+++
date = 2023-06-30
title = "Self-Hosting Voyager - A Lemmy Web Client"
description = "A guide to self-hosting the Voyager application on your own server."
+++

## Installation Guide

[Voyager](https://github.com/aeharding/voyager) is a mobile-first Lemmy
web client, based on iOS design standards. It follows very closely to
Apollo's design.

This post is a guide showing how I was able to build and launch my own
instance of Voyager via Docker Compose.

### Clone the Repository

Start by cloning the repository and entering it:

```sh
git clone https://github.com/aeharding/voyager
cd voyager
```

### Build the Image

With this repository, you can build the image yourself without any
further configuration. When complete, it'll give you the image ID for
you to run.

```sh
sudo docker build .
# Successfully built 5f00723cb5be
```

With the image ID above, you can run the container and pass the
requested port `5314` through or use a custom port, if you
wish.

You can also set the `CUSTOM_LEMMY_SERVERS` environment
variable if you want to add to the default suggested login servers. This
must be set with a comma separated list of suggested servers. The first
instance in the list will be the default view for logged-out users.

I will be using a `docker-compose.yml` file to run this
container, instead of a `docker run` command.

```sh
nano docker-compose.yml
```

```conf
version: "2"
services:
  voyager:
    image: 5f00723cb5be
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "<custom_port>:5314"
    environment:
      - CUSTOM_LEMMY_SERVERS=lemmy.dbzer0.com,lemmy.world,lemmy.ml,beehaw.org
```

```sh
sudo docker-compose up -d
```

The web app will now be available at the following address:
`<machine_ip>:<custom_port>`. If you are running it on your
local device, try `localhost:<custom_port>`.

### Reverse Proxy

If you want to visit this app via an external URL or domain name,
you'll need to set up a reverse proxy. The example below uses Nginx as
a reverse proxy.

Simply create the configuration file, paste the contents below, save the
file, symlink the file, and restart Nginx.

```sh
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/voyager
```

```conf
server {
    if ($host ~ ^[^.]+\.example\.com$) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }

    listen [::]:80;
    listen 80;
    server_name voyager.example.com;
    return 404;
}

server {
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name voyager.example.com;
    access_log  /var/log/nginx/voyager.access.log;
    error_log   /var/log/nginx/voyager.error.log;

    location / {
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5314;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem;
}
```

```sh
sudo ln sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/voyager /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/voyager
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
```

The site will now be available at the `server_name` you
specified above!

You can visit my instance at
[voyager.cleberg.net](https://voyager.cleberg.net) for an example.