The Flare documentation covers everyday workflows, self-hosting, administration, the API, and webhooks. Find what you need with search, explore interactive examples, and follow real screenshots and recorded app demos.
The deployed handbook follows the current stable release. Documentation
versions and changes lists dated
archives for every stable release and lets you compare the original documentation
between releases. Releases before the handbook retain their original README and
any guides available at the time. The versions page also offers Open rolling
docs (unreleased) for the current published rolling build. Rolling docs require
that explicit choice or a direct /Flare/rolling/ URL; the homepage continues to
open stable docs.
- Get started: Docker · Railway · First-run setup
- Use Flare: Upload and share · Folders · Screenshot tools
- Run your instance: Roles and permissions (development) · Configuration · Administration · Backups and upgrades
- Build integrations: API reference · Webhooks · OpenAPI
- Explore: Feature guide · Demos · Troubleshooting
Preview the full site with npm ci --prefix docs/site then
npm run dev --prefix docs/site. See building and publishing the docs.
- 🚀 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
- 🔑 Two-factor authentication and passkeys - Authenticator-app codes, single-use recovery codes, and device-verified passwordless sign-in
- 💾 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
- 📁 Folders - Organize files and subfolders, move files in bulk, and share a folder with one link
- 📱 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 - Compact generated 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.
Flare is quick to deploy—you only need a PostgreSQL server and Docker. Choose one of these options:
Click the button below to deploy Flare on Railway. Once deployed, just set your authentication secret and create your admin account.
Follow the Docker Compose guide for a complete configuration with PostgreSQL, persistent storage, generated secrets, health checks, and a first-upload check. Then add a domain and HTTPS and set up backups.
The official image is available as flintsh/flare on Docker Hub and
ghcr.io/flintsh/flare on GitHub Container Registry. The rolling tag tracks
pre-releases; use a tested release tag or digest for repeatable deployments.
See release channels and updates.
Need help with your instance? Join my Discord for support, discussions, and updates!
Instance-wide controls live in Settings (/dashboard/settings), with granular grants managed in Roles (/dashboard/roles). 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, accounts with the corresponding role permissions can configure:
- Setting a shared storage quota (roles can grant a quota exemption) and a maximum file size
- Choosing storage and optional OCR processing
- Configuring registration options and sign-in policy
- Customizing the site's appearance and branding
- Managing advanced settings like custom CSS and HTML
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.
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.
Flare is licensed under the MIT License.