Docs

Everything Lanternlog does is set through environment variables and a small HTTP API. This page covers both.

Install#

With Docker:

git clone https://github.com/backmeupplz/lanternlog && cd lanternlog
docker build -t lanternlog .
docker run -d --name lanternlog -p 8080:8080 -v lanternlog:/data \
  -e LANTERNLOG_TOKEN="$(openssl rand -hex 32)" lanternlog

From source, with Rust installed:

cargo build --release
LANTERNLOG_TOKEN=change-me ./target/release/lanternlog

Point each blog’s domain at the server and put a TLS proxy in front of it; any proxy that passes the Host header works. On Tugport, deploy the repository as one service with a volume at /data, set LANTERNLOG_TOKEN, and add every blog’s domain to the service. Tugport issues the certificates and deploys each push without downtime.

Settings#

Variable	Default	What it does
PORT	8080	Port to listen on
LANTERNLOG_DATA	./data	Folder for lanternlog.db and uploaded images
LANTERNLOG_TOKEN	none	Bearer token for the admin API; the API is off without it
LANTERNLOG_SCHEME	https	Scheme used in addresses in pages and feeds
LANTERNLOG_INDEXNOW	on	off stops IndexNow pings
LANTERNLOG_FONTS	none	An extra folder of fonts for share images (Inter is in the Docker image)

Create a blog#

Every API call needs Authorization: Bearer $LANTERNLOG_TOKEN and can go to any of the server’s domains.

curl -X PUT https://blog.example.com/api/sites/blog.example.com \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LANTERNLOG_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
    "title": "Example Notes",
    "description": "What we learn running Example in production.",
    "aliases": ["www.blog.example.com"],
    "author": "Jane Doe", "author_url": "https://jane.example",
    "project_name": "Example", "project_url": "https://example.com",
    "cta": "Example deploys an app with one command.",
    "accent": "#e4572e", "lang": "en"
  }'

Field	What it does
title, description	The blog’s name and one-sentence summary, used in titles, feeds, llms.txt and the home page
aliases	Other domains that redirect here, such as www.
author, author_url	The person in every post’s structured data; without one, the blog itself is the author
project_name, project_url, cta	The product the blog writes about: linked in the header and in a call to action after every post
accent	A color such as #e4572e for links, buttons and share images
lang	The language tag of the blog, such as en or pt-BR
home	The slug of a page to show at / instead of the plain list of posts, with the latest posts below it

Your own brand#

A blog can look like your product rather than like Lanternlog. All of these are optional.

Field	What it does
logo	An image shown next to the blog’s name in the header and drawn into every share card. Upload it with the media call first, as a PNG, JPEG or GIF, so the cards can use it
favicon	The browser icon; without one, the logo is used, and without a logo, a generated icon
og_image	The share image for the home page and other pages without their own; without one, Lanternlog draws a card
links	Up to 8 header links, such as [{"label": "Pricing", "url": "https://example.com/pricing"}]
head	HTML added to every page’s head, such as a search console verification tag or an analytics snippet
footer	A line of text for the footer, such as a copyright notice
font	serif (the default) or sans for the text of posts
credit	false removes “Published with Lanternlog” from the footer

A post can also set og_image to use a share image of its own instead of the generated card.

Publish posts and pages#

curl -X PUT https://blog.example.com/api/sites/blog.example.com/posts/one-server \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LANTERNLOG_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
    "title": "Moving to one server",
    "description": "Why we put every service on one machine, and what it cost.",
    "body": "We moved **every service** to one box.\n\n## Why one box\n\n...",
    "tags": ["Self-hosting"],
    "status": "published"
  }'

The slug comes from the address. A post stays a draft until its status is published, and its first publication date is kept when you edit it later. Set "kind": "page" for pages such as About: they appear in the header rather than in the post list and the feed. cover takes an image address shown at the top of the post, and og_image replaces the post’s generated share card.

Posts are Markdown with tables, footnotes, task lists, smart quotes and heading ids (## Setup {#setup}). Raw HTML passes through untouched, so only give the token to writers you trust.

API reference#

Call	What it does
GET /api/sites	All blogs
GET, PUT, DELETE /api/sites/{host}	One blog; PUT creates or replaces its settings
GET /api/sites/{host}/posts	Its posts and pages, drafts included
GET, PUT, DELETE /api/sites/{host}/posts/{slug}	One post; PUT creates or replaces it
POST /api/sites/{host}/media	Uploads an image (the raw bytes with their Content-Type) and answers with its address
GET /api/health	{"ok": true, "version"}

What each blog serves#

Address	What it is
/	The home page: the latest posts, or the page named in home
/{slug}/	A post or page; /{slug} redirects here
/{slug}.md	The same post as Markdown, for AI assistants
/tags/{tag}/	Posts with a tag (kept out of search results)
/feed.xml	An Atom feed with the full text of the latest 50 posts
/sitemap.xml, /robots.txt	For search engines
/llms.txt, /llms-full.txt	A map of the blog for AI assistants, and every post in one file
/og/{slug}.png, /og.png	Share images for each post and for the blog
/favicon.svg	A favicon made from the blog’s initial and accent color