Warden

Installation

Docker is the quickest way to run it. Every release also includes a ready-to-run Windows build.

Docker ​

Create a docker-compose.yml next to your content:

docker-compose.yml
yaml
services:
  warden:
    image: ghcr.io/hawkinslabdev/warden:latest
    container_name: warden
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./content:/app/content
      - ./data:/app/data

content/ is your .md files and an optional config.json. data/ is warden.db (check history) and keys/ (admin session keys). Both are bind mounts, so recreating the container does not delete them. Start it:

bash
mkdir -p data && chown -R 1654:1654 data
docker compose up -d

The container runs as user 1654. If data/ is not writable by that user, startup exits with the exact chown command to run. On a host with SELinux (Fedora, RHEL), add :Z to the data volume line as well.

The status page is now at http://localhost:8080. See Docker Compose notes for reverse proxy and base path settings.

Windows and IIS ​

  1. Download the latest *-Windows_x64.zip from Releases.
  2. Extract it into your site folder, for example C:\inetpub\warden.
  3. Create an IIS site pointed at that folder, with the CLR version set to "No Managed Code".
  4. Install the .NET 11 Hosting Bundle.
  5. Start the site and browse to it.

The zip includes a web.config for in-process hosting. No edits are needed. Each release also includes a *-Linux_x64.zip; that install path isn't documented yet.

To change the port, hide drafts, or keep an API key out of your content folder, see environment variables.