How to install Karakeep on a Cloud VPS

Karakeep is a bookmark-everything app that saves links, notes and images with full-text search and optional AI-powered tagging.

Running the tool on your own server means unlimited use without sending data to external services.

One-click install on cloudlinux.ro

The fastest way: Karakeep installs automatically at the first boot of a new server.

1. Create a Cloud VPS from the control panel.
2. In the configuration step, pick Karakeep from the app catalog.
3. Start the server. The install runs in the background for a few minutes and its status shows on the server page.
4. Access details and generated passwords are saved on the server in /root/app-credentials.txt. The app will be available on port 3000.

Manual install on any Ubuntu server

If you prefer doing it yourself, below is the exact script our automatic install runs. Execute it as root on a fresh Ubuntu server (24.04 recommended). It stops at the first error, and when it finishes you will find the access details in /root/app-credentials.txt.

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
IP=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=$(openssl rand -base64 48 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-40)
MEILI_MASTER_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 48 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-40)
mkdir -p /opt/karakeep && cd /opt/karakeep
curl -fsSL -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/karakeep-app/karakeep/main/docker/docker-compose.yml
cat > .env <<EOF
KARAKEEP_VERSION=release
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=${NEXTAUTH_SECRET}
MEILI_MASTER_KEY=${MEILI_MASTER_KEY}
NEXTAUTH_URL=http://${IP}:3000
EOF
docker compose up -d
printf 'Karakeep: http://%s:3000\nCreeaza contul la prima accesare.\nPentru etichetare automata AI adauga OPENAI_API_KEY in /opt/karakeep/.env si ruleaza: cd /opt/karakeep && docker compose up -d\n' "$IP" > /root/app-credentials.txt

You can also save this script as a recipe in your account and reuse it on any new server.