How to Install Affine on Your Synology NAS

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How to Install AFFiNE on Your Synology NAS

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.

šŸ’”Note:Ā This guide works perfectly with the latest AFFiNe v0.22.4 release.

  • STEP 1

Please Support My work by Making a Donation.

  • STEP 2

InstallĀ 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 toĀ Control PanelĀ /Ā Login PortalĀ /Ā AdvancedĀ Tab / clickĀ Reverse Proxy. Follow the instructions in the image below.

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 1

  • STEP 5

Now click the ā€œCreateā€ button. Follow the instructions in the image below.

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 2

  • 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:Ā HTTPS
Hostname: affine.yourname.synology.me
Port:Ā 443

Check Enable HSTS

Destination:
Protocol:Ā HTTP
Hostname:Ā localhost
Port:Ā 3010

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 3

  • STEP 7

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

Synology Proxy WebSocket

  • STEP 8

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

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 4

  • STEP 9

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

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 5

  • STEP 10

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

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 6

  • STEP 11

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

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 7

  • STEP 12

Follow my step by step guide on how to activate SMTP for your Gmail account. This step is mandatory. Note: If you don’t want to use the easiest way for SMTP with Google and you already have SMTP details from your own Mail Server, you can just skip this STEP and use your personalized email SMTP details instead.

  • STEP 13

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.

1 Synology Portainer Add Stack

  • STEP 14

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
    ports:
      - 3010:3010
    depends_on:
      redis:
        condition: service_healthy
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
      affine_migration:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/affine/config:/root/.affine/config:rw
      - /volume1/docker/affine/storage:/root/.affine/storage:rw
    restart: on-failure:5
    environment:
      - AFFINE_REVISION=stable
      - AFFINE_INDEXER_ENABLED=false
      - PORT=3010
      - AFFINE_SERVER_HTTPS=true
      - AFFINE_SERVER_EXTERNAL_URL=https://affine.yourname.synology.me
      - MAILER_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
      - MAILER_PORT=465
      - MAILER_USER=Your-own-gmail-address
      - MAILER_PASSWORD=Your-own-app-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
      - DB_DATA_LOCATION=~/.affine/self-host/postgres/pgdata
      - UPLOAD_LOCATION=~/.affine/self-host/storage
      - CONFIG_LOCATION=~/.affine/self-host/config
      
  affine_migration:
    image: ghcr.io/toeverything/affine-graphql:stable
    container_name: Affine_MIGRATION
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/affine/config:/root/.affine/config:rw
      - /volume1/docker/affine/storage:/root/.affine/storage:rw
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'node ./scripts/self-host-predeploy.js']
    environment:
      - REDIS_SERVER_HOST=redis
      - DATABASE_URL=postgres://affineuser:affinepass@postgres:5432/affine?sslmode=disable
      - AFFINE_INDEXER_ENABLED=false
      - DB_DATA_LOCATION=~/.affine/self-host/postgres/pgdata
      - UPLOAD_LOCATION=~/.affine/self-host/storage
      - CONFIG_LOCATION=~/.affine/self-host/config
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
      redis:
        condition: service_healthy

  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: pgvector/pgvector:pg17
    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", "affineuser"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: affineuser
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: affinepass
      POSTGRES_DB: affine
      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: '--data-checksums'

Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for AFFINE_SERVER_EXTERNAL_URLĀ and type in your own synology.me DDNS withĀ 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 MAILER_USERĀ and type in your own Gmail address. STEP 12.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for MAILER_PASSWORDĀ and type in your own Gmail app password. STEP 12.
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 21.
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 22.

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 8 new 2026

  • STEP 15

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.

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 9 new 2027

  • STEP 16

If everything goes right, you will see this message at the top right of your screen: ā€œSuccess Stack successfully deployedā€œ.

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 10

āš ļøNote: After a couple of seconds/minutes, your container Affine-MIGRATION will be marked as “exited – code 0“. This is normal behavior. Go straight to the next STEP.

  • STEP 17

šŸŸ¢Please Support My work by Making a Donation. Almost 99,9% of the people that install something using my guidesĀ forget to support my work, or justĀ ignoreĀ STEP 1. Iā€™ve been very honest about this aspect of my work since the beginning: I donā€™t run any ADS, I donā€™t require subscriptions, paid or otherwise, I donā€™t collect IPs, emails, and I donā€™t have any referral links from Amazon or other merchants. I also donā€™t have any POP-UPs or COOKIES. I have repeatedly been told over the years how much I have contributed to the community. Itā€™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 18

Now open your browser and type in your HTTPS/SSL certificate like this https://affine.yourname.synology.me that you have previously added at STEP 6. In my case it’s https://affine.mariushosting.synology.me Click Continue. Follow the instructions in the image below.

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 10 new 2025

  • STEP 19

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

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 11 new 2025

  • STEP 20

Your Administrator details at a glance!

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 12 new 2026

  • STEP 21

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 – Click Back to my Content. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Your live website will be at https://affine.yourname.synology.me/workspaceĀ and your administrator dashboard will be at https://affine.yourname.synology.me/admin

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 13 new 2026

  • STEP 22

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

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 14 new 2026

  • STEP 23

Click on Preference. Change your workspace icon and name. Click Save to save the settings. Follow the instructions in the image below.

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 15 new 2026

  • STEP 24

Your AFFiNE instance at a glance!

AFFiNE Synology NAS Set up 16 new 2026

Enjoy Affine!

šŸ†˜TROUBLESHOOTING

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

Note: Can I run Docker on my Synology NAS?Ā See the supported models.
Note: How to Back Up Docker Containers on your Synology NAS.
Note: Find outĀ 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 Sunday / June 15th, 2025 at 1:17 AM

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