Self-hosting Dub.co

First, clone the Dub repo into a public GitHub repository. If you are planning to distribute the code, make sure to keep the source code public to comply with our AGPLv3 license.

git clone https://github.com/dubinc/dub.git

Run the following command to install the dependencies:

pnpm i

Delete the apps/docs directory since it’s not needed for self-hosting:

rm -rf apps/docs

Delete the apps/web/vercel.json file since cron jobs are not required for the self-hosted version:

rm apps/web/vercel.json

Convert the .env.example file to .env. You can start filling in the first few environment variables:

# The domain that your app will be hosted on
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_DOMAIN=acme.com
# The short domain that your app will be using (could be the same as the above)
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_SHORT_DOMAIN=ac.me
# The ID of the Vercel team that your app will be deployed to: https://vercel.com/docs/accounts/create-a-team#find-your-team-id
TEAM_ID_VERCEL=
# The unique access token for your Vercel account: https://vercel.com/guides/how-do-i-use-a-vercel-api-access-token
AUTH_BEARER_TOKEN=

You will fill in the remaining environment variables in the following steps.

In your Tinybird account, create a new Workspace.

Copy your admin Auth Token. Paste this token as the TINYBIRD_API_KEY environment variable in your .env file.

In your newly-cloned Dub.co repo, navigate to the packages/tinybird directory.

Install the Tinybird CLI with pip install tinybird-cli (requires Python >= 3.8).

Run tb auth and paste your admin Auth Token.

Run tb push to publish the datasource and endpoints in the packages/tinybird directory. You should see the following output (truncated for brevity):

$ tb push

** Processing ./datasources/click_events.datasource
** Processing ./endpoints/clicks.pipe
...
** Building dependencies
** Running 'click_events'
** 'click_events' created
** Running 'device'
** => Test endpoint at https://api.us-east.tinybird.co/v0/pipes/device.json
** Token device_endpoint_read_8888 not found, creating one
** => Test endpoint with:
** $ curl https://api.us-east.tinybird.co/v0/pipes/device.json?token=p.ey...NWeaoTLM
** 'device' created
...

You will then need to update your Tinybird API base URL to match the region of your database.

From the previous step, take note of the Test endpoint URL. It should look something like this:

Test endpoint at https://api.us-east.tinybird.co/v0/pipes/device.json

Copy the base URL and paste it as the TINYBIRD_API_URL environment variable in your .env file.

TINYBIRD_API_URL=https://api.us-east.tinybird.co

In your Upstash account, create a new database.

For better performance & read times, we recommend setting up a global database with several read regions.

Once your database is created, copy the UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL and UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN from the REST API section into your .env file.

Navigate to the QStash tab and copy the QSTASH_TOKEN, QSTASH_CURRENT_SIGNING_KEY, and QSTASH_NEXT_SIGNING_KEY from the Request Builder section into your .env file.

In your PlanetScale account, create a new database.

Once your database is created, you’ll be prompted to select your language or Framework. Select Prisma.

Then, you’ll have to create a new password for your database. Once the password is created, scroll down to the Add credentials to .env section and copy the DATABASE_URL into your .env file.

In your Dub.co codebase, navigate to apps/web/prisma/schema.prisma and replace all the columns in the DefaultDomains model to the normalized version of your custom short domain (removing the . character).

For example, if your custom short domain is ac.me, your DefaultDomains model should look like this:

model DefaultDomains {
  id          String   @id @default(cuid())
  acme        Boolean  @default(true)
  projectId   String   @unique
  project     Project  @relation(fields: [projectId], references: [id], onDelete: Cascade)
}

In the terminal, navigate to the apps/web directory and run the following command to generate the Prisma client:

npx prisma generate

Then, create the database tables with the following command:

npx prisma db push

In your Cloudflare account, create a new R2 bucket. We recommend giving your bucket a descriptive name (e.g. dubassets) and leaving the remaining settings as is.

In your bucket settings, copy the S3 API value – you’ll need it in Step 3.

From the R2 main page, click Manage R2 API Tokens on the right-hand column.

Then, click Create API Token.

Make sure to name your API token something relevant to the service that will be using the token.

Give it “Object Read & Write” permissions, and we recommend only applying ito to a single bucket.

You can leave the remaining settings (TTL, Client IP Address Filtering) as is, and click Create API Token.

After you create you token, copy the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key values – you’ll need them in the next step.

Once you have your credentials, set them in your .env file:

STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID= // this is the Access Key ID value from Step 2
STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY= // this is the Secret Access Key value from Step 2
STORAGE_ENDPOINT= // this is the S3 API value from Step 1

In order for your images to be publically accessible in R2 you need to setup a domain. You can either use your own domain or an R2.dev subdomain.

To use your own domain, you’ll need to create a CNAME record in your DNS settings that points to your R2 bucket.

In you plan to use an R2.dev subdomain, make sure you “Allow Access”.

Then set the STORAGE_BASE_URL in your .env file to the domain you chose.

STORAGE_BASE_URL={URL your assets as available at} # https://static.example.com

If you haven’t already, push up your cloned repository to GitHub by running the following commands:

git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git push origin main

In your Vercel account, create a new project. Then, select your GitHub repository and click Import.

Make sure that your Framework Preset is set to Next.js and the Root Directory is set to apps/web.

In the Environment Variables section, add all of the environment variables from your .env file by copying all of them and pasting it into the first input field. A few notes:

• Remove the PROJECT_ID_VERCEL environment variable for now since we will only get the project ID after deploying the project.
• Replace the NEXTAUTH_URL environment variable with the app domain that you will be using (e.g. https://app.acme.com).

Click on Deploy to deploy your project.

Once the project deploys, retrieve your Vercel project ID and add it as the PROJECT_ID_VERCEL environment variable – both in your .env file and in your newly created Vercel project’s settings (under Settings > Environment Variables)

Add both the NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_DOMAIN and NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_SHORT_DOMAIN as domains in your Vercel project’s settings (under Settings > Domains). You can follow this guide to learn how to set up a custom domain on Vercel.

Go back to the Deployments page and redeploy your project.

Once the deployment is complete, you should be able to visit your app domain (e.g. https://app.acme.com) and see the following login page: