Migration reset, start of docs, env vars

1 files changed, 76 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/docs/installation.rst b/docs/installation.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c39a9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/installation.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+Installation
+============
+
+We recommend running using the Docker/OCI image; this contains all of the
+necessary dependencies and static file handling preconfigured for you.
+
+All configuration is done via either environment variables, or online through
+the web interface.
+
+
+Prerequisites
+-------------
+
+* SSL support (Takahē *requires* HTTPS)
+* Something that can run Docker/OCI images ("serverless" platforms are fine!)
+* A PostgreSQL 14 (or above) database
+* One of these to store uploaded images and media:
+  * Amazon S3
+  * Google Cloud Storage
+  * Writable local directory (must be accessible by all running copies!)
+
+
+Environment Variables
+---------------------
+
+All of these variables are *required* for a working installation, and should
+be provided from the first boot.
+
+* ``PGHOST``, ``PGPORT``, ``PGUSER``, ``PGDATABASE``, and ``PGPASSWORD`` are the
+  standard PostgreSQL environment variables for configuring your database.
+
+* ``TAKAHE_MEDIA_BACKEND`` must be one of ``local``, ``s3`` or ``gcs``.
+
+    * If it is set to ``local``, you must also provide ``TAKAHE_MEDIA_ROOT``,
+      the path to the local media directory, and ``TAKAHE_MEDIA_URL``, a
+      fully-qualified URL prefix that serves that directory.
+
+    * If it is set to ``gcs``, you must also provide ``TAKAHE_MEDIA_BUCKET``,
+      the name of the bucket to store files in.
+
+    * If it is set to ``s3``, you must also provide ``TAKAHE_MEDIA_BUCKET``,
+      the name of the bucket to store files in.
+
+* ``TAKAHE_MAIN_DOMAIN`` should be the domain name (without ``https://``) that
+  will be used for default links (such as in emails). It does *not* need to be
+  the same as any domain you are hosting user accounts on.
+
+* ``TAKAHE_EMAIL_HOST`` and ``TAKAHE_EMAIL_PORT`` (along with
+  ``TAKAHE_EMAIL_USER`` and ``TAKAHE_EMAIL_PASSWORD``, if needed) should point
+  to an SMTP server Takahe can use for sending email. Email is *required*, to
+  allow account creation and password resets.
+
+  * If you are using SendGrid, you can just set an API key in
+    ``TAKAHE_EMAIL_SENDGRID_KEY`` instead.
+
+* ``TAKAHE_EMAIL_FROM`` is the email address that emails from the system will
+  appear to come from.
+
+* ``TAKAHE_AUTO_ADMIN_EMAIL`` should be an email address that you would like to
+  be automatically promoted to administrator when it signs up. You only need
+  this for initial setup, and can unset it after that if you like.
+
+
+Making An Admin Account
+-----------------------
+
+Once the webserver is up and working, go to the "create account" flow and
+create a new account using the email you specified in
+``TAKAHE_AUTO_ADMIN_EMAIL``.
+
+Once you set your password using the link emailed to you, you will have an
+admin account.
+
+If your email settings have a problem and you don't get the email, don't worry;
+fix them and then follow the "reset my password" flow on the login screen, and
+you'll get another password reset email that you can use.