TREK/wiki/Install-Helm.md

Install: Helm

Deploy TREK on Kubernetes using the official Helm chart.

Add the Chart Repository

helm repo add trek https://chart.liketrek.com
helm repo update

Note: chart.liketrek.com is a custom domain (CNAME) for the GitHub Pages site at https://liketrek.github.io/TREK — both serve the same chart repository. Using the custom domain keeps your setup working even if the GitHub repository moves again.

⚠️ Repository moved: The chart is no longer served at https://mauriceboe.github.io/TREK (the project moved from a personal repo to the liketrek organization). If you added the repo from the old URL, switch to the new one:

helm repo remove trek
helm repo add trek https://chart.liketrek.com
helm repo update

Existing releases keep working — only the repo URL changes; future helm repo update / helm upgrade runs require the new URL. (https://liketrek.github.io/TREK also works — it redirects to chart.liketrek.com.)

Basic Install

helm install trek trek/trek

This deploys TREK with default values: a ClusterIP service on port 3000, 1 Gi PVCs for data and uploads, and no ingress.

Encryption Key

ENCRYPTION_KEY encrypts stored secrets (API keys, MFA, SMTP, OIDC) at rest. There are three ways to handle it:

Option 1 — Let the chart generate a random key (recommended for new installs):

helm install trek trek/trek --set generateEncryptionKey=true

The chart generates a 32-character alphanumeric key at install time and preserves it across upgrades. Note that this differs from the 64-character hex key produced by openssl rand -hex 32 — both formats are accepted by the server.

Option 2 — Set an explicit key:

helm install trek trek/trek \
  --set secretEnv.ENCRYPTION_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

Option 3 — Use an existing Kubernetes Secret:

kubectl create secret generic trek-secrets \
  --from-literal=ENCRYPTION_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

helm install trek trek/trek \
  --set existingSecret=trek-secrets

If existingSecret uses a different key name than ENCRYPTION_KEY, specify it with --set existingSecretKey=MY_KEY_NAME.

Note: If both generateEncryptionKey and existingSecret are set, existingSecret takes precedence. Only one method should be active at a time.

Note: If ENCRYPTION_KEY is left empty, the server resolves it automatically: existing installs fall back to data/.jwt_secret (encrypted data stays readable after upgrade); fresh installs auto-generate a key persisted to the data PVC.

Note: JWT_SECRET is managed entirely by the server — auto-generated on first start and persisted to the data PVC. It can be rotated via the admin panel (Settings → Danger Zone → Rotate JWT Secret). No Helm configuration is needed or supported for it.

Admin Account

ADMIN_EMAIL and ADMIN_PASSWORD are set via secretEnv. They are only used on first boot when no users exist yet. Both must be set together — if either is missing, the server ignores both values and instead creates the admin account with email admin@trek.local and a random password, which is printed to the server log.

helm install trek trek/trek \
  --set secretEnv.ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@example.com \
  --set secretEnv.ADMIN_PASSWORD=<your-secure-password>

Note: When OIDC_ONLY=true is configured together with OIDC_ISSUER and OIDC_CLIENT_ID, no local admin account is created on first boot. Instead, the first user to log in via SSO automatically becomes admin.

Key values.yaml Settings

Image

image:
  repository: mauriceboe/trek
  # tag: latest        # defaults to the chart's appVersion
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent

# Optional: pull secrets for private registries
imagePullSecrets: []
  # - name: my-registry-secret

Service

service:
  type: ClusterIP   # change to LoadBalancer or NodePort to expose externally
  port: 3000

Plain Environment Variables (env)

env:
  NODE_ENV: production
  PORT: 3000
  # TZ: "Europe/Berlin"          # timezone for logs, reminders, cron jobs
  # LOG_LEVEL: "info"            # "info" = concise, "debug" = verbose
  # TREK_WIKI_DIR: "/app/wiki"   # where /help reads its docs from; leave unset (the image ships them)
  # DEFAULT_LANGUAGE: "en"       # fallback language on login page; supported: de, en, es, fr, hu, nl, br, cs, pl, ru, zh, zh-TW, it, tr, ar, id, ja, ko, uk, gr, sv, vi, ca
  # ALLOWED_ORIGINS: "https://trek.example.com"
  # APP_URL: "https://trek.example.com"
  # FORCE_HTTPS: "false"         # enable HTTPS redirect + HSTS; requires TRUST_PROXY
  # TRUST_PROXY: "1"             # proxy hops for X-Forwarded-For/Proto; defaults to 1 in production
  # COOKIE_SECURE: "true"        # auto-derived; set "false" only for local HTTP testing
  # ALLOW_INTERNAL_NETWORK: "false"  # set "true" if Immich or other services are on a private network
  # DEMO_MODE: "false"           # enable demo mode (hourly data resets)
  # MCP_RATE_LIMIT: "300"        # max MCP requests per user per minute
  # OIDC_ISSUER: "https://auth.example.com"
  # OIDC_CLIENT_ID: "trek"
  # OIDC_DISPLAY_NAME: "SSO"
  # OIDC_ONLY: "false"           # force SSO-only mode; disables password login
  # OIDC_ADMIN_CLAIM: ""         # OIDC claim used to identify admin users
  # OIDC_ADMIN_VALUE: ""         # value of that claim that grants admin role
  # OIDC_SCOPE: "openid email profile groups"
  # OIDC_DISCOVERY_URL: ""       # override for providers with non-standard discovery paths (e.g. Authentik)

Sensitive Variables (secretEnv)

These are stored in a Kubernetes Secret and injected as environment variables:

secretEnv:
  ENCRYPTION_KEY: ""        # recommended: openssl rand -hex 32
  ADMIN_EMAIL: ""           # initial admin email (first boot only)
  ADMIN_PASSWORD: ""        # initial admin password (first boot only)
  OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET: ""    # set if using OIDC
  UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY: ""   # optional; free key from unsplash.com/developers

Alternatively, use generateEncryptionKey: true to let the chart generate and manage the encryption key, or point existingSecret / existingSecretKey at an existing Kubernetes Secret.

Note: Without UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY the server queries Unsplash's unauthenticated endpoint, which many datacenter and VPS IP ranges — including a lot of Kubernetes clusters — are blocked or rate-limited on. Trip-cover and place-image search then fail with "Unsplash search unavailable". A free Access Key switches the server to Unsplash's authenticated API (api.unsplash.com), which is not subject to that block. The key can also be set in Admin → Settings → API Keys; this value takes priority over that one. See Environment-Variables.

Persistent Storage

persistence:
  enabled: true
  data:
    size: 1Gi     # SQLite database, logs, secrets
  uploads:
    size: 1Gi     # uploaded files — increase if you expect large media uploads

Resource Limits

resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 100m
    memory: 256Mi
  limits:
    cpu: 500m
    memory: 512Mi

Ingress

ingress:
  enabled: true
  className: "nginx"   # your ingress class
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-read-timeout: "86400"  # required for WebSockets
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-body-size: "500m"       # required for backup restore
  hosts:
    - host: trek.example.com
      paths:
        - /
  tls:
    - secretName: trek-tls
      hosts:
        - trek.example.com

Important: TREK uses WebSockets on /ws. Your ingress controller must support WebSocket upgrades. Set proxy-read-timeout to at least 86400 and proxy-body-size to at least 500m for backup restores.

Note: Keep env.ALLOWED_ORIGINS in sync with ingress.hosts — the chart does not synchronize these automatically.

Note: When using ingress with TLS termination, set env.FORCE_HTTPS: "true" and env.TRUST_PROXY: "1" to enable HTTPS redirects, HSTS, and secure cookies.

Upgrade

helm repo update
helm upgrade trek trek/trek

Full Values Reference

See the charts/README.md for all available values.

Next Steps

• Environment-Variables — full variable reference
• Reverse-Proxy — proxy configuration for non-Kubernetes deployments