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how to host a cobalt instance yourself

using docker compose and package from github (recommended)

to run the cobalt docker package, you need to have docker and docker-compose installed and configured.

if you need help with installing docker, follow only the first step of these tutorials by digitalocean:

how to run a cobalt docker package:

  1. create a folder for cobalt config file, something like this:

    mkdir cobalt

  2. go to cobalt folder, and create a docker compose config file:

    cd cobalt && nano docker-compose.yml

    i'm using nano in this example, it may not be available in your distro. you can use any other text editor.

  3. copy and paste the sample config from here for either web or api instance (or both, if you wish) and edit it to your needs.
    make sure to replace default URLs with your own or cobalt won't work correctly.

  4. finally, start the cobalt container (from cobalt directory):

    docker compose up -d

if you want your instance to support services that require authentication to view public content, create cookies.json file in the same directory as docker-compose.yml. example cookies file can be found here.

cobalt package will update automatically thanks to watchtower.

it's highly recommended to use a reverse proxy (such as nginx) if you want your instance to face the public internet. look up tutorials online.

using regular node.js (useful for local development)

setup script installs all needed npm dependencies, but you have to install node.js (version 18 or above) and git yourself.

  1. clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt.
  2. run setup script and follow instructions: npm run setup. you need to host api and web instances separately, so pick whichever applies.
  3. run cobalt via npm start.
  4. done.

ubuntu 22.04 workaround

nscd needs to be installed and running so that the ffmpeg-static binary can resolve DNS (#101):

sudo apt install nscd
sudo service nscd start

list of all environment variables

variables for api

variable name default example description
API_PORT 9000 9000 changes port from which api server is accessible.
API_LISTEN_ADDRESS 0.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 changes address from which api server is accessible. if you are using docker, you usually don't need to configure this.
API_URL ➖ https://api.cobalt.tools/ changes url from which api server is accessible.
REQUIRED TO RUN THE API.
API_NAME unknown ams-1 api server name that is shown in /api/serverInfo.
CORS_WILDCARD 1 0 toggles cross-origin resource sharing.
0: disabled. 1: enabled.
CORS_URL not used https://cobalt.tools/ cross-origin resource sharing url. api will be available only from this url if CORS_WILDCARD is set to 0.
COOKIE_PATH not used /cookies.json path for cookie file relative to main folder.
PROCESSING_PRIORITY not used 10 changes nice value* for ffmpeg subprocess. available only on unix systems.
FREEBIND_CIDR ➖ 2001:db8::/32 IPv6 prefix used for randomly assigning addresses to cobalt requests. only supported on linux systems. see below for more info.
RATELIMIT_WINDOW 60 120 rate limit time window in seconds.
RATELIMIT_MAX 20 30 max requests per time window. requests above this amount will be blocked for the rate limit window duration.
DURATION_LIMIT 10800 18000 max allowed video duration in seconds.

* the higher the nice value, the lower the priority. read more here.

FREEBIND_CIDR

setting a FREEBIND_CIDR allows cobalt to pick a random IP for every download and use it for all requests it makes for that particular download. to use freebind in cobalt, you need to follow its setup instructions first. if you configure this option while running cobalt in a docker container, you also need to set the API_LISTEN_ADDRESS env to 127.0.0.1, and set network_mode for the container to host.

variables for web

variable name default example description
WEB_PORT 9001 9001 changes port from which frontend server is accessible.
WEB_URL ➖ https://cobalt.tools/ changes url from which frontend server is accessible.
REQUIRED TO RUN WEB.
API_URL https://api.cobalt.tools/ https://api.cobalt.tools/ changes url which is used for api requests by frontend clients.
SHOW_SPONSORS 0 1 toggles sponsor list in about popup.
0: disabled. 1: enabled.
IS_BETA 0 1 toggles beta tag next to cobalt logo.
0: disabled. 1: enabled.
PLAUSIBLE_HOSTNAME ➖ plausible.io* enables plausible analytics with provided hostname as receiver backend.

* don't use plausible.io as receiver backend unless you paid for their cloud service. use your own domain when hosting community edition of plausible. refer to their docs when needed.