Karakeep on Render

Deploy Karakeep, the self-hosted bookmark and read-it-later app, on Render with the official GHCR AIO image, Meilisearch, and headless Chrome.

What This Template Shows

This repo is a thin Render packaging of Karakeep's official AIO image plus Meilisearch and Chrome sidecars. Small Dockerfiles adapt entrypoint / Chrome flags only; no monorepo build.

Piece	Role
Karakeep	Bookmarks, archives, search, AI tagging
ghcr.io/karakeep-app/karakeep	Official AIO image (via thin Dockerfile)
Meilisearch	Full-text search (getmeili/meilisearch)
Chrome	Headless crawler / screenshots (alpine-chrome)
Render Disk	SQLite + data at /data; Meili data at /meili_data

Architecture

flowchart LR
  browser["Browser"] --> web["karakeep<br/>AIO image"]
  web --> meili["meilisearch"]
  web --> chrome["chrome"]
  web --> disk[("/data")]
  meili --> mdisk[("/meili_data")]

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How It Works

1. Click Deploy to Render. Render forks this template and applies render.yaml.
2. Render builds thin Docker wrappers (AIO + Chrome) and pulls Meilisearch.
3. Open the karakeep URL and create an account.
4. Optionally add OPENAI_API_KEY in the Dashboard for AI tagging.
5. Save bookmarks; search and archives use Meilisearch + Chrome over the private network.

Resource	Type	Plan	Notes
karakeep	Web (runtime: docker)	starter	AIO image; health /api/health; 5 GB disk
meilisearch	Private (runtime: image)	starter	1 GB disk
chrome	Private (runtime: docker)	starter	Remote debugging on 9222

Default region: oregon. Previews are off. LLM keys are not required at Apply time.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• A Render account
• Optional: OpenAI API key for AI tagging

Deploy

1. Click Deploy to Render above and fork into your GitHub account.
2. On Apply, leave OPENAI_API_KEY blank unless you want AI tagging immediately.
3. Wait until services are Live (~5–10 minutes).
4. Open the karakeep URL and finish signup.
5. Add bookmarks; optionally set OPENAI_API_KEY later in the Dashboard.

Health check:

curl -sS https://<your-karakeep>.onrender.com/api/health

Features

Feature	Description
Official AIO image	Thin wrapper around GHCR Karakeep
Search + crawl	Meilisearch + headless Chrome private services
Persistent SQLite	5 GB disk at /data
Generated secrets	NEXTAUTH_SECRET, MEILI_MASTER_KEY
Optional AI	OPENAI_API_KEY after deploy

Configuration

Variable	Source	Description
MEILI_MASTER_KEY	Auto-generated (group)	Shared Meilisearch key
NEXTAUTH_SECRET	Auto-generated	Auth sessions
NEXTAUTH_URL	Wired	From karakeep public URL
DATA_DIR	Wired	/data
MEILI_HOST / MEILI_PORT	Wired	Meilisearch private host + 7700 (entrypoint builds MEILI_ADDR)
BROWSER_WEB_HOST / BROWSER_WEB_PORT	Wired	Chrome private host + 9222 (entrypoint builds BROWSER_WEB_URL)
DB_WAL_MODE	Wired	true
MEILI_NO_ANALYTICS	Wired	true on Meilisearch
OPENAI_API_KEY	Optional (sync: false)	AI tagging; leave blank at Apply

Cost

Resource	Approx. monthly
karakeep (Starter)	~$7
meilisearch (Starter)	~$7
chrome (Starter)	~$7
Disks (6 GB total)	~$1.50
Total	~$24–28

Bump karakeep to Standard if you OOM on large imports or heavy crawling.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Health check fails / no open ports	Keep Starter+; check disk mount at /data and logs for Meili connectivity.
Search empty / crawl fails	Confirm meilisearch and chrome are Live; BROWSER_WEB_HOST wiring.
AI tagging missing	Set OPENAI_API_KEY in Dashboard → Environment.
Data lost after redeploy	Disks must remain attached (/data, /meili_data).

Project Structure

render.yaml                 Render Blueprint
README.md                   This file
LICENSE                     MIT (template wrapper)
.env.example                Optional notes
assets/                     Hero
docker/Dockerfile.render-*  Thin image wrappers
docker/render-entrypoint.sh Builds BROWSER_WEB_URL from Render host

Learn More

Render:

• Web Services
• Private Services
• Disks
• Blueprints

Karakeep:

• Upstream repo
• GHCR package

License

MIT for this template wrapper.

Upstream Karakeep license: see upstream repo. Star that project if this helped.