Linkwarden Bookmark Manager

beginner

Linkwarden collaborative bookmark manager with link preservation.

Overview

Linkwarden is an open-source collaborative bookmark manager that goes beyond simple link storage by preserving web content through automatic screenshots, PDF archives, and full-page captures. Built with Next.js and TypeScript, Linkwarden ensures your bookmarks remain accessible even if the original content disappears or changes, making it invaluable for research, content curation, and knowledge management. PostgreSQL serves as the robust backend database for Linkwarden, handling user accounts, bookmark metadata, collections, tags, and sharing permissions with ACID compliance and advanced indexing. The relational structure of PostgreSQL excels at managing the complex relationships between users, bookmarks, collections, and collaborative sharing features that Linkwarden requires. This combination creates a powerful self-hosted alternative to commercial bookmark services like Pocket or Raindrop, offering complete data ownership and privacy control. Teams, researchers, content creators, and privacy-conscious individuals benefit from this stack's ability to preserve and organize web content while supporting multi-user collaboration and granular access controls.

Key Features

Automatic link preservation with screenshot captures and PDF generation of web pages
Collaborative bookmark collections with granular sharing permissions and team management
Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari with one-click bookmark saving
Full-text search across bookmark titles, descriptions, tags, and archived content
PostgreSQL's JSONB support for flexible bookmark metadata and custom fields storage
Advanced tagging system with hierarchical organization and bulk tag operations
Link monitoring with automatic checks for broken or changed URLs
REST API for programmatic bookmark management and third-party integrations

Common Use Cases

1Research teams preserving academic papers, articles, and reference materials with automatic archiving
2Content marketing teams collaborating on competitor analysis and industry trend collections
3Legal professionals archiving evidence and case-related web content with timestamp preservation
4Educational institutions creating shared resource libraries for students and faculty
5Personal knowledge management for developers saving documentation, tutorials, and code examples
6News organizations maintaining source archives with content preservation for fact-checking
7Privacy-focused individuals replacing cloud bookmark services with self-hosted alternative

Prerequisites

Minimum 1GB RAM for PostgreSQL database operations and Linkwarden's Next.js application
Port 3000 available for Linkwarden web interface access
Basic understanding of environment variables for authentication and database configuration
SSL certificate recommended for NEXTAUTH_URL in production deployments
Sufficient disk space for bookmark archives, screenshots, and PDF storage growth

For development & testing. Review security settings, change default credentials, and test thoroughly before production use. See Terms

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  linkwarden: 
3    image: ghcr.io/linkwarden/linkwarden:latest
4    container_name: linkwarden
5    environment: 
6      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/linkwarden
7      - NEXTAUTH_SECRET=${NEXTAUTH_SECRET}
8      - NEXTAUTH_URL=${NEXTAUTH_URL}
9    volumes: 
10      - linkwarden_data:/data/data
11    ports: 
12      - "3000:3000"
13    depends_on: 
14      - postgres
15    networks: 
16      - linkwarden-network
17
18  postgres: 
19    image: postgres:16-alpine
20    container_name: linkwarden-db
21    environment: 
22      - POSTGRES_USER=${POSTGRES_USER}
23      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
24      - POSTGRES_DB=linkwarden
25    volumes: 
26      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
27    networks: 
28      - linkwarden-network
29
30volumes: 
31  linkwarden_data: 
32  postgres_data: 
33
34networks: 
35  linkwarden-network: 
36    driver: bridge

.env Template

.env

1# Linkwarden
2POSTGRES_USER=linkwarden
3POSTGRES_PASSWORD=linkwarden_password
4NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your-nextauth-secret
5NEXTAUTH_URL=http://localhost:3000

Usage Notes

1UI at http://localhost:3000
2Create account on first visit
3Browser extensions available
4Preserves screenshots and PDFs
5Supports collections and tags

Individual Services(2 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

linkwarden

linkwarden:
  image: ghcr.io/linkwarden/linkwarden:latest
  container_name: linkwarden
  environment:
    - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/linkwarden
    - NEXTAUTH_SECRET=${NEXTAUTH_SECRET}
    - NEXTAUTH_URL=${NEXTAUTH_URL}
  volumes:
    - linkwarden_data:/data/data
  ports:
    - "3000:3000"
  depends_on:
    - postgres
  networks:
    - linkwarden-network

postgres

postgres:
  image: postgres:16-alpine
  container_name: linkwarden-db
  environment:
    - POSTGRES_USER=${POSTGRES_USER}
    - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
    - POSTGRES_DB=linkwarden
  volumes:
    - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
  networks:
    - linkwarden-network

Quick Start

terminal

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  linkwarden:
5    image: ghcr.io/linkwarden/linkwarden:latest
6    container_name: linkwarden
7    environment:
8      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/linkwarden
9      - NEXTAUTH_SECRET=${NEXTAUTH_SECRET}
10      - NEXTAUTH_URL=${NEXTAUTH_URL}
11    volumes:
12      - linkwarden_data:/data/data
13    ports:
14      - "3000:3000"
15    depends_on:
16      - postgres
17    networks:
18      - linkwarden-network
19
20  postgres:
21    image: postgres:16-alpine
22    container_name: linkwarden-db
23    environment:
24      - POSTGRES_USER=${POSTGRES_USER}
25      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
26      - POSTGRES_DB=linkwarden
27    volumes:
28      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
29    networks:
30      - linkwarden-network
31
32volumes:
33  linkwarden_data:
34  postgres_data:
35
36networks:
37  linkwarden-network:
38    driver: bridge
39EOF
40
41# 2. Create the .env file
42cat > .env << 'EOF'
43# Linkwarden
44POSTGRES_USER=linkwarden
45POSTGRES_PASSWORD=linkwarden_password
46NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your-nextauth-secret
47NEXTAUTH_URL=http://localhost:3000
48EOF
49
50# 3. Start the services
51docker compose up -d
52
53# 4. View logs
54docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

terminal

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/linkwarden-bookmarks/run | bash

Troubleshooting

Authentication fails with 'Invalid NextAuth configuration': Ensure NEXTAUTH_SECRET is at least 32 characters and NEXTAUTH_URL matches your domain
Database connection refused on startup: Verify POSTGRES_USER and POSTGRES_PASSWORD match between services and database is fully initialized
Screenshot capture fails for certain websites: Some sites block automated screenshots; Linkwarden will save metadata only in these cases
Browser extension won't connect: Check that Linkwarden URL in extension settings matches NEXTAUTH_URL and includes correct port
PostgreSQL container exits with 'data directory has wrong ownership': Run 'sudo chown -R 999:999 postgres_data/' on the volume directory
High memory usage during bulk imports: Adjust PostgreSQL shared_buffers and work_mem settings for large bookmark migrations

Community Notes

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