5. Personalizing your instance

Personalizing your instance

Before you start your Overleaf instance for the first time, update two configuration files with your custom information:

File	Read by	Set here
config/overleaf.rc	the Toolkit scripts, such as bin/up	how containers run: OVERLEAF_LISTEN_IP, OVERLEAF_PORT, SERVER_PRO, data paths
config/variables.env	the application inside the container	how Overleaf behaves: OVERLEAF_SITE_URL, email, TeX Live images

1. Edit the variables file

   Open config/variables.env in your favorite text editor and update the environment variables below with the required values.

2. Listen address and port

   By default, the Toolkit publishes the web interface on 127.0.0.1:80, so it can only be opened from a browser on the server itself. Other computers get a “connection refused” or “server not found” error. To change this, edit config/overleaf.rc:

   config/overleaf.rc

   OVERLEAF_LISTEN_IP=0.0.0.0
   OVERLEAF_PORT=8080
   

   OVERLEAF_LISTEN_IP is the host IP address the container binds to, and OVERLEAF_PORT is the host port. Together they form the Docker port mapping OVERLEAF_LISTEN_IP:OVERLEAF_PORT:80. Pick the values that match your setup:

   Setup	OVERLEAF_LISTEN_IP	OVERLEAF_PORT	Open in browser
   Only on this machine (default)	127.0.0.1	80	http://localhost
   Other computers on the LAN or the internet connect directly	0.0.0.0, or one IP of the server	80, or any free port	http://<server-ip>:<port>
   Behind your own reverse proxy (NGINX, Caddy, Cloudflare Tunnel) on the same host	127.0.0.1	any free port	the proxy’s URL
   Behind the Toolkit TLS proxy	127.0.0.1	80	https://<your-domain>

   If port 80 is already used on the host, for example by another web server, set OVERLEAF_PORT to a free port such as 8080. Otherwise, bin/up fails with bind: address already in use.

   Ports published by Docker bypass host firewalls such as ufw and firewalld. With 0.0.0.0, the instance is reachable from every network the server is connected to. On a cloud server, you also need to allow the port in the provider’s security group. Use HTTPS before exposing the instance to the internet, see TLS proxy.

   You can start with the default and open the instance on localhost first. To allow access from other computers later, change these two variables in config/overleaf.rc and OVERLEAF_SITE_URL in config/variables.env, then run bin/up again to recreate the containers.

3. Required environment variables

   Update the following variables in config/variables.env:

   Name	Description	Example
   OVERLEAF_SITE_URL	Where your instance of Overleaf is publicly available. This is used in public links, and when connecting over websockets, so must be configured correctly!	https://overleaf.lilliput.com
   OVERLEAF_EMAIL_FROM_ADDRESS	This email address will be used as the from address for all outgoing emails.	[e-mail]
   OVERLEAF_ADMIN_EMAIL	The email address where users can reach the person who runs the site.	[e-mail]

   OVERLEAF_SITE_URL is the address users type in their browser, not the listen address. Include the port when it is not 80 (HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS), for example http://192.168.1.20:8080. Do not use http://0.0.0.0. If OVERLEAF_SITE_URL does not match the address in the browser, the editor fails to connect, and links in emails and OAuth callbacks point to the wrong place.

   Without a mail server, leave OVERLEAF_EMAIL_FROM_ADDRESS unset: Overleaf then sends no emails, and you can give new users their activation link yourself, see the Q&A in Public Access.

   Also set OVERLEAF_SESSION_SECRET to a value generated with openssl rand -hex 32. Without it, every bin/up that recreates the container, and every upgrade, logs all users out. See the Q&A in Environment Variables.

   Once you have updated these environment variables, save and quit.

4. Setup Sandbox Compile

   Next, configure TeX Live Full for sandboxed-compiles.md. Open config/variables.env and update the following environment variables:

   config/variables.env

   ALL_TEX_LIVE_DOCKER_IMAGES=ghcr.io/ayaka-notes/texlive-full:2026.1, ghcr.io/ayaka-notes/texlive-full:2025.1
   ALL_TEX_LIVE_DOCKER_IMAGE_NAMES=Texlive 2026, Texlive 2025
   TEX_LIVE_DOCKER_IMAGE=ghcr.io/ayaka-notes/texlive-full:2026.1
   
5. Start your instance

   To start your instance run:

   Start the instance

   bin/up
   

   This command will download the required images including texlive, create the containers (using your customizations), and start the instance. You should see log output from the various Docker containers.

   To start them up again later (without attaching to the log output) run:

   Start without attaching to logs

   bin/start
   

The Toolkit uses docker compose to manage the Overleaf Docker containers. The Toolkit provides a set of scripts which wrap docker compose and take care of most details for you.

If all goes well, you should be able to view the login page for your new Overleaf instance by navigating to http://127.0.0.1/ or http://localhost/ in your browser. If you changed OVERLEAF_LISTEN_IP or OVERLEAF_PORT, open the address from the table in the Listen address and port step instead, for example http://<server-ip>:8080.

To check which address and port the web interface is published on, run:

Show the published port

bin/docker-compose port sharelatex 80

The output, for example 0.0.0.0:8080, shows the host IP address and port in use. If it shows 127.0.0.1, the instance is reachable only from the server itself.

Depending on your network configuration and where your Overleaf instance is hosted, you may need to make additional configuration changes. See the Toolkit settings for more details: toolkit-settings.md