Installing

Architecturally, Vikunja is made up of two parts: API and frontend.

Both are bundled into one single deployable binary (or docker container). That means you only need to install one thing to be able to use Vikunja.

You can also:

Use the desktop app, which is essentially the web frontend packaged for easy installation on desktop devices
Use the mobile app only, but as of right now it only supports the very basic features of Vikunja

If you intend to run Vikunja with mysql and/or to use non-latin characters make sure your db is utf-8 compatible.

Vikunja can be installed in various ways. This document provides an overview and instructions for the different methods:

Installing from binary (manual)
Build from source
Docker
Debian
RPM
FreeBSD
Kubernetes
Ansible

And after you installed Vikunja, you may want to check out these other resources:

Install from binary #

Download a copy of Vikunja from the download page for your architecture.

wget <download-url>

Verify the GPG signature #

All releases are signed using GPG.

To validate the downloaded zip file use the signiture file .asc and the key FF054DACD908493A:

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv FF054DACD908493A
gpg --verify vikunja-<vikunja version>-linux-amd64-full.zip.asc vikunja-<vikunja version>-linux-amd64-full.zip

Set it up #

Once you've verified the signature, you need to unzip and make it executable. You'll also need to create a symlink to the binary, so that you can execute Vikunja by typing vikunja on your system. We'll install Vikunja to /opt/vikunja, change the path where needed if you want to install it elsewhere.

Run these commands to install it:

mkdir -p /opt/vikunja
unzip <vikunja-zip-file> -d /opt/vikunja
chmod +x /opt/vikunja
sudo ln -s /opt/vikunja/vikunja /usr/bin/vikunja

Systemd service #

To automatically start Vikunja when your system boots and to ensure all dependent services are met, you want to use an init system like systemd.

Save the following service file to /etc/systemd/system/vikunja.service and adapt it to your needs:

[Unit]
Description=Vikunja
After=syslog.target
After=network.target
# Depending on how you configured Vikunja, you may want to uncomment these:
#Requires=mysql.service
#Requires=mariadb.service
#Requires=postgresql.service
#Requires=redis.service

[Service]
RestartSec=2s
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/opt/vikunja
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vikunja
Restart=always
# If you want to bind Vikunja to a port below 1024 uncomment
# the two values below
###
#CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
#AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

If you've installed Vikunja to a directory other than /opt/vikunja, you need to adapt WorkingDirectory accordingly.

After you made all necessary modifications, it's time to start the service:

sudo systemctl enable vikunja
sudo systemctl start vikunja

Build from source #

To build Vikunja from source, see building from source.

Updating #

Make a backup first.

Simply replace the binary with the new version, then restart Vikunja. It will automatically run all necessary database migrations. Make sure to take a look at the changelog for the new version to not miss any manual steps the update may involve!

Docker #

This assumes some familiarity with docker.

To get up and running quickly, use this command:

mkdir $PWD/files $PWD/db
chown 1000 $PWD/files $PWD/db
docker run -p 3456:3456 -v $PWD/files:/app/vikunja/files -v $PWD/db:/db vikunja/vikunja

This will expose Vikunja on port 3456 on the host running the container and use sqlite as database backend.

Note: The container runs as the user 1000 and no group by default. You can use Docker's --user flag to change that. Make sure the new user has required permissions on the db and files folder.

Check out the docker examples for more advanced configuration using mysql / postgres and a reverse proxy.

Using a configuration file with docker #

You can mount a local configuration like so:

mkdir $PWD/files $PWD/db
chown 1000 $PWD/files $PWD/db
docker run -p 3456:3456 -v /path/to/config/on/host.yml:/app/vikunja/config.yml:ro -v $PWD/files:/app/vikunja/files -v $PWD/db:/db vikunja/vikunja

Though it is recommended to use environment variables or .env files to configure Vikunja in docker. See config for a list of available configuration options.

Files volume #

By default, the container stores all files uploaded and used through Vikunja inside of /app/vikunja/files which is created as a docker volume. You should mount the volume somewhere to the host to permanently store the files and don't lose them if the container restarts.

Docker compose #

Check out the docker examples for more advanced configuration using docker compose.

Debian packages #

Vikunja is available as deb package for installation on debian-like systems.

To install these, grab a .deb file from the download page and run

dpkg -i vikunja.deb

This will install Vikunja to /opt/vikunja. To configure it, use the config file in /etc/vikunja/config.yml.

RPM #

Vikunja is available as rpm package for installation on Fedora, CentOS and others.

To install these, grab a .rpm file from the download page and run

rpm -i vikunja.rpm

To configure Vikunja, use the config file in /etc/vikunja/config.yml.

FreeBSD / FreeNAS #

Unfortunately, we currently can't provide pre-built binaries for FreeBSD. As a workaround, it is possible to compile Vikunja for FreeBSD directly on a FreeBSD machine, a guide is available below:

Thanks to HungrySkeleton who originally created this guide in the forum.

Jail Setup #

Create a jail named vikunja
Set jail properties to 'auto start'
Mount storage (/mnt to jailData/vikunja)
Start jail & SSH into it

Installing packages #

pkg update && pkg upgrade -y
pkg install nano git go gmake
go install github.com/magefile/mage

Clone Vikunja repo #

mkdir /mnt/GO/code.vikunja.io
cd /mnt/GO/code.vikunja.io
git clone https://code.vikunja.io/vikunja
cd vikunja

Note: Check out the version you want to build with git checkout VERSION - replace VERSION with the version want to use. If you don't do this, you'll build the latest unstable build, which might contain bugs.

Compile binaries #

cd frontend
pnpm install
pnpm run build
cd ..
mage build

Create folder to install Vikunja into #

mkdir /mnt/vikunja
cp /mnt/GO/code.vikunja.io/api/vikunja /mnt/vikunja
cd /mnt/vikunja
chmod +x /mnt/vikunja

Set Vikunja to boot on startup #

nano /etc/rc.d/vikunja

Then paste into the file:

#!/bin/sh

. /etc/rc.subr

name=vikunja
rcvar=vikunja_enable

command="/mnt/vikunja/${name}"

load_rc_config $name
run_rc_command "$1"

Save and exit. Then execute:

chmod +x /etc/rc.d/vikunja
nano /etc/rc.conf

Then add line to bottom of file:

vikunja_enable="YES"

Test if Vikunja now works with

service vikunja start

Vikunja is now available through IP:

192.168.1.XXX:3456

Ansible #

There is an Ansible role made available by Bitwarden which you can deploy directly or use as a starting point for your own deployment. The role deploys Vikunja behind a nginx reverse proxy for TLS termination and uses their secrets manager to provide credentials for smtp and database.

Other installation resources #

Configuration #

See available configuration options.

Default Password #

After successfully installing Vikunja, there is no default user or password. You only need to register a new account and set all the details when creating it.