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else wer

Quick start

This guide gets else-wer running on any always-on computer on your home network — a Raspberry Pi, a NAS, an old laptop, a mini PC. You don’t need to be a developer to follow it.

What you need

Section titled “What you need”
  • A computer that can stay on (Docker installed — see docker.com/get-started if you don’t have it yet)
  • Your audiobook files, in a folder on that computer
  • 5 minutes

1. Get the project

Section titled “1. Get the project”
Terminal window
git clone https://github.com/syedyaseen/else-wer-server.git
cd else-wer-server

2. Set your secret key

Section titled “2. Set your secret key”

Copy the example env file and set a long random string as your JWT_SECRET — this is what keeps login sessions secure:

Terminal window
cp .env.docker.example .env.docker

Then open .env.docker and fill in JWT_SECRET (any long, unguessable string works — e.g. run openssl rand -hex 32 and paste the result).

3. Add your audiobooks

Section titled “3. Add your audiobooks”

Create an audiobooks folder in the project root and put your audiobook folders/files inside it. else-wer will scan this folder for your library.

Terminal window
mkdir audiobooks

4. Start it

Section titled “4. Start it”
Terminal window
docker compose up -d --build

The first build takes a few minutes (it compiles the server and the app). After that, docker compose up -d starts instantly.

5. Open else-wer

Section titled “5. Open else-wer”

Visit http://<the-computer's-ip-address>:3000 from any device on your home network (phone, tablet, laptop). Log in with the default admin account shown in the container logs on first start (docker compose logs), then change the password right away from the user menu.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”