Deploy your own Fediverse instance with Snac

If you want to be in the Fediverse without relying on big intances, or if you just want to own your data and your identity on the network, running your own instance is the way to go.

The problem is that most Fediverse software like Mastodon requires a lot of resources, complex setups, and ongoing maintenance. That is where Mastodon alternatives such as GoToSocial and snac comes in.

GoToSocial is amazing and powerful, this is the one I have been using for a long time, it is written in Go and used PostgreSQL for database, can really handle mid/large instances.

However, deploying GoToSocial still requires some skills and the maintanance of a GTS instance requires knowing how to manage a database because the DB migrations are the main point of issues if something goes wrong (but it rarely goes wrong, GTS is preety stable)

I personally find Snac more appealing for single user or small instances, because it is really simple and can even be deployed along side on your existing VPS or Home Server.

snac (Social Networks Are Crap) is a minimalistic, lightweight ActivityPub instance written in C. It is perfect for single user instances or small communities, and it runs so light that even a Raspberry Pi can handle it without breaking a sweat.

You can get an idea of how it looks like by acessing my own instance on https://cesar.rocha.social/bruno

One of the things I find genius about snac is the decision to use the filesystem as its database. No PostgreSQL, no Redis, no migrations. Just files and hard links on disk. This makes everything simpler: backups are just a tar or rsync, there is nothing to tune or vacuum, and you can inspect your data with plain old ls and cat.

The web interface has zero JavaScript, no cookies, and no tracking. It looks simple but it is surprisingly powerful. You can do everything from the browser without needing any external client. That said, snac fully implements the Mastodon API, so all the popular Mastodon clients like Tusky, Phanpy, Ice Cubes, and Elk work perfectly with it.

And it is not just a barebones server either. Snac supports modern Fediverse features like account migration (Move), scheduled posts, polls, emoji reactions, custom emojis, media proxying for privacy, and even Webmention support.

In this guide I will walk you through the complete process of deploying snac on a fresh Debian system, from compilation to a fully federating instance with systemd and nginx.

What you will need

• A VPS or home server running Debian 11+ (or Ubuntu 20.04+)
• A domain name pointing to your server (e.g. snac.yourdomain.com)
• Root or sudo access
• About 10 minutes of your time

Why Snac?

Before jumping into the setup, here is why snac is a great choice:

• Minimal dependencies: only needs OpenSSL and curl
• No database: everything is stored as files on the filesystem using hard links
• Multiuser: you can host multiple accounts on a single instance
• Mastodon API compatible: works with apps like Tusky, Ice Cubes, Megalodon, Phanpy, Elk, etc.
• Tiny footprint: runs happily on a $5/month VPS or even a Raspberry Pi
• Federation works out of the box: tested with Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, Misskey, and others

A note about domain choice

Before you start, you need to decide how your instance will be accessible. Snac supports two options:

• Subdomain: snac.yourdomain.com (recommended)
• Subpath: yourdomain.com/snac

For this guide I will use snac.yourdomain.com as the example domain.

Step 1: Install build dependencies

First, update your system and install the required packages:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y build-essential libcurl4-openssl-dev libssl-dev git

That is it. No Ruby, no Node.js, no Redis, no PostgreSQL.

Step 2: Build and install snac

Clone the repository and compile:

git clone https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2.git
cd snac2
make
sudo make install

This installs the snac binary to /usr/local/bin/ and the man pages to /usr/local/man/.

You can verify the installation:

snac

It should print the usage information and available commands.

Step 3: Create a system user

Create a dedicated user for running snac:

sudo useradd -r -s /usr/sbin/nologin -m -d /home/snac snac

Step 4: Initialize the data directory

Run the init command as the snac user:

sudo -u snac snac init /home/snac/data

This will ask you a few questions interactively:

• Host name: your public domain (e.g. snac.yourdomain.com)
• Path prefix: leave empty unless you want snac under a subpath like /snac
• Network address: use 127.0.0.1 (nginx will handle public traffic)
• Port: use 8001 (or any available port)

The configuration is saved to /home/snac/data/server.json. You can edit it later to tune things like timeline purge days, queue settings, and more.

Here are some useful settings you might want to adjust in server.json:

{
    "title": "My Fediverse Instance",
    "short_description": "A personal snac instance",
    "admin_email": "admin@yourdomain.com",
    "proxy_media": true,
    "strip_exif": false,
    "timeline_purge_days": 120,
    "dbglevel": 0
}

Setting proxy_media to true is recommended for privacy, as it proxies remote media through your instance instead of having your visitors fetch images directly from external servers. And strip_exif removes metadata from uploaded images, flip to true if you want it.

Step 5: Create your first user

sudo -u snac snac adduser /home/snac/data yourusername

It will ask for a display name, and then it will generate a random password and print it to the terminal. Copy it and save it somewhere safe. You can change it later from the web interface or reset it with snac resetpwd.

Step 6: Set up systemd

Create the service file at /etc/systemd/system/snac.service:

[Unit]
Description=snac2 ActivityPub instance
Documentation=https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2
After=network.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=snac
Group=snac
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/snac httpd /home/snac/data
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
NoNewPrivileges=yes
PrivateTmp=yes
PrivateDevices=yes
ProtectSystem=full

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable snac
sudo systemctl start snac

Check that it is running:

sudo systemctl status snac

You can also follow the logs in real time:

sudo journalctl -u snac -f

Step 7: Configure nginx as reverse proxy

Install nginx and certbot if you have not already:

sudo apt install -y nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Create a new site configuration at /etc/nginx/sites-available/snac:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name snac.yourdomain.com;

    client_max_body_size 100M;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8001;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
    }
}

Enable the site and get a TLS certificate:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/snac /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d snac.yourdomain.com

Certbot will automatically modify your nginx config to add HTTPS and redirect HTTP traffic.

Optional: Media caching with nginx

If you enabled "proxy_media": true in your server.json, snac will proxy remote media through your instance for privacy. You can add nginx caching to reduce load on your server.

Add to your /etc/nginx/nginx.conf inside the http block:

proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx/snac_media levels=1:2 keys_zone=snac_media:10m
                 max_size=1g inactive=1d use_temp_path=off;

Then add this location block before the catch all location / in your site config:

location ~ ^/.+/(x|y)/ {
    proxy_cache snac_media;
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8001;
    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
    proxy_cache_valid 200 1d;
    proxy_cache_valid 404 1h;
    proxy_ignore_headers "Cache-Control" "Expires";
    proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504;
    proxy_cache_lock on;
    add_header X-Proxy-Cache $upstream_cache_status;
}

Create the cache directory and reload:

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/nginx/snac_media
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/cache/nginx/snac_media
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 8: Verify federation

At this point, your instance should be live and federating. Let us verify:

curl -s "https://snac.yourdomain.com/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:yourusername@snac.yourdomain.com"

You should get a JSON response with your account information. If that works, your instance is discoverable by the rest of the Fediverse.

Now open your browser and go to https://snac.yourdomain.com/yourusername to see your profile. Log in through the web interface, write your first post, and try following someone from another instance.

You can also use any Mastodon compatible app (Tusky, Ice Cubes, Phanpy, Elk, Megalodon, etc.) by pointing it to your instance URL and logging in with your credentials.

Administration tips

Here are some useful commands for day to day management:

Task	Command
Add a new user	sudo -u snac snac adduser /home/snac/data username
List all users	sudo -u snac snac userlist /home/snac/data
Reset a password	sudo -u snac snac resetpwd /home/snac/data username
Check server state	sudo -u snac snac state /home/snac/data
Block an instance	sudo -u snac snac block /home/snac/data instance.com
Unblock an instance	sudo -u snac snac unblock /home/snac/data instance.com
Purge old data	sudo -u snac snac purge /home/snac/data
Export user data	sudo -u snac snac export_csv /home/snac/data username

Creating a snac-admin wrapper

Typing sudo -u snac snac ... /home/snac/data every time gets old fast. You can create a simple wrapper script to make administration easier.

Create /usr/local/bin/snac-admin:

#!/bin/bash
# Wrapper script for snac2 CLI commands
# Usage: snac-admin <command> [options...]
# Example: snac-admin adduser myuser
#          snac-admin resetpwd myuser
#          snac-admin userlist

# Re-exec as the snac user if running as root
if [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ]; then
    exec sudo -u snac "$0" "$@"
fi

export SNAC_BASEDIR="/home/snac/data"
exec /usr/local/bin/snac "$@"

Make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/snac-admin

Now you can simply run:

sudo snac-admin adduser newuser
sudo snac-admin userlist
sudo snac-admin resetpwd someuser

Upgrading snac

When a new version is released, updating is straightforward:

cd snac2
git pull
make
sudo make install

If the release notes mention a data format change, stop the service first and run the upgrade command:

sudo systemctl stop snac
sudo -u snac snac upgrade /home/snac/data
sudo systemctl start snac

The easy way: YunoHost

If you do not want to deal with manual configuration, nginx, systemd, and TLS certificates, there is an even simpler option.

YunoHost is a server operating system that makes self hosting accessible to everyone. It handles domain management, TLS, backups, user management, and application installation through a web interface.

Snac is available as an official YunoHost application. You can install it with a few clicks from the YunoHost admin panel or via the command line:

yunohost app install snac

The YunoHost package takes care of everything: compiling from source, configuring nginx with proper headers, setting up systemd with security hardening, creating the admin user, and even providing a configuration panel where you can tweak over 50 settings without touching any JSON files. It also handles backups and restores automatically, so you can migrate between servers without losing data.

Check the official package page for more details: https://apps.yunohost.org/app/snac

Conclusion

Running your own Fediverse instance does not have to be complicated or expensive. With snac, you get a fully functional ActivityPub server that compiles in seconds, uses almost no resources, and federates perfectly with the rest of the network.

Whether you set it up manually on a Debian VPS, run it on a Raspberry Pi at home, or use YunoHost for a managed experience, you will have full control over your social presence on the Fediverse.

The source code is available at codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2.

Now go follow me at my GtS @bruno@rocha.social AND/OR my Snac @bruno@cesar.rocha.social