Self-hosting overview

There are two ways to run your own CaptureFlow:

• Docker. docker compose up on any server. Data stays in a local folder (SQLite plus files on disk), and you don't need a Cloudflare account.
• Your own Cloudflare account. One Worker serves the dashboard, auth, the recording and screenshot viewers, and every API route. It uses one D1 database and one R2 bucket. The rest of this page covers this option.

TIP

Almost everything is optional. Recording, sharing, the dashboard, and storage quotas all work with just auth configured — email is not required.

What you're deploying

Piece	Tech
Web app (apps/web)	Next.js 16, built for Workers via OpenNext
Database	Cloudflare D1 (captureflow)
Object storage	Cloudflare R2 (captureflow-recordings)
Auth	Better Auth (session secret)
Scheduled jobs	Cron Triggers (hourly multipart GC + daily retention sweep)
Email (optional)	Resend (workspace invites)

The custom worker.ts wraps OpenNext's fetch handler and adds the scheduled() cron handlers.

Prerequisites

• A Cloudflare account with Workers + D1 + R2 enabled. (R2 requires a card on file even on the free tier.)
• A domain you control. The defaults assume captureflow.dev; you can use any domain by editing apps/web/wrangler.jsonc.
• Node 24+ and pnpm 10 (packageManager pins pnpm@10.30.0).
• openssl for generating the auth secret (preinstalled on macOS/Linux).

Install workspace dependencies from the repo root:

pnpm install

All deploy commands target the web app via pnpm --filter @captureflow/web, and use the workspace-local copy of Wrangler — no global install needed.

Running it as a company tool

A deployment on your own domain is a self-hosted instance. Set ALLOWED_EMAIL_DOMAINS and it becomes your company's private recorder:

• Only people with a verified address on your domains can sign up.
• Storage has no default cap and nothing is deleted for being idle.
• There are no billing or upgrade screens, and the root URL goes to the login page.
• Recordings, comments, and workspaces live in your own D1 database and R2 bucket.

See Private company instance.

Cost expectations

The free tiers go a long way, but note these are per Cloudflare account, not per domain:

• R2: 10 GB storage free, then usage-based.
• D1: 5 GB storage free, plus daily read/write row limits.
• Workers: 100k requests/day free.

For a video-heavy workload you'll typically hit R2 storage and operation limits before anything else. See Storage & limits.

Next steps

1. Run with Docker, or deploy to Cloudflare with the ordered runbook.
2. Configuration & env — every variable explained.
3. Point the desktop app at your backend.
4. Point the Chrome extension at your backend.