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Introduction
Introduction

Introduction

This is the technical documentation for Colanode - an open-source, local-first collaboration infrastructure designed for teams and communities who want full control over their tools and their data.

Colanode combines a set of collaboration features: chat, documents, databases, file sharing, etc, into a unified platform that can be run in the cloud or entirely on your own infrastructure. Unlike most hosted collaboration tools, Colanode is local-first by design: your work is saved to your device first, then synchronized in the background when connectivity is available. This means you can keep working offline without interruptions, and your data is never locked to a single vendor.

If you just want to explore Colanode before setting up your own server, you can:

Self-Hosting Colanode

Colanode is built to be self-hostable from day one. Whether you want to run it for yourself, your team or your organization, you can deploy it with minimal setup. We currently support two main methods:

  • Docker Compose — Ideal for local testing, small teams, or simple single-server deployments. You can run Colanode locally or on any server that supports Docker.

  • Kubernetes — Recommended for production-grade Kubernetes environments. Our official Helm charts allow you to scale Colanode horizontally, integrate with your existing cluster, and manage updates through your preferred CI/CD pipeline.

Both deployment methods give you the same full-featured Colanode experience, with no feature restrictions compared to the hosted version.