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Deploy Outline

Your team’s wiki, private from the first second

WorkProductivityDocumentationOutline + PostgreSQL + Valkey + Email

Deploy Outline with managed PostgreSQL, Valkey for its queues and live collaboration, a volume for uploads, sign-in emails that send, and a public HTTPS URL. The workspace and its admin are created for your email address before the app is reachable, so nobody else can claim it. Write together in real time, organize pages in collections and find anything with full-text search.

What you get with Outline

  • Write together in real timeSeveral people edit the same page at once and see each other’s cursors. Changes save as you type, with a full revision history.
  • Collections and nested pagesGroup pages by team or topic, nest them as deep as you like, and pin or star the ones people need every day.
  • Fast full-text searchSearch every page title and body from anywhere. Results come straight from PostgreSQL, ranked and with matches highlighted.
  • Markdown, tables, diagramsType Markdown or use the slash menu for tables, checklists, code blocks, Mermaid diagrams, images and embeds.
  • Share a page publiclyPublish a page to a read-only public link for customers or partners, and turn the link off again whenever you like.
  • No passwords to leakPeople sign in with a link or code sent by email, or with a passkey. Sign-up is invite only, and the setup page is never open to visitors.

After you deploy Outline

  1. 1Sign in with your emailOpen your app URL, choose Continue with email and enter the address in OUTLINE_ADMIN_EMAIL. Click the link or type the code from the email. Wrong address? Change the variable and redeploy.
  2. 2Add a passkey and name your workspaceUnder Settings, add a passkey so you can sign in without email, and rename the workspace (it starts as OUTLINE_WORKSPACE_NAME).
  3. 3Invite your team and start writingInvite people from Settings > Members, create a collection per team, and start writing. Invitations go out by email.

How Outline is wired

Outline, PostgreSQL, Valkey, the Email add-on and a data volume ship together. One process serves the web app, the API, live collaboration and background jobs on your public hostname.

PostgreSQL holds your pages
Documents, revisions, comments, users and the search index live in the attached PostgreSQL database, with passwords generated at deploy.
Valkey runs queues and live editing
Emails, imports, notifications and the real-time collaboration channel run through the Valkey add-on next to the app.
Uploads on a volume
Images and attachments are stored on a volume mounted at /var/lib/outline/data, so they survive redeploys and restarts.
Mail goes through the Email add-on
Sign-in links and codes, invitations and notifications send through the platform relay from your project’s sending address. There is no mail server to set up.

Why run Outline on StackBlaze

  • Scale your appChange CPU, RAM, and replicas without a rebuild, or let autoscaling add replicas when CPU climbs.
  • Git-based CI/CDPush to GitHub and it builds and ships. Pull requests get their own preview URL on Pro and Business.
  • One-click rollbackA deploy went wrong? Go back to any previous successful deploy.
  • Environments built inProduction, staging, and dev as separate environments in one project, each with its own URL.
  • Built-in observabilityCPU, memory, and response time per app, live logs with search, and alerts to Slack, Discord, or a webhook.
  • Developer-first toolsA CLI and Stack MCP: deploy, read logs, and wire services from your terminal or your AI assistant.
  • Built for teamsInvite teammates with roles. An audit log records who changed what.
  • Managed Postgres with HAPostgres is run for you. Turn on high availability for a three-node cluster when the app needs it.

Common questions about Outline

How do I sign in the first time?

Outline has no passwords. Set OUTLINE_ADMIN_EMAIL to your own address before you deploy. The workspace and its admin are created with that address when the app first starts, before it is reachable. Open the app, choose Continue with email and use the link or code you receive. If you deployed with the wrong address, change the variable and redeploy: the admin follows it until its first sign-in.

Can anyone sign up on my instance?

No. Only people you invite can sign in, and the workspace setup page is closed before the app goes online. An email sign-in request for an unknown address sends nothing.

Can I use Google, Slack or my own identity provider?

Yes. Outline supports Google, Microsoft Entra, Slack, Discord and any OIDC provider. Create an app with the provider and add its client ID and secret as variables, for example OIDC_CLIENT_ID and OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET.

Where are my pages and files stored?

Pages, revisions and comments are in the attached PostgreSQL database. Images and attachments are on the app’s volume. Both stay when you redeploy.

Is Outline open source?

Outline is source-available under the Business Source License 1.1. You can run it for your own team and organization. You may not sell it to others as a hosted document service. Each release becomes Apache 2.0 four years after it ships.

Can I use my own domain?

Yes. Attach a custom domain from the dashboard, for example wiki.example.com, and set URL to the new https address so links in emails use it. Custom domains

What does it cost?

You pay for the compute, storage and bandwidth Outline, PostgreSQL and Valkey use, and for the emails it sends, not per user. Pricing

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