Branding

Change the site title, logo, header links, footers and maintenance message on a Kubernetes deployment.

The web service renders the title, logo, header links, footers and the maintenance page from environment variables. Every setting and its format is described in Branding; on Kubernetes they go into the ConfigMap.

Service	web, in every Ayakaleaf Pro pod; read when web starts
Network	none: logos are URLs the browser loads
Periodic jobs	none (web checks the maintenance file every 5 seconds, see below)

Configuration

30-config.yaml (additions)

  OVERLEAF_NAV_TITLE: Our Overleaf Instance
  OVERLEAF_HEADER_IMAGE_URL: https://example.com/img/logo.png
  OVERLEAF_HEADER_EXTRAS: '[{"text":"Help","url":"https://example.com/help","class":"subdued"}]'
  OVERLEAF_LEFT_FOOTER: '[{"text":"Run by the IT department"}]'
  OVERLEAF_RIGHT_FOOTER: '[{"text":"Imprint","url":"https://example.com/imprint"}]'
  OVERLEAF_MAINTENANCE_MESSAGE: Our Overleaf Instance is down for maintenance and will be back shortly.

kubectl apply -f 30-config.yaml
kubectl -n overleaf rollout restart deployment/overleaf     # or statefulset/overleaf

Put JSON values in single quotes, as above, so that YAML keeps them as one string. Invalid JSON in OVERLEAF_HEADER_EXTRAS or the footers is ignored and only logged at startup.

Maintenance mode

The maintenance page is shown while the file /etc/overleaf/site_status in the container contains closed. Each pod has its own copy of this file, and a new or restarted pod starts open. To close the site, write the file in every pod:

for p in $(kubectl -n overleaf get pod -l app=overleaf -o name); do   # app=overleaf-ha for several replicas
  kubectl -n overleaf exec "$p" -- sh -c 'echo closed > /etc/overleaf/site_status'
done

Write open the same way to end it. The pods pick the change up within 5 seconds.

The admin panel’s Close Editor works differently: it closes the editor only in the replica that served the admin’s request, and that replica opens it again when it restarts. With several replicas, use the file as above instead.

Tested on Kubernetes

On Kubernetes 1.37: with the settings above in the ConfigMap, the pages showed OVERLEAF_NAV_TITLE, the left footer and, after logging in, the link from OVERLEAF_HEADER_EXTRAS (the login pages hide the header links). Writing closed into /etc/overleaf/site_status of one pod showed the maintenance page with OVERLEAF_MAINTENANCE_MESSAGE on that pod only, and open ended it within seconds. With three replicas, the admin panel’s Close Editor closed the editor only on the replica that served the admin, while the other two stayed open.