Solel//dev docs

Your domain and HTTPS

After installing, you reach your server at its home network address on port 8080, over plain HTTP. Giving it a name such as home.example.com gets it HTTPS, lets everyone use passkeys, and gives apps that sign in with Solel somewhere to send people.

What you need

  • A domain you own, such as example.com, and access to its DNS.
  • TCP ports 80 and 443 on your router forwarded to the server, so people can reach it from outside. When you look after DNS yourself, Let's Encrypt also checks the address over these ports before it issues a certificate.

Set the address

  1. Unless Cloudflare looks after your DNS, add a record in your domain's DNS that points the name at your home connection's public address.
  2. Open Settings › Network and, under This server, choose Set it….
  3. Enter Solel's address, such as home.example.com. It has to be a name, not an IP address.
  4. Add a certificate email if you like. Let's Encrypt writes there if a certificate is about to run out.
  5. Under Who looks after DNS, choose I do or Cloudflare.
  6. Choose Save.

Caddy, the router built into , gets the certificate and keeps it renewed.

If Cloudflare looks after your DNS

Make an API token in Cloudflare that can read zones and edit DNS (Zone › Zone › Read and Zone › DNS › Edit) for the domains Solel uses, and paste it in. Solel then adds a record for its own address and each route, pointing at your server, and checks every 10 minutes, so it keeps working when your home connection's address changes. Certificates are proved through DNS instead, so this also works behind a relay and for wildcard addresses. Solel only changes records it made.

Then turn off sign-in over plain HTTP

The installer lets the owner sign in over plain HTTP while setting up. Once your HTTPS address works:

  1. Open /opt/solel/.env as root and change the line to SOLEL_INSECURE_COOKIES=false.

  2. Start again:

    cd /opt/solel
sudo docker compose up -d

From then on, sign in at your https address.

Good to know

  • Passkeys belong to Solel's address. If you change it, everyone adds a new passkey.
  • Apps with their own address are published under Solel's address, like notes.home.example.com, unless you set Apps' addresses.
  • To send other names to apps or devices at home, such as photos.example.com, add a route in Settings › Network. See Network and domains.
  • For your phone and laptop away from home without making anything public, see Reach home when you're out.