SETUP.md

Config

SkunkyArt reads config.json from the working directory, or the file named with -c. The default file is optional: without it the built-in defaults below apply. A file named with -c must exist.

• listen — IP and port to listen on, ip:port. Default 127.0.0.1:3003.

• uri — Instance URI. Example: "uri":"/art/" -> https://skunky.example.com/art/. Default /.

• cache — On-disk cache for proxied media, avatars and emotes. On by default. A proxying instance with no cache re-fetches every image from wixmp on every view, which is the pattern that gets an egress IP blocked.

  • enabled — boolean, default true.
  • path — Cache directory, default cache. It must be writable by the user SkunkyArt runs as, and SkunkyArt refuses to start if it is not. The container image runs as uid 10000, so a bind-mounted cache needs sudo chown -R 10000:10000 <dir> on the host.
  • memcache — Also keep served media in RAM, on top of the on-disk cache. Entries are scored by how often they are requested and dropped once they go a round unused. The cache is bounded only by that scoring, so leave it off unless you have RAM to spare for your traffic. Default false.
  • lifetime — How long a cached file is kept, in the time units below. Default 1w.
  • max-size — Cache size cap in megabytes, default 200. When the cache grows past it the whole directory is emptied, not trimmed.
  • update-interval — Seconds between rotation passes, default 1. Each pass reads the whole cache directory, so raise it on a large cache.

• api-cache — In-memory cache of DeviantArt API responses. Every page, feed poll and API call that asks DeviantArt the same question within the TTL is answered from memory, and concurrent requests for one thing make one upstream call. On by default; DeviantArt bans egress IPs that ask too often, so leave it on unless you are debugging.

  • enabled — boolean, default true.
  • max-size — Megabytes of response bodies to hold, default 64. Least recently used entries are dropped past this.
  • ttl — How long a response is reused, in the time units below. Default 5i.

• rate-limit — Per-client budget for page, feed and API requests, so one crawler cannot spend the whole upstream budget. Media, avatars and static files are not counted. Over budget answers 429 with Retry-After. Behind a reverse proxy the client is taken from the rightmost X-Forwarded-For entry, but only when the connection itself comes from a loopback or private address; a direct client's header is ignored.

  • per-minute — Sustained requests per minute per client, default 60. 0 turns the limit off.
  • burst — How many requests a client can make at once before the rate applies, default 20.

• static-path — Directory of templates, styles and catalogues, read into memory at startup. Default static. Ignored by a binary built with the embed tag.

• download-proxy — Outbound proxy used when fetching media from DeviantArt's CDN. Leave empty ("") unless you actually run a proxy: if this points at something that isn't listening, every image 502s while pages still render, because only media fetches go through it. Inside a container 127.0.0.1 is the container itself, so a host-side proxy must be addressed by service name or host IP, not loopback.

• user-agent — The User-Agent SkunkyArt sends to DeviantArt.

• proxy — Serve media through this instance instead of linking straight to DeviantArt's CDN. Required by cache; when off, clients fetch images from wixmp directly. Default true.

• nsfw — Show mature content. Default false.

• hide-ai — Omit AI-generated deviations (those flagged [🤖]) from all listings: search, daily deviations, galleries and favourites. Default false.

• theme — Palette for the interface. auto (default) serves the dark theme and lets a visitor whose system asks for light get the light one, through prefers-color-scheme — no cookie, no query string, no JavaScript. dark or light pins one for everybody. An unrecognised value stops startup rather than quietly falling back.

• language — Interface language. auto (default) reads the browser's own Accept-Language header, which it sends on every request anyway, so nothing extra is stored or asked for. A language code (en, es) pins one for everybody. An unknown code falls back to English rather than refusing to start, since a missing catalogue is a worse reason to be down than to be in the wrong language.

  Catalogues live in static/lang/*.json, keyed by the strings the templates ask for. en.json is the reference and is always complete; a catalogue that is missing a key shows the English for that one string, so a partial translation is useful immediately. To add a language, copy en.json, translate it, and name it after the code.

Time units

A number followed by one of:

• i — minutes
• h — hours
• d — days
• w — weeks
• m — months (30 days)
• y — years (360 days)

robots.txt

/robots.txt is served automatically. It disallows search, the API, user and group pages, media and paginated URLs, and asks for a 10 second crawl delay; the index, daily deviations and posts stay crawlable.

Setting up reverse proxy

Pretty much business as usual, except for the X-Forwarded-Proto header setting.

Nginx example configuration:

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name skunky.example.com;

    # In case of subdomain, use / instead of ((BASE_URL))
    location ((BASE_URL)) {
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_pass http://((IP)):((PORT));
    }
}