Run your instance

Run these commands on the machine where you installed Fluxer. The command reference lists every flag for each one.

Upgrade

rexctl upgrade

This upgrades rexctl and Fluxer together. It backs up your instance before Fluxer switches to the new version, and if the new version doesn't start, it goes back to the version you had before.

To see whether there's a new version without upgrading, run rexctl upgrade --check.

If you installed Fluxer before rexctl existed, upgrade it with the current install script. It installs rexctl and hands your instance to it with your data and settings as they are.

curl -fsSL https://fluxer.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --update --dir /path/to/your/instance

Upgrade by itself

rexctl auto-upgrade on

This runs rexctl upgrade --yes every day at about 04:00 with a systemd timer, or with cron on machines without systemd. Each run backs up your instance first and goes back to the version you had if the new one doesn't start. Run rexctl auto-upgrade to see when it runs next and how the last run went, and rexctl auto-upgrade off to stop it.

• --at 03:30 picks the time of day, in this machine's time zone. A systemd timer starts within 30 minutes after it, and cron starts at a fixed minute in that window.
• --at 06:00,18:00 upgrades at each of those times, here once in the morning and once in the evening.
• --day sun upgrades once a week on that day. A weekly run that is skipped or fails waits a week, and you can run rexctl upgrade yourself at any time.
• --notify https://ntfy.sh/your-topic posts to that address when an upgrade installs a new release or fails.
• --backup without-uploads leaves uploads out of the backup before each upgrade.
• --full-backup monthly also makes a full backup with uploads on the 1st of every month.

Run rexctl auto-upgrade on again to change any of these. A flag you leave out goes back to its default.

Uploads are often the largest part of an instance, and they stay on this machine while Fluxer upgrades. A backup without them is enough to go back to the version you had, and it takes less time and disk space. When a new version changes how uploads are stored, rexctl includes them in that backup anyway and says so.

A backup without uploads doesn't help if you lose the machine. Keep a full backup on a schedule as well.

rexctl auto-upgrade on --day sun --backup without-uploads --full-backup monthly

This upgrades every Sunday with backups that leave out uploads, and makes a full backup with rexctl backup on the 1st of every month. The full backup has its own systemd timer or cron entry and starts 3 hours before the upgrade time. With systemd, an upgrade waits until a running full backup has finished, and a backup missed while the machine was off runs once the machine starts again. With cron, an upgrade that starts while the full backup is still running skips that run, and a missed backup waits for the next month. rexctl auto-upgrade off stops both.

With --backup without-uploads, rexctl auto-upgrade warns when no backup from the last 5 weeks has your uploads.

Roll back

rexctl rollback

This goes back to the version you had before your last upgrade and keeps your database as it is. To also restore the backup rexctl made before the upgrade, add --restore-database.

If that backup leaves out uploads, the uploads stay as they are. Files uploaded since the upgrade stay on disk, and attachments deleted since the upgrade don't come back. For backups before upgrades that also include uploads, run rexctl auto-upgrade on again with your other flags and --backup full, or pass --backup full to rexctl upgrade. This applies from the next upgrade.

Custom badges and rollbacks

Custom badges are stored in their own tables. The first start of a version with these tables copies the badges from the instance settings into them, and it does nothing on later starts. If you roll back past that version, the older version shows the badges as they were before the upgrade, with their images. Badges you made, changed or moved after the upgrade come back when you upgrade again. Changes you make while the older version runs aren't copied when you upgrade again. A badge you make there is missing after the upgrade, and a badge you delete or give a new image there comes back without its image. Delete it or upload its image again.

Set how many badges one user or one guild can have under Limits on the Badges page of the admin panel.

Back up and restore

rexctl backup

This saves your settings, database and uploads in one file in the backups folder of your instance. Fluxer pauses while it copies uploads. Keep a copy of your backups on another machine.

rexctl keeps the newest 3 backups and deletes older ones after each backup, but it always keeps the one rexctl rollback needs. To keep more, run rexctl backup keep 10, or rexctl backup keep all to keep every backup. To save backups on another drive, run rexctl backup location /mnt/backups/fluxer.

To put your instance back the way it was when a backup was made, find the file with rexctl backup list and pass its path to rexctl restore. rexctl backup list marks the backups without uploads.

A backup without uploads only restores on the instance it was made for, where it leaves the uploads as they are. If that restore stops partway, run the same rexctl restore again. Anywhere else rexctl refuses before it changes anything. In the folder of the instance the backup was made for, it also suggests that instance's newest backup with uploads. rexctl never deletes the newest backup with uploads to keep the number of backups down.

rexctl restore /opt/fluxer/backups/fluxer-chat.example.com-20261105-120000.tar.zst

Move to a new machine

Back up your instance on the old machine with rexctl backup and copy the backup file to the new one. A backup without uploads can't move an instance. On the new machine, install rexctl and restore the backup with one command, run from the folder you copied the backup to.

curl -fsSL https://fluxer.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- restore fluxer-chat.example.com-20261105-120000.tar.zst

Then change your domain's A record to the new machine's address.

Run more than one instance on a host

You can run more than one instance on the same machine. Each one needs three things of its own: a project name with --project, an instance directory with --dir, and an edge binding that doesn't clash with the others. Run the extra instances behind your own reverse proxy with --behind-proxy and a distinct --bind.

rexctl install --dir /path/to/second-instance --project blue --behind-proxy --bind 127.0.0.1:8081

rexctl chooses free voice and video ports for each instance and prints the ones it picked. rexctl doctor shows which instance uses which ports. To run more voice servers for one instance, on this machine or on others, see Add voice servers.

rexctl remembers where it installed each instance. Outside an instance folder, commands use the default instance, which is the first one you installed. Run rexctl use <folder> to pick another default, or pass --dir. Each account has its own default.

Manage people

Create an invite link that 10 people can use within a week.

rexctl invites create --uses 10 --expires 7d

Choose who can create an account with open, approval, invite or closed.

rexctl registration set approval

When registration needs approval, rexctl registration pending lists the people waiting and rexctl registration approve <id> approves one of them.

Make someone an admin.

rexctl admins add alex

Ban an account and delete its messages.

rexctl users ban spammer42 --reason spam --delete-messages

When someone has lost their password and can't reset it themselves, create a reset link for them.

Email and branding

Set up email for your instance, then send yourself a test email.

rexctl email set
rexctl email test you@example.com

If your email server's certificate comes from your own CA, put that CA's PEM file in the ca folder of your instance. The api and worker see that folder at /etc/fluxer/ca, and they can't see the edge's certs folder. The file needs only the CA certificate, never a private key. Tell them to trust the file, then test again.

rexctl config set FLUXER_NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS /etc/fluxer/ca/ca.pem
rexctl email test you@example.com

Change your instance's name, color, logo or icon.

rexctl branding set --name "Example Chat" --logo logo.png

You can also change email and branding in the admin panel, at your instance's address followed by /admin.

Change a setting

rexctl config list

This lists every setting with its value and a line of help, and says which settings restart Fluxer when you change them. To change one, pass its name and the new value to rexctl config set.

rexctl config set <key> <value>

The list includes the FLUXER_* environment variables Fluxer reads, and you set them the same way. If a variable has a shorter name, such as sso.allow_private_addresses for FLUXER_SSO_ALLOW_PRIVATE_ADDRESSES, rexctl tells you to use that one. rexctl writes the change and restarts whatever needs it, and you never edit .env yourself.

Each time rexctl starts Fluxer, it sizes memory limits, database connections and thread counts to the machine's memory and CPUs, and a resized machine needs no changes. The memory.profile setting pins a fixed size instead.

On a machine with little memory, rexctl config set FLUXER_API_EMBEDDED_WORKER true runs background jobs inside the api service. rexctl then removes the separate worker service and adds half of its memory limit to the api.

Change how Fluxer runs

rexctl writes Fluxer's Compose files and Caddyfile to .rexctl/generated in your instance folder and writes them again each time it changes the instance. If you edit one of them, rexctl keeps a copy of your version in .rexctl/edited and puts its own version back.

To change the Compose setup, such as labels, images, ports or volumes, run rexctl config edit. It opens custom.compose.yml in your instance folder, checks it, tells you which services restart and applies it. rexctl adds this file after its own Compose files, and upgrades keep it.

rexctl config edit

To add your own Caddy directives, such as extra routes or headers, put them in a .caddy file in the caddy.d folder of your instance. Fluxer's Caddyfile loads every file there inside your site, and upgrades keep them. rexctl voice add writes a voice- file there for each voice server it adds, and rexctl voice remove deletes it again. To serve a whole extra site, such as another domain on the same machine, put its .caddy file in caddy.d/sites. Fluxer loads those files next to its own site, and rexctl upgrade moves a file of whole sites from caddy.d to caddy.d/sites for you. To use your own Caddyfile instead, mount it over /etc/caddy/Caddyfile on the edge service in custom.compose.yml.

When something is wrong

rexctl doctor

This checks your instance and the machine, and tells you how to fix each problem it finds. rexctl doctor --fix fixes the problems rexctl can fix safely.

rexctl status shows whether each Fluxer service is running, and rexctl logs shows their logs.

Manage it without rexctl

To run your instance yourself with docker compose, run rexctl eject. rexctl moves the Compose files and Caddyfile back into your instance folder and stops managing them. Fluxer keeps running, and rexctl takeover hands it back to rexctl.

To upgrade Fluxer while you manage it yourself, run rexctl takeover, rexctl upgrade and rexctl eject one after the other. You can also upgrade with the compose bundle of the new version, the same way as an instance that never used rexctl.