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Self-hosting

While asciinema.org is the default asciinema server used by the CLI for uploading recordings, you can self-host your own instance if you want full ownership and control over the recordings.

asciinema server is self-hosting friendly, and can be deployed both for public or internal/private use in any containerized environment using the official OCI image, ghcr.io/asciinema/asciinema-server.

Requirements:

  • OCI runtime, e.g. Docker, Podman, Kubernetes
  • 512 MB of RAM minimum (for a personal instance), 1 GB recommended (for a community/company instance)
  • PostgreSQL 14.0+ database server
  • SMTP server, either a dedicated service or an SMTP endpoint of your email provider

To get started, follow the quick start guide, which provides a template for a standard asciinema server configuration using docker-compose. This configuration includes a PostgreSQL container and supports HTTPS, allowing you to set up a complete, secure asciinema server easily.

Once your server is up and running, you'll be able to upload your recordings by pointing asciinema CLI to the server using the ASCIINEMA_API_URL environment variable:

export ASCIINEMA_API_URL=https://asciinema.example.com
asciinema upload demo.cast

If you need help with installation or maintenance feel free to ask on asciinema forum or in asciinema Matrix room.

Last but not least, if your company is interested in having the installation, maintenance or customization of the server performed by the people who created asciinema, then check out asciinema consulting services.