Trilium supports configuration via a file named config.ini and environment variables. This document provides a comprehensive reference for all configuration options.

Location of the configuration file

The configuration file is not located in the same directory as the application. Instead, the config.ini is located in the Data directory. As such, the configuration file is only available after starting the application and creating a database.

Configuration Precedence

Configuration values are loaded in the following order of precedence (highest to lowest):

  1. Environment variables (checked first)
  2. config.ini file values
  3. Default values

Environment Variable Patterns

Trilium supports multiple environment variable patterns for flexibility. The primary pattern is: TRILIUM_[SECTION]_[KEY]

Where:

Additionally, shorter aliases are available for common configurations (see Alternative Variables section below).

Environment Variable Reference

General

Environment Variable Type Default Description
TRILIUM_GENERAL_INSTANCENAME string "" Instance name for API identification
TRILIUM_GENERAL_NOAUTHENTICATION boolean false Disable authentication (server only)
TRILIUM_GENERAL_NOBACKUP boolean false Disable automatic backups
TRILIUM_GENERAL_NODESKTOPICON boolean false Disable desktop icon creation
TRILIUM_GENERAL_READONLY boolean false Enable read-only mode

Network

Environment Variable Type Default Description
TRILIUM_NETWORK_HOST string "0.0.0.0" Server host binding
TRILIUM_NETWORK_PORT string "8080" Server port
TRILIUM_NETWORK_HTTPS boolean false Enable HTTPS
TRILIUM_NETWORK_CERTPATH string "" SSL certificate path
TRILIUM_NETWORK_KEYPATH string "" SSL key path
TRILIUM_NETWORK_TRUSTEDREVERSEPROXY boolean/string false Reverse proxy trust settings
TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORSALLOWORIGIN string "" CORS allowed origins
TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORSALLOWMETHODS string "" CORS allowed methods
TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORSALLOWHEADERS string "" CORS allowed headers
TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORSRESOURCEPOLICY string same-origin CORS Resource Policy allows same-origin/same-site/cross-origin as values, will error if not

Session

Environment Variable Type Default Description
TRILIUM_SESSION_COOKIEMAXAGE integer 1814400 Session cookie max age in seconds (21 days)

Sync

Environment Variable Type Default Description
TRILIUM_SYNC_SYNCSERVERHOST string "" Sync server host URL
TRILIUM_SYNC_SYNCSERVERTIMEOUT string "120000" Sync server timeout in milliseconds
TRILIUM_SYNC_SYNCPROXY string "" Sync proxy URL

MultiFactorAuthentication

See Signing in with OpenID Connect.

Logging

Environment Variable Type Default Description
TRILIUM_LOGGING_RETENTIONDAYS integer 90 Number of days to retain log files

Development

Environment Variable Type Default Description
TRILIUM_MANUAL_DB_MIGRATION boolean false If true, the application will not start if automatic database migrations are pending and would modify the database schema.
Alternative environment variables

The following alternative environment variable names are also supported and work identically to their longer counterparts.

Network CORS

  • TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORS_ALLOW_ORIGIN (alternative to TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORSALLOWORIGIN)
  • TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORS_ALLOW_METHODS (alternative to TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORSALLOWMETHODS)
  • TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORS_ALLOW_HEADERS (alternative to TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORSALLOWHEADERS)
  • TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORS_RESOURCE_POLICY (alternative to TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORSRESOURCEPOLICY)

Sync

  • TRILIUM_SYNC_SERVER_HOST (alternative to TRILIUM_SYNC_SYNCSERVERHOST)
  • TRILIUM_SYNC_SERVER_TIMEOUT (alternative to TRILIUM_SYNC_SYNCSERVERTIMEOUT)
  • TRILIUM_SYNC_SERVER_PROXY (alternative to TRILIUM_SYNC_SYNCPROXY)

OAuth/MFA

  • TRILIUM_OAUTH_BASE_URL (alternative to TRILIUM_MULTIFACTORAUTHENTICATION_OAUTHBASEURL)
  • TRILIUM_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID (alternative to TRILIUM_MULTIFACTORAUTHENTICATION_OAUTHCLIENTID)
  • TRILIUM_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET (alternative to TRILIUM_MULTIFACTORAUTHENTICATION_OAUTHCLIENTSECRET)
  • TRILIUM_OAUTH_ISSUER_BASE_URL (alternative to TRILIUM_MULTIFACTORAUTHENTICATION_OAUTHISSUERBASEURL)
  • TRILIUM_OAUTH_ISSUER_NAME (alternative to TRILIUM_MULTIFACTORAUTHENTICATION_OAUTHISSUERNAME)
  • TRILIUM_OAUTH_ISSUER_ICON (alternative to TRILIUM_MULTIFACTORAUTHENTICATION_OAUTHISSUERICON)
  • TRILIUM_OAUTH_HTTP_TIMEOUT (alternative to TRILIUM_MULTIFACTORAUTHENTICATION_OAUTHHTTPTIMEOUT)
  • TRILIUM_OAUTH_SCOPE (alternative to TRILIUM_MULTIFACTORAUTHENTICATION_OAUTHSCOPE)

Logging

  • TRILIUM_LOGGING_RETENTION_DAYS (alternative to TRILIUM_LOGGING_RETENTIONDAYS)

Boolean Values

Boolean environment variables accept the following values:

Using Environment Variables

Both naming patterns are fully supported and can be used interchangeably:

Examples

 Docker Compose

services:
  trilium:
    image: triliumnext/trilium
    environment:
      # Using full format
      TRILIUM_GENERAL_INSTANCENAME: "My Trilium Instance"
      TRILIUM_NETWORK_PORT: "8080"
      TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORSALLOWORIGIN: "https://myapp.com"
      TRILIUM_SYNC_SYNCSERVERHOST: "https://sync.example.com"
      TRILIUM_MULTIFACTORAUTHENTICATION_OAUTHBASEURL: "https://auth.example.com"
      
      # Or using shorter alternatives (equally valid)
      # TRILIUM_NETWORK_CORS_ALLOW_ORIGIN: "https://myapp.com"
      # TRILIUM_SYNC_SERVER_HOST: "https://sync.example.com"
      # TRILIUM_OAUTH_BASE_URL: "https://auth.example.com"

 Linux Shell

# Using either format
export TRILIUM_GENERAL_NOAUTHENTICATION=false
export TRILIUM_NETWORK_HTTPS=true
export TRILIUM_NETWORK_CERTPATH=/path/to/cert.pem
export TRILIUM_NETWORK_KEYPATH=/path/to/key.pem
export TRILIUM_LOGGING_RETENTIONDAYS=30

# Start Trilium
npm start

config.ini Reference

For the complete list of configuration options and their INI file format, please review the config-sample.ini file in the Trilium repository.