Setting up the Linkwarden service?

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1

There’s a NixOS service for Linkwarden: https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=unstable&query=linkwarden but I couldn’t find any guides for setting it up from scratch, I have no self hosting experience. I tried services.linkwarden = { enable = true; }; and got - Linkwarden needs at least a nextauth secret to run.

2

I have not configured linkwarden on Nixos myself, but going trough the docs, this should be sufficient if you don’t want to use a specific database:

services.linkwarden = {
  enable = true;
  
  secretFiles = {
    NEXTAUTH_SECRET= "/path/to/secret_file";
    MEILI_MASTER_KEY= "/path/to/secret_file";
    POSTGRES_PASSWORD= "/path/to/secret_file";
  };
};

Relevant linkwarden docs:

I don’t know if you have to set the MEILI_MASTER_KEY. The NixOS options say you only need to configure NEXTAUTH_SECRET and POSTGRES_PASSWORD.

3

From the MR creator it looks like this is all that should be needed:

services.linkwarden = {
  enable = true;
  secretFiles.NEXTAUTH_SECRET = '/path/to/file';
};
2 Likes
4

I got the server running and created an account, but when I try logging in I get this. How do I access the logs?

2025-11-13 02-19-10PM Screenshot
2025-11-13 02-19-10PM Screenshot980×776 27.4 KB

  services.linkwarden = {
    enable = true;
    secretFiles.NEXTAUTH_SECRET = config.sops.secrets."NEXTAUTH_SECRET".path;
    enableRegistration = true;
  };
5 
journalctl -r -u linkwarden.service
6

I have set the environment variable for NEXTAUTH_URL in my config, I don’t remember why.

  services.linkwarden = {
    enable = true;
    storageLocation = "/storage/linkwarden";
    enableRegistration = false;
    host = "192.168.1.55";
    port = 10248;
    environment = {
      NEXTAUTH_URL = "http://192.168.1.55:10248/api/v1/auth";
    };
    secretFiles.NEXTAUTH_SECRET = config.sops.secrets.linkwarden-nextauth.path;
  };
7 
Nov 13 16:27:03 NixOS-Desktop rim9yzv14d350pzikl5spbzk8hpg5qch-linkwarden-env[2665]:   code: 'NO_SECRET'
Nov 13 16:27:03 NixOS-Desktop rim9yzv14d350pzikl5spbzk8hpg5qch-linkwarden-env[2665]:     at async auth (/nix/store/55w3iicdp2nnzjkz7q2s9svsrf9jk58s-linkwarden-2.13.1/share/linkwarden/apps/web/.next/server/pages/api/v1/auth/[...nextauth].js:1735:12) {
Nov 13 16:27:03 NixOS-Desktop rim9yzv14d350pzikl5spbzk8hpg5qch-linkwarden-env[2665]:     at async NextAuthApiHandler (/nix/store/55w3iicdp2nnzjkz7q2s9svsrf9jk58s-linkwarden-2.13.1/share/linkwarden/node_modules/next-auth/next/index.js:22:19)
Nov 13 16:27:03 NixOS-Desktop rim9yzv14d350pzikl5spbzk8hpg5qch-linkwarden-env[2665]:     at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
Nov 13 16:27:03 NixOS-Desktop rim9yzv14d350pzikl5spbzk8hpg5qch-linkwarden-env[2665]:     at AuthHandler (/nix/store/55w3iicdp2nnzjkz7q2s9svsrf9jk58s-linkwarden-2.13.1/share/linkwarden/node_modules/next-auth/core/index.js:77:52)
Nov 13 16:27:03 NixOS-Desktop rim9yzv14d350pzikl5spbzk8hpg5qch-linkwarden-env[2665]:     at assertConfig (/nix/store/55w3iicdp2nnzjkz7q2s9svsrf9jk58s-linkwarden-2.13.1/share/linkwarden/node_modules/next-auth/core/lib/assert.js:42:12)
Nov 13 16:27:03 NixOS-Desktop rim9yzv14d350pzikl5spbzk8hpg5qch-linkwarden-env[2665]: https://next-auth.js.org/errors#no_secret Please define a `secret` in production. MissingSecret [MissingSecretError]: Please define a `secret` in production.
8

I was seeing the same error but stupidly wasn’t setting the appropriate owner for my secrets file. With that fixed, I’m able to log in with the minimal config above.

9

Which secrets file???

10

The option with secretFiles in the name, presumably.

1 Like
11

The only one providing a required secret: NEXTAUTH_SECRET.

You put above that you’re using:

secretFiles.NEXTAUTH_SECRET = config.sops.secrets."NEXTAUTH_SECRET".path;

In this case, I’m also using sops; in my case, I had to set something analagous to

sops.secrets.NEXTAUTH_SECRET.owner = config.services.linkwarden.user;

(This should be obvious, was just something I overlooked. By default sops secret files are 0400 root:root, so the linkwarden user wouldn’t be able to see them.)

1 Like