Local-First, Remote-Optional

Damask is designed to run entirely on your own machine or server. There is no cloud dependency, no mandatory account, and no data that leaves your control by default. When you're ready to add remote storage or collaborate with a team across the internet, you can - on your terms.

What "local-first" means in practice

• No account required to self-host. Download the binary, point it at a folder, run it.
• No internet connection required. Everything works offline - uploads, transforms, search, the full product.
• Your files stay where you put them. By default, assets are stored in a directory on the same machine running Damask. Nothing is synced or uploaded anywhere without your explicit configuration.
• The database is a single file. SQLite - on your filesystem, easy to back up, easy to move.

Running Damask locally

Quick start

# Download the latest archive for your platform from the releases page
open https://github.com/vincent/damask/releases

# Extract, update config, and run it - that's it
./damask-server

Damask starts on http://localhost:8080 by default. Open it in your browser.

On first run, it creates:

• ./damask.db - the SQLite database
• ./storage/ - the directory where your asset files are stored

Both locations are configurable via environment variables (see below).

Configuration

Damask is configured entirely through environment variables. No config files required.

Variable	Default	Description
PORT	8080	HTTP port to listen on
DB_PATH	./damask.db	Path to the SQLite database file
STORAGE_PATH	./storage	Directory for local file storage
JWT_SECRET	-	Required. A random secret for signing auth tokens. Generate with openssl rand -hex 32
BASE_URL	http://localhost:8080	Public URL - used in share links and emails

Copy .env.example from the repository and fill in JWT_SECRET at minimum.

Running as a service

To run Damask persistently on a Linux server, create a systemd unit:

[Unit]
Description=Damask DAM
After=network.target

[Service]
User=damask
WorkingDirectory=/opt/damask
EnvironmentFile=/opt/damask/.env
ExecStart=/opt/damask/damask-server
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable --now damask

---

Storage backends

Damask abstracts file storage behind a simple interface. The backend is configured by setting STORAGE_BACKEND in your environment.

Local filesystem (default)

STORAGE_BACKEND=local
STORAGE_PATH=./storage

Files are stored as-is on the local filesystem. Simple, fast, no dependencies. Back up this directory along with damask.db to have a complete backup.

Remote deployment

Damask's single-binary design makes it straightforward to deploy on a VPS, a home server, or any Linux machine accessible over the internet.

Reverse proxy with HTTPS

Place Damask behind a reverse proxy such as Caddy or nginx. Caddy handles TLS automatically:

# Caddyfile
damask.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Set BASE_URL=https://damask.yourdomain.com in your Damask environment so that share links and email notifications use the correct public address.

Docker

docker run -d \
  --name damask \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v /data/damask:/data \
  -e DB_PATH=/data/damask.db \
  -e STORAGE_PATH=/data/storage \
  -e JWT_SECRET=your-secret-here \
  ghcr.io/vincent/damask:latest

or

 damask:
    image: ghcr.io/vincent/damask:main
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      APP_SECRET: your_very_long_secure_jwt_application_key
      JWT_SECRET: your_very_long_secure_jwt_secret_key
      BASE_URL: https://base.url
    ports:
      - 25:2525 # to ingest mail
      - 80:8080 # to expose http
    volumes:
      - /local/path:/data

Backups

A complete Damask backup consists of two things:

1. damask.db - the SQLite database. This contains all metadata, users, workspaces, tags, field definitions, share links, events, and job state.
2. The storage directory (or your S3 bucket) - the actual asset files.

Both are required. The database without the files is a library with broken links. The files without the database are an unorganised folder.

Backup the database

SQLite databases are safe to copy while the server is running (WAL mode is enabled by default). A simple daily cron:

0 3 * * * cp /data/damask.db /backups/damask-$(date +%Y%m%d).db

Or use sqlite3's online backup for a fully consistent snapshot:

sqlite3 /data/damask.db ".backup '/backups/damask.db'"

Backup the storage

For local filesystem storage, rsync to a backup destination:

rsync -a /data/storage/ /backups/storage/

For S3 storage, use your provider's versioning or cross-region replication features, or sync to a second bucket.