Cabby - File Storage & Image Optimization Server

Cabby is a file storage server with built-in image optimization capabilities. It provides a simple API for storing, retrieving, and transforming files, with special support for image manipulation and caching.

License

Cabby is open source software licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Environment Variables

Before running the application, you need to set the following environment variables:

Required

• FILE_STORAGE_PATH - The absolute path to the directory where files will be stored.

  FILE_STORAGE_PATH=/path/to/your/storage

Optional

• FILE_CACHE_PATH - The absolute path to the cache directory for transformed images. If not set, defaults to {FILE_STORAGE_PATH}/.cache.

  FILE_CACHE_PATH=/path/to/your/cache

• AUTH_SECRET - Secret key for accessing private files. When provided, allows bypassing private file restrictions in the frontend and via query parameter (?secret=...). If not set, private files remain inaccessible.

  AUTH_SECRET=your-secret-key-here

• ALLOWED_ORIGIN - Allowed origin for server functions that return secrets. When provided, only requests from this origin will receive the AUTH_SECRET in server function responses. Supports both formats: localhost:3000 or http://localhost:3000. If not set, no origin is allowed (security by default).

  ALLOWED_ORIGIN=localhost:3000

Example .env file

Create a .env file in the project root:

FILE_STORAGE_PATH=/Users/username/Documents/filestorage
FILE_CACHE_PATH=/Users/username/Documents/filestorage/.cache
AUTH_SECRET=your-secret-key-here
ALLOWED_ORIGIN=localhost:3000

Deployment

Cabby is deployment-target agnostic and can be run:

• Directly with Node.js in production using npm run build and npm start
• Under a process manager such as pm2
• In containers using the provided Dockerfile and deploy/docker-compose.example.yml

For detailed instructions, including environment variables, pm2 usage, Docker examples, reverse-proxy configuration, and a sample GitLab CI + pm2 setup, see:

• docs/deployment.md

API Usage

Get a File

Retrieve a file from storage:

GET /files/{pathToFile}

Example:

GET /files/images/test.jpg

Image Transformations

For image files, you can use query parameters to transform the image:

GET /files/{pathToFile}?size={width}x{height}&format={format}

Parameters:

• size (optional) - Resize the image to the specified dimensions (e.g., 180x240)
• format (optional) - Convert the image to a different format. Supported output formats: webp, avif, png, jpg, jpeg

Note: The server can read images in formats: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp, avif, tiff, bmp, svg. However, conversion is only supported to: webp, avif, png, jpg, jpeg.

Examples:

# Resize to 180x240 pixels
GET /files/images/test.jpg?size=180x240

# Convert to WebP format
GET /files/images/test.jpg?format=webp

# Resize and convert to WebP
GET /files/images/test.jpg?size=180x240&format=webp

Note: Transformation parameters (size and format) are only available for image files. The transformed images are cached automatically and will be reused on subsequent requests.

Upload a File

Upload a new file to storage:

POST /upload
Content-Type: multipart/form-data

Form Data:

• file - The file to upload (File object)
• path - The path where the file should be stored (relative to FILE_STORAGE_PATH)

Example using curl:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/upload \
  -F "file=@/path/to/local/file.jpg" \
  -F "path=images/uploaded-file.jpg"

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "path": "images/uploaded-file.jpg"
}

Management UI

The application includes a web-based management interface:

• GET / - List all files in storage with their cache status
• GET /file/{path} - View details for a specific file, including cached versions (for images). On this page, you can toggle the visibility status of files (public/private) using the "Visible?" switch.
• GET /upload - Upload interface for files

File Visibility

Files can be marked as public or private. Private files are:

• Not listed in the file listing (unless AUTH_SECRET is configured)
• Not accessible via /files/{path} (returns 404)
• Accessible with AUTH_SECRET via query parameter: /files/{path}?secret={AUTH_SECRET}

You can manage file visibility on the file detail page (/file/{path}) using the visibility toggle switch.

Getting Started

To run this application:

npm install
npm run dev

Building For Production

To build this application for production:

npm run build

Testing

This project uses Vitest for testing. You can run the tests with:

npm run test

Styling

This project uses Tailwind CSS for styling.

Removing Tailwind CSS

If you prefer not to use Tailwind CSS:

1. Remove the demo pages in src/routes/demo/
2. Replace the Tailwind import in src/styles.css with your own styles
3. Remove tailwindcss() from the plugins array in vite.config.ts
4. Uninstall the packages: npm install @tailwindcss/vite tailwindcss -D

Linting & Formatting

This project uses eslint and prettier for linting and formatting. Eslint is configured using tanstack/eslint-config. The following scripts are available:

npm run lint
npm run format
npm run check

Shadcn

Add components using the latest version of Shadcn.

pnpm dlx shadcn@latest add button

Routing

This project uses TanStack Router with file-based routing. Routes are managed as files in src/routes.

Adding A Route

To add a new route to your application just add a new file in the ./src/routes directory.

TanStack will automatically generate the content of the route file for you.

Now that you have two routes you can use a Link component to navigate between them.

Adding Links

To use SPA (Single Page Application) navigation you will need to import the Link component from @tanstack/react-router.

import { Link } from '@tanstack/react-router'

Then anywhere in your JSX you can use it like so:

<Link to="/about">About</Link>

This will create a link that will navigate to the /about route.

More information on the Link component can be found in the Link documentation.

Using A Layout

In the File Based Routing setup the layout is located in src/routes/__root.tsx. Anything you add to the root route will appear in all the routes. The route content will appear in the JSX where you render {children} in the shellComponent.

Here is an example layout that includes a header:

import { HeadContent, Scripts, createRootRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router'

export const Route = createRootRoute({
  head: () => ({
    meta: [
      { charSet: 'utf-8' },
      { name: 'viewport', content: 'width=device-width, initial-scale=1' },
      { title: 'My App' },
    ],
  }),
  shellComponent: ({ children }) => (
    <html lang="en">
      <head>
        <HeadContent />
      </head>
      <body>
        <header>
          <nav>
            <Link to="/">Home</Link>
            <Link to="/about">About</Link>
          </nav>
        </header>
        {children}
        <Scripts />
      </body>
    </html>
  ),
})

More information on layouts can be found in the Layouts documentation.

Server Functions

TanStack Start provides server functions that allow you to write server-side code that seamlessly integrates with your client components.

import { createServerFn } from '@tanstack/react-start'

const getServerTime = createServerFn({
  method: 'GET',
}).handler(async () => {
  return new Date().toISOString()
})

// Use in a component
function MyComponent() {
  const [time, setTime] = useState('')

  useEffect(() => {
    getServerTime().then(setTime)
  }, [])

  return <div>Server time: {time}</div>
}

API Routes

You can create API routes by using the server property in your route definitions:

import { createFileRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router'
import { json } from '@tanstack/react-start'

export const Route = createFileRoute('/api/hello')({
  server: {
    handlers: {
      GET: () => json({ message: 'Hello, World!' }),
    },
  },
})

Data Fetching

There are multiple ways to fetch data in your application. You can use TanStack Query to fetch data from a server. But you can also use the loader functionality built into TanStack Router to load the data for a route before it's rendered.

For example:

import { createFileRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router'

export const Route = createFileRoute('/people')({
  loader: async () => {
    const response = await fetch('https://swapi.dev/api/people')
    return response.json()
  },
  component: PeopleComponent,
})

function PeopleComponent() {
  const data = Route.useLoaderData()
  return (
    <ul>
      {data.results.map((person) => (
        <li key={person.name}>{person.name}</li>
      ))}
    </ul>
  )
}

Loaders simplify your data fetching logic dramatically. Check out more information in the Loader documentation.

Demo files

Files prefixed with demo can be safely deleted. They are there to provide a starting point for you to play around with the features you've installed.

Learn More

You can learn more about all of the offerings from TanStack in the TanStack documentation.

For TanStack Start specific documentation, visit TanStack Start.