Run your own IPFS node on Umbrel with Kubo

My saltedlolly App Store for Umbrel has a new app: Kubo IPFS. It runs your own node on IPFS, the peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing files, right on your Umbrel home server, with the official web interface for keeping an eye on it.

What’s IPFS?

On the ordinary web, a link points to a place: a particular server, which has to stay online for the link to keep working. IPFS (the InterPlanetary File System) works differently. Every file gets an address made from its contents, and anyone on the network who has a copy can serve it. As long as someone keeps a copy, the link keeps working, wherever it came from.

Kubo is the original and most widely used IPFS software, and it’s what this app runs.

What the app gives you

• A full IPFS node on your Umbrel, connected to other IPFS peers around the world.
• The official IPFS web interface, for adding and pinning files (keeping your own copy, so you help keep them available), browsing what you’ve pinned, seeing who you’re connected to, and watching bandwidth and storage use.
• A gateway on port 8395, so IPFS content can be opened in an ordinary web browser through your own node, at http://umbrel.local:8395/ipfs/ followed by the content’s address.
• Updates that keep coming: a new version of the app follows each Kubo release automatically.

It’s tuned for an always-on server rather than a laptop, following Kubo’s own recommendations.

Built from scratch, and careful about security

I built this package from scratch rather than adapting an existing one. While looking at how others had done it, I found that an approach some had tried, making pinned files appear as ordinary files in Umbrel’s Files app, could never actually work, because of how IPFS stores things (more on that below). So this app doesn’t pretend otherwise.

Kubo’s control panel and API give full control of your node, and Kubo’s own documentation says to keep them private. In this app they’re never exposed on their own: the only way in is through Umbrel’s sign-in.

Worth knowing before you install

• Pinned files aren’t ordinary files. IPFS keeps content in its own database of small, scrambled-looking pieces, so you can’t open or browse it in Umbrel’s Files app. You manage it through the web interface instead.
• Uninstalling deletes your pinned content. Umbrel’s backups include it while the app is installed, but if you remove the app, its data goes with it. Make a backup first if it matters to you.
• The gateway has no login. Anyone who can reach port 8395 can fetch IPFS content through your node and its bandwidth. On a home network that means only your own devices, so don’t forward that port on your router unless you mean to run a public gateway.

How to install it

1. Open the App Store on your Umbrel, click ••• at the top right, then Community App Stores.
2. Paste https://github.com/saltedlolly/umbrel-app-store and click Add.
3. Open the saltedlolly App Store and install Kubo IPFS.

Then open the app from your Umbrel home screen to reach the web interface. If you run into a problem, please open an issue on GitHub.

Support my work

Kubo IPFS is free, like all my apps for Umbrel, and I build them in my spare time. If you find them useful, please consider sponsoring me on GitHub or buying me a coffee on Ko-fi. It helps me keep them updated and make new ones. More ways to support my work →

Kubo IPFS for Umbrel is an independent project, not made or endorsed by Umbrel or the IPFS project. Community app stores aren't official Umbrel services: please back up your data and test any app before relying on it.