AFFiNE is a next-gen knowledge base that brings planning, sorting, and creating all together. Form your knowledge console at your wish. Open-source, privacy-first, and always free. AFFiNE is an alternative to Notion and Miro. It’s a workspace with fully merged docs, whiteboards and databases. In this step by step guide I will show you how to install AFFiNe on your Synology NAS using Docker & Portainer.

💡Note: This guide works perfectly with the latest AFFiNe v0.19.4 release.

• STEP 1

Please Support My work by Making a Donation.

• STEP 2

Install Portainer using my step by step guide. If you already have Portainer installed on your Synology NAS, skip this STEP. Attention: Make sure you have installed the latest Portainer version.

• STEP 3

Make sure you have a synology.me Wildcard Certificate. Follow my guide to get a Wildcard Certificate. If you already have a synology.me Wildcard certificate, skip this STEP.

• STEP 4

Go to Control Panel / Login Portal / Advanced Tab / click Reverse Proxy. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 5

Now click the “Create” button. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 6

After you click the Create button, the window below will open. Follow the instructions in the image below.

On the General area, set the Reverse Proxy Name description: type in Affine. After that, add the following instructions:

Source:
Protocol: HTTPS
Hostname: affine.yourname.synology.me
Port: 443

Check Enable HSTS

Destination:
Protocol: HTTP
Hostname: localhost
Port: 3010

• STEP 7

On the Reverse Proxy Rules click the Custom Header tab. Click Create and then, from the drop-down menu, click WebSocket. After you click on WebSocket, two Header Names and two Values will be automatically added. Click Save. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 8

Go to Control Panel / Network / Connectivity tab/ Check Enable HTTP/2 then click Apply. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 9

Go to Control Panel / Security / Advanced tab/ Check Enable HTTP Compression then click Apply. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 10

Go to File Station and open the docker folder. Inside the docker folder, create one new folder and name it affine. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.

• STEP 11

Now create four new folders inside the affine folder that you created at STEP 10 and name them storage, redis, db, config. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.

• STEP 12

Log into Portainer using your username and password. On the left sidebar in Portainer, click on Stacks then + Add stack. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 13

In the Name field type in affine. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Note: Copy Paste the code below in the Portainer Stacks Web editor.

services:
  affine:
    image: ghcr.io/toeverything/affine-graphql:stable
    container_name: AFFINE
    healthcheck:
      test: timeout 10s bash -c ':> /dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/3010' || exit 1
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 90s
    command:
      ['sh', '-c', 'node ./scripts/self-host-predeploy && node ./dist/index.js']
    ports:
      - 3010:3010
      - 5555:5555
    depends_on:
      redis:
        condition: service_healthy
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/affine/config:/root/.affine/config:rw
      - /volume1/docker/affine/storage:/root/.affine/storage:rw
    logging:
      driver: 'json-file'
      options:
        max-size: '1000m'
    restart: on-failure:5
    environment:
      - NODE_OPTIONS="--import=./scripts/register.js"
      - AFFINE_CONFIG_PATH=/root/.affine/config
      - AFFINE_SERVER_HTTPS=true
      - AFFINE_SERVER_EXTERNAL_URL=https://affine.yourname.synology.me
        #MAILER_HOST=
        #MAILER_PORT=
        #MAILER_USER=
        #MAILER_PASSWORD=
        #MAILER_SENDER=Affine
      - REDIS_SERVER_HOST=redis
      - DATABASE_URL=postgres://affineuser:affinepass@postgres:5432/affine?sslmode=disable
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - AFFINE_ADMIN_EMAIL=yourown@email
      - AFFINE_ADMIN_PASSWORD=mariushosting

  redis:
    image: redis:latest
    container_name: AFFINE-REDIS
    restart: on-failure:5
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/affine/redis:/data:rw
    healthcheck:
      test: ['CMD', 'redis-cli', '--raw', 'incr', 'ping']
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
  
  postgres:
    image: postgres:17
    container_name: AFFINE-DB
    restart: on-failure:5
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/affine/db:/var/lib/postgresql/data:rw
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "pg_isready", "-q", "-d", "affine", "-U", "affinesuser"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: affineuser
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: affinepass
      POSTGRES_DB: affine
      PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata

Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for AFFINE_SERVER_EXTERNAL_URL and type in your own synology.me DDNS with https:// at the beginning that you have previously created at STEP 6.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for AFFINE_ADMIN_EMAIL and type in your own email address. You will need this email later at STEP 20.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for AFFINE_ADMIN_PASSWORD and type in your own affine password. You will need this password later at STEP 21.

• STEP 14

Scroll down on the page until you see a button called Deploy the stack. Click on it. Follow the instructions in the image below. The installation process can take up to a few minutes. It will depend on your Internet speed connection.

• STEP 15

If everything goes right, you will see this message at the top right of your screen: “Success Stack successfully deployed“.

• STEP 16

🟢Please Support My work by Making a Donation. Almost 99,9% of the people that install something using my guides forget to support my work, or just ignore STEP 1. I’ve been very honest about this aspect of my work since the beginning: I don’t run any ADS, I don’t require subscriptions, paid or otherwise, I don’t collect IPs, emails, and I don’t have any referral links from Amazon or other merchants. I also don’t have any POP-UPs or COOKIES. I have repeatedly been told over the years how much I have contributed to the community. It’s something I love doing and have been honest about my passion since the beginning. But I also Need The Community to Support me Back to be able to continue doing this work.

• STEP 17

Now open your browser and type in your HTTPS/SSL certificate like this https://affine.yourname.synology.me In my case it’s https://affine.mariushosting.synology.me Click Continue. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 18

Add your Administrator details, then click Continue. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 19

Your Administrator details at a glance!

• STEP 20

Now open your browser and type in your HTTPS/SSL certificate like this https://affine.yourname.synology.me/workspace In my case it’s https://affine.mariushosting.synology.me/workspace – Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Your live website will be at https://affine.yourname.synology.me/workspace and your administrator dashboard will be at https://affine.yourname.synology.me/admin

• STEP 21

On the left sidebar, click Settings. Under Appearance, click Dark for the dark theme. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 22

Click on the Demo Workspace, then change your workspace icon and name. Save the settings. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 23

Your AFFiNE instance at a glance!

Enjoy Affine!

🆘TROUBLESHOOTING

If you encounter issues by using this container, make sure to check out the Common Docker issues article.

Note: If you want to run the Affine container over HTTPS, check my guide on How to Run Docker Containers Over HTTPS.

Note: Can I run Docker on my Synology NAS? See the supported models.
Note: How to Back Up Docker Containers on your Synology NAS.
Note: Find out how to update the AFFiNE container with the latest image.
Note: How to Free Disk Space on Your NAS if You Run Docker.
Note: How to Schedule Start & Stop For Docker Containers.
Note: How to Activate Email Notifications.
Note: How to Add Access Control Profile on Your NAS.
Note: How to Change Docker Containers Restart Policy.
Note: How to Use Docker Containers With VPN.
Note: Convert Docker Run Into Docker Compose.
Note: How to Clean Docker.
Note: How to Clean Docker Automatically.
Note: Best Practices When Using Docker and DDNS.
Note: Some Docker Containers Need WebSocket.
Note: Find out the Best NAS Models For Docker.
Note: Activate Gmail SMTP For Docker Containers.

This post was updated on Monday / January 6th, 2025 at 4:28 PM