Frame docs

Frame docs · Run your server

Storage and sizing

Decide on storage before your friends start posting: switching an existing server between local disk and R2 is not automatic.

Local disk (default)

Photos and videos are stored as files in the data directory: /var/lib/frame/media with the Linux installer, or the frame-data volume with Docker. This is the simplest option, and backups are copies of the folder. Files are stored as uploaded; use full-disk encryption on the host if that matters to you.

Cloudflare R2 or another S3 bucket

Useful when your disk is small (a Pi's SD card, a tiny VPS) or you want media off the machine. R2 has 10 GB of free storage and free egress, so viewing photos costs nothing. Frame encrypts every file before uploading it (AES-256-GCM), so the bucket only ever stores ciphertext.

  1. Step 1: Open R2

    In the Cloudflare dashboard, open R2 Object Storage. The first time, Cloudflare asks for a payment method; you aren't charged within the free tier.

  2. Step 2: Create a private bucket

    Create a bucket, for example frame-media, with automatic location. Leave it private: don't enable public access or a public r2.dev URL. Frame serves the media itself.

  3. Step 3: Create a token for that bucket only

    Under R2 → Manage API tokens → Create API token, choose the permission Object Read & Write and Apply to specific buckets only, then pick frame-media. Copy the Access Key ID, the Secret Access Key (shown only once) and the S3 endpoint (https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com).

  4. Step 4: Configure Frame

    frame.conf
    FRAME_STORAGE=s3FRAME_S3_ENDPOINT=https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.comFRAME_S3_BUCKET=frame-mediaFRAME_S3_REGION=autoFRAME_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<access key id>FRAME_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY='<secret access key>'# FRAME_S3_ENCRYPT=true   (the default; keep it)

    Restart (sudo systemctl restart frame, or docker compose up -d), post a photo, and check that objects appear under frame/ in the bucket.

  5. Step 5: Back up the encryption key

    Frame created secrets.json in its data directory. It holds the key that encrypts your bucket's objects. Keep a copy somewhere safe, such as a password manager or an offline USB stick (Backups & restore).

How much disk, bandwidth and money?

Assumptions: photos are about 400 KB and their thumbnails about 60 KB; a 10-second video is about 3 MB. Each photo or video is stored once, however many friends receive it. The server never re-encodes images or video.

  • 10 friends × 5 photos a day
    Uploads per day:50 photos
    Storage per day:50 × 460 KB = 23 MB
    Storage per year:≈ 8.4 GB
  • 10 friends × (4 photos + 1 ten-second video) a day
    Uploads per day:40 photos + 10 videos
    Storage per day:18.4 MB + 30.6 MB = 49 MB
    Storage per year:≈ 18 GB
  • 4 people × 3 photos a day (family)
    Uploads per day:12 photos
    Storage per day:5.5 MB
    Storage per year:≈ 2 GB

The database (messages, reactions, accounts) stays tiny in comparison: a few hundred MB after years.

Bandwidth. In the photos-only case, if every moment reaches 9 friends who each load the thumbnail and the full photo, that's about 200 MB a day, or roughly 6 GB a month of downloads. With videos it's about 13 GB a month. Cheap VPSs include terabytes, and R2 egress is free.

  • A VPS with local storage
    About €4–6. A 40 GB disk lasts the photos-only group about 4 years.
  • A Raspberry Pi at home
    Electricity: a Pi 4 draws about 3–5 W, roughly €1 a month.
  • + Cloudflare R2
    €0 up to 10 GB. Beyond that, about $0.015 per GB-month (≈ $0.15 a month for 20 GB).
  • + a domain
    About €10 a year.

Hardware: 1 CPU core and 512 MB–1 GB of RAM are enough. Frame itself uses roughly 30–60 MB, and even a Pi stays idle most of the time.

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