus on performance, customizability, and user experience.

✨ Features

🚀 Universal Screenshot Integration
- ShareX, Flameshot, KDE Spectacle, and Bash Script upload support
- One-click configuration/script downloads
🔒 Secure & Private - Role-based permissions, private files, and password protection
💾 Flexible Storage - Local filesystem and S3-compatible storage support
🖼️ Universal Preview - Preview images, videos, PDFs, and code with syntax highlighting
🔍 Smart Search - Search by filename, OCR content, and date with filters
📱 Modern UI - Clean, responsive interface built with shadcn/ui - easily customizable
⚙️ Configurable
- User storage quotas, registration controls, and instance settings
- Unified setup: account, storage, access, optional personalization and email in one guided flow
- Appearance studio: branding, paired palettes, share layouts, previews and portable packs
- Upload profiles: reusable defaults and recipes across browser and screenshot tools
- Integrations: scoped tokens and signed file-ready webhooks
- Personal light/dark/system preferences, CSS variables and custom colors
- Advanced settings for custom CSS and HTML injection
📊 Admin Dashboard - Usage metrics, user management, and system configuration
👥 User Management - Role assignment, storage quotas, and content moderation
🔗 URL Shortener - Custom short URLs under your domain with click tracking
📝 Pastebin - Code and text sharing with syntax highlighting
🤖 OCR Processing - Automatic text extraction from images uploaded
🔌 Rich Embeds - Content embeds naturally on all your social media platforms.

🚀 Quick Start

Flare is quick to deploy—you only need a PostgreSQL server and Docker. Choose one of these options:

Railway (One-Click)

Click the button below to deploy Flare on Railway. Once deployed, just set your authentication secret and create your admin account.

Docker Deployment (Self-Hosted)

Install docker.io and docker-compose

Create docker-compose.yml with the following template:

version: '3.8'

services:
  db:
    image: postgres:17-alpine   # lightweight, recent version; 16 or 15 also fine
    container_name: flare-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: flareuser          # change if you want
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: your-secure-password-here   #  ^f^p CHANGE THIS to something strong
      POSTGRES_DB: flaredb              # database name Flare will use
    volumes:
      - ./postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data   # persistent storage
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U flareuser -d flaredb"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

  flare:
    image: flintsh/flare:latest
    container_name: flare-app
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"                     # change left side if you want different host port
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://flareuser:your-secure-password-here@db:5432/flaredb?schema=public
      NEXTAUTH_SECRET: securestuffhere   # generate with: openssl rand -base64 32
      NEXTAUTH_URL: http://localhost:3000     # or https:// if using reverse proxy
    volumes:
      - ./uploads:/app/uploads          # where files/screenshots/videos are stored
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy

Run docker-compose up -d
Open http://localhost:3000 to complete the setup and create your admin account.

The official Docker image is available on Docker Hub and GitHub Container Registry as flintsh/flare.

💬 Support

Need help with your instance? Join my Discord for support, discussions, and updates!

📝 Configuration

Instance-wide controls live in Settings (/dashboard/settings). Personal appearance, upload defaults and recipes, integrations, and account controls live in Profile (/dashboard/profile). Both pages follow the same design as first-run setup.

In Settings, administrators can configure:

Setting storage quotas and file size limits for users
Defining upload rules and restrictions
Configuring registration options and user permissions
Customizing the site's appearance and branding
Managing advanced settings like custom CSS and HTML

Account email

Optional SMTP email supports password recovery, address verification, and confirmed email changes. Configure it during first-time setup or in Settings → Email. Delivery, recovery, and verification requirements are independent; upgrades leave email disabled and preserve existing account access. See account email setup, environment overrides, and recovery.

Single Sign-On (OIDC)

Configure your identity provider in Settings → Access (/dashboard/settings?section=access), with https://your-flare-host/api/auth/callback/oidc as its redirect URI. Keep a local administrator login available; /auth/login?local=1 bypasses OIDC auto-login.

SSO sign-in identifies accounts by the provider's issuer and subject, not email. New identities can create accounts when auto-provisioning is enabled and their email is unused. A matching email never links or replaces an existing account: local users must use password sign-in, and already linked users must use their original SSO identity. With auto-provisioning disabled, only already linked SSO identities can sign in; precreating a local account with the same email does not enable SSO. An explicit account-linking flow is not yet available.

Older development configurations containing allowLinking are accepted, but that setting is ignored. Existing SSO links and local credentials are preserved.

📜 License

Flare is licensed under the MIT License.