Setup questions

The installer asks all of its questions before it touches your server. This page lists them in the order you’ll see them, with the default (press Enter to accept it) and what each answer changes. Invalid answers are simply asked again.

At the end you get one summary, with secrets hidden, and Proceed? [Y/n]. Answering n leaves your machine exactly as it was.

1. GitHub repository

Question	Default	Notes
GitHub repository	SpaceWorks-HQ/SpaceWorks	Asked first by the one-line installer, before it downloads anything, because the repository decides which release is installed. Skipped if you passed --repo. Type a fork as owner/name.

Running bash setup.sh from a checkout asks this question near the end instead, as GitHub repository to follow.

2. Hosting model

1) One makerspace on this server - one community, at /m/<slug>.
2) Several makerspaces - shared server, each at /m/<slug>; the superadmin adds more later.
3) Hosted platform - each makerspace has a subdomain of your platform domain.

Default: 1. Options 1 and 2 serve every makerspace from one address, at /m/<slug>. Option 3 turns on hosted-platform mode, where each makerspace gets its own subdomain, and asks one more question:

Question	Default	Notes
Platform domain	required	For example spaces.example.org. Makerspaces become <slug>.spaces.example.org.

3. Website

Question	Options	Default
Run the website (web frontend) on this server?	1 Yes, 2 No, API only	1

Choose API only if you host the website elsewhere, for example on Netlify. You’re then asked:

Question	Notes
Site URL(s)	Comma-separated https:// origins with no path or trailing slash. The first one is your staff site.

4. HTTPS

On a hosted platform, HTTPS is always automatic and you’re only asked for the HTTPS certificate email. Otherwise:

1) None - plain HTTP for a LAN or trial.
2) Automatic HTTPS - built-in Caddy; point DNS at this server.
3) I already run a reverse proxy - forward HTTPS to this server.

The default is 1, or 2 if you chose API only. API-only installs can’t use plain HTTP, because browsers only send login cookies across sites over HTTPS.

Follow-up	When	Notes
Public API/server domain	HTTPS 2 or 3	A DNS name such as tools.example.org, without https://.
HTTPS certificate email	HTTPS 2, or a hosted platform	The address Let’s Encrypt uses for certificate notices.

See Domains and TLS for what each mode sets up.

5. How it runs

Option	What runs
1 Standard containers (default)	Separate API, live-updates, worker, scheduler and web server containers.
2 Single box	One application container beside the database and storage.

Single box only works with the website on this server, plain HTTP and one or several makerspaces (not a hosted platform), and not with setup.sh --build. If you pick an incompatible combination you’re asked again. See Single-box install.

6. File storage

Option	Notes
1 Bundled Silo object storage (default)	Private evidence and public images on this server. Nothing more to answer.
2 External S3-compatible buckets	You create the buckets, versioning, privacy and CORS yourself.

External storage asks:

Question	Default	Notes
S3 endpoint	required	Must be reachable by browsers too. Must be https:// unless you chose plain HTTP.
S3 region	us-east-1
Private evidence bucket	evidence
Public-image bucket	public-images	Must be a different bucket from the evidence one.
S3 access key	required
S3 secret key	required	Typed without echo.
Public image base URL	required	Includes the bucket or path, for example https://files.example.org/public-images.
Presign method	post	post or put. Use put for Cloudflare R2 and Supabase Storage.

7. Your makerspace

Question	Default	Notes
Web address	localhost	Asked only for plain HTTP, where no domain was given. A host name or IPv4 address, no http://. Use the address people on your network will type, such as 192.168.1.20; localhost only works on the server itself.
Name of your makerspace	My Makerspace	Its URL slug is derived from the name (lower-case letters, digits and hyphens, up to 50 characters).
First makerspace subdomain	makerspace	Hosted platform only. Reserved names such as www, api, admin, control, files and origin are refused.

8. Feature areas

Next come eight yes/no areas. Each area switches on a bundle of modules and every feature those modules support, then asks a few follow-up questions straight away.

Area	Default	Turns on these modules
Inventory & lending	Yes	public_inventory, request_workflow, staff_admin, scanner, evidence_uploads, qr_management, guest_handover, asset_units, containers, bulk_import, stock_transfers, qr_print_batches, procurement, stocktake, devices
Machines	Yes	machines, machine_service, printing, maintenance
Events	No	events
Bookings	No	bookings
Membership	No	membership, mobile
Online payments	No	payments
Reports	Yes	reports
Chat alerts	No	telegram, slack, mattermost, discord, webhook

Always on, whatever you answer: the core modules, personal accounts (sign-up and the member area), backup, notifications, email, money tracking, receipt documents, payment reminders, staff invitations and the advisory geofence.

The core lending modules are always installed. Saying no to Inventory & lending only hides lending: no new loans can be made. Charges and receipts work without Online payments, which only adds card checkout. Modules explains each module.

Inventory & lending

Question	Default	Range or options
Maximum active loans per borrower	0	0 means unlimited
Maximum outstanding items per borrower	0	0 means unlimited
Default loan length (days)	7	1–365
Maximum renewals per loan	1	0–100
Length of each renewal (days)	7	1–365
Enable self-checkout?	Yes	Signed-in borrowers issue eligible QR tools themselves, with photo evidence
Enable kiosk stations?	Yes	Shared stations unlocked by a PIN and a staff operator
Loan deposit mode	none	none, fixed, per_product
Fixed deposit per loan	0.00	Only with fixed
Late fee per day	0.00
Late fee cap	0.00	0 means uncapped
Late fee grace period (days)	0
Require deposit settlement before issuing?	No	Only when a deposit mode is set
Default currency for charges	usd	Three lower-case letters
Borrow requests (Membership off)	accounts	accounts (signed-in accounts) or anyone (no account, rate-limited contact details)

If you also turn on Membership, borrow requests are limited to active members.

Machines

Question	Default	Notes
Enforce machine certification gating?	Yes	Members can’t use a machine type until certified for it
Certification expiry reminder lead (days)	14	0–365; 0 turns off advance notice
Maintenance reminder lead (days)	7	0–365; 0 turns off advance notice

The reminder leads apply to the machine types that already exist. You can change them per type later.

Events

Question	Default	Options
Default registration audience	accounts	members, accounts, invite
Default currency for ticket prices	usd	Asked only if no currency was asked earlier

Ticket types and promo codes are turned on. Events priced at zero stay free.

Bookings

No questions. Bookings and recurring bookings are turned on. Buffers and cancellation cut-offs are set per bookable resource in the console.

Membership

Question	Default	Notes
How people join	approval	approval (staff review), vouch (members vouch), open, invite_only, closed
Vouches required	1	Only with vouch; 1–5
Minimum voucher tenure (days)	30	Only with vouch
Pending applicants per voucher	3	Only with vouch
Vouch validity (days)	30	Only with vouch
Do vouches replace staff approval?	No	Only with vouch
Collect a membership application form?	Yes	Adds a “Why would you like to join?” question you can edit later
Create the first membership plan?	No

If you create a plan:

Question	Default	Notes
Plan name	Standard
Plan interval	monthly	monthly, yearly, custom_days
Custom interval length (days)	30	Only with custom_days
Plan amount	0.00	0 for a free plan
Plan currency	usd
Automatically renew memberships?	Yes	Records the next term’s charge; no payment provider needed
Open renewal this many days before expiry	7	Only with auto-renew
Renewal grace period (days)	0	Only with auto-renew
Automatic renewal retries	0	0–3
Reminder days before expiry	14,7,1	Comma-separated, or none
Reminder days after expiry	none	Comma-separated, or none

Online payments, Reports and Chat alerts

• Online payments asks for the default checkout currency only if no currency was asked earlier. Debt tracking and receipts stay on without it.
• Reports has no questions; reports and saved report views are turned on.
• Chat alerts has no questions. Telegram, Slack, Mattermost, Discord and signed webhooks stay idle until you add their URL or token in settings. See Notifications.

9. Labels and defaults for everyone

Question	Default	Notes
Label this as an organization instead of a makerspace?	No	Changes wording only. Tenancy and permissions are the same.
Makerspace timezone for local schedules	UTC (or your TZ)	An IANA name such as Asia/Kolkata
Quiet hours start	22:00	Optional alerts wait until quiet hours end; safety messages are sent immediately
Quiet hours end	08:00	The same start and end time turns quiet hours off
Daily digests on by default?	No	Members can override this in their preferences
Daily digest delivery time	08:00	Only if digests are on
Require two-step sign-in (MFA) for staff?	No	Staff with any actions must enrol an authenticator app

Edition

You aren’t asked for an edition; it’s worked out from your areas and shown in the summary:

Your answers	Edition
Organization label is on	organization
Events is the only one of Inventory, Machines, Events and Bookings	events
Bookings is the only one of those four	bookings
Anything else	makerspace

10. Admin account

Question	Default	Notes
Admin login username	admin	Letters, digits and . @ + - _
Admin email	required
Admin password	auto-generate	Typed without echo. Leave it blank and a strong password is generated and printed once at the end.

This account becomes the superadmin: it controls the whole server, not just one makerspace.

11. Optional integrations

Question	When	Notes
Google Web client ID	Always (skippable)	Ends in .apps.googleusercontent.com. The installer prints the authorised JavaScript origin to register with Google.
Stripe secret key	Online payments on	Optional. Enter both Stripe values or neither.
Stripe webhook secret	Online payments on

You can add any of these later. See Authentication and Payments.

12. Automatic deploys

Question	Default	Notes
Install a GitHub Actions runner on this server for automatic deploys?	No	Only offered on Linux with systemd running. If you say yes, after you confirm the summary you’re asked for a short-lived registration token from GitHub.

See Updates before you turn this on.

What your answers write

Setup turns your answers into a private .env file (mode 600) in the install directory and generates every secret itself: database passwords, storage keys, SECRET_KEY, the encryption keys and the backup keys. The values that follow directly from your answers include:

Setting	Comes from
ALLOWED_HOSTS, CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS, CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS, PUBLIC_APP_BASE_URL	Web address or domain, and any external site URLs
ENABLE_HTTPS, TRUST_X_FORWARDED_PROTO, HTTP_PORT, TRUSTED_PROXY_COUNT	HTTPS mode
PUBLIC_DOMAIN, TLS_EMAIL	HTTPS domain and certificate email
PLATFORM_DOMAIN, PLATFORM_DOMAIN_SUFFIX, PLATFORM_STAFF_ORIGINS and related	Hosted platform
SPACEWORKS_RUN_FRONTEND, SPACEWORKS_STORAGE, SPACEWORKS_EDITION, SPACEWORKS_HOSTING_MODEL	Website, storage and area choices
AWS_S3_*, AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME, PUBLIC_IMAGE_BUCKET, PUBLIC_IMAGE_BASE_URL, STORAGE_PRESIGN_METHOD	Storage answers
SPACEWORKS_REPOSITORY and the image names	GitHub repository

The container shape (none, tls, saas or single) is saved in .spaceworks-layer. Your area choices and their settings are applied to the first makerspace through the app itself, and every change is recorded in the audit log. Production installs never load demo data.

Environment variables describes every setting.

Changing your answers later

• Areas and their settings: run bash scripts/update.sh --modules-only from the install directory for the same area menu, or change settings in the staff console. Turning an area off hides its screens and keeps all its data.
• Admin, integrations and notifications: change them in the staff console.
• Hosting, HTTPS and storage: these live in .env and .spaceworks-layer. See Domains and TLS.

Next steps

• First run
• Docker Compose stack