MINIFLUX(1)

📦
version 2.3.5 · 6 versions
, in arch rolling, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

🌈 miniflux (MINIFLUX(1)) — the manual, but make it group chat 🌈

💖 NAME 💖

miniflux is a minimalist and opinionated feed reader. That's the whole vibe, bestie: minimal, opinionated, iconic. 👑

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

miniflux [options]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Okay so miniflux is a minimalist and opinionated feed reader. Periodt.

When started without any command option, miniflux runs as a daemon: it starts the HTTP server, the background scheduler that refreshes feeds, and the cleanup jobs. It's giving main character energy with three jobs at once. 💅

Miniflux requires a PostgreSQL database. The database schema must be up to date before the daemon starts: use -migrate or set RUN_MIGRATIONS. Don't skip the vibe check on your schema, fr fr. 🫶

Options can be prefixed with one or two dashes. Cute and flexible, iykyk.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -c, -config-file /path/to/miniflux.conf — Load the configuration file. Environment variables override the values defined in the file. ✨
  • -config-dump — Print parsed configuration values and exit. The output includes sensitive information like passwords. 🚨
  • -create-admin — Create an admin user from an interactive terminal and exit. The username and password are prompted for. 🎀
  • -debug — Set log level to debug. 🔍
  • -export-user-feeds username — Export the feeds of the given user as OPML to the standard output and exit. 📤
  • -flush-sessions — Flush all sessions (disconnect users) and exit. Bye besties, logged out era. 💀
  • -h, -help — Show usage information and exit. 🫶
  • -healthcheck endpoint — Perform a health check on the given endpoint and exit. The check fails if the endpoint cannot be reached within 3 seconds or does not return HTTP status 200. The value "auto" builds the endpoint from the first LISTEN_ADDR address and the base path of BASE_URL, for example http://127.0.0.1:8080/healthcheck. ✅
  • -i, -info — Show build information and exit. 🛠️
  • -migrate — Run SQL migrations and exit. 🗄️
  • -refresh-feeds — Refresh a batch of feeds and exit. 🔄
  • -reset-feed-errors — Clear all feed errors for all users and exit. Clean slate energy. ✨
  • -reset-feed-next-check-at — Reset the next check time for all feeds and exit. ⏰
  • -reset-password — Reset a user password from an interactive terminal and exit. The username and new password are prompted for. 🔐
  • -run-cleanup-tasks — Run cleanup tasks (delete old sessions and archive old entries) and exit. 🧹
  • -v, -version — Show application version and exit. 💅

🌸 CONFIGURATION FILE 🌸

The configuration file is a text file that follows these rules, bestie:

  • Each line is in KEY=VALUE format.
  • Lines beginning with # are comments and are ignored.
  • Blank lines and lines without = are ignored.
  • Whitespace around keys and values is removed.
  • Quotes are not removed: values are used as written.
  • An empty value keeps the default value.
  • Unknown keys are ignored.
  • There is no variable interpolation.

Keys are the same as the environment variables described below. Environment variables override the values defined in the config file. No cap. 🫶

🦋 ENVIRONMENT 🦋

Boolean options accept the following values (case-insensitive): 1/0, yes/no, true/false, on/off. ✅

For variables ending in _FILE, the value is a path to a file that contains the corresponding secret value. 🔐

  • ADMIN_PASSWORD — Admin user password, used only if CREATE_ADMIN is enabled. Default is empty. 🫶
  • ADMIN_PASSWORD_FILE — Path to a secret key exposed as a file, it should contain the ADMIN_PASSWORD value. Default is empty. 🔑
  • ADMIN_USERNAME — Admin user login, used only if CREATE_ADMIN is enabled. Default is empty. 🎀
  • ADMIN_USERNAME_FILE — Path to a secret key exposed as a file, it should contain the ADMIN_USERNAME value. Default is empty. 🔑
  • AUTH_PROXY_HEADER — Proxy authentication HTTP header. The option TRUSTED_REVERSE_PROXY_NETWORKS must be configured to allow the proxy to authenticate users. Default is empty. 🛡️
  • AUTH_PROXY_USER_CREATION — Set to 1 to create users based on proxy authentication information. When disabled, users must already exist in Miniflux to sign in through the proxy. Disabled by default. 👥
  • BASE_URL — Base URL to generate HTML links and base path for cookies. The scheme must be http or https. A path component sets the base path when Miniflux is served from a subfolder, for example https://example.org/miniflux/. Default is http://localhost. 🌈
  • BATCH_SIZE — Number of feeds to send to the queue for each interval. Default is 100 feeds. 📦
  • CERT_DOMAIN — Use Let's Encrypt to get automatically a certificate for this domain. Miniflux also listens on port 80 to answer the ACME HTTP challenge. Certificates are cached in the database. This option cannot be used with CERT_FILE and KEY_FILE. Default is empty. ✨
  • CERT_FILE — Path to SSL certificate. Must be used with KEY_FILE. Default is empty. 🔒
  • CLEANUP_ARCHIVE_BATCH_SIZE — Number of entries to archive for each job interval. Default is 10000 entries. 🗃️
  • CLEANUP_ARCHIVE_READ_DAYS — Number of days before the cleanup job archives read entries. Archiving deletes non-bookmarked, non-shared read entries from the database and records a tombstone to prevent the same entry from being imported again during a later feed refresh. Set to -1 to disable automatic archiving of read entries. Default is 60 days. 🪦
  • CLEANUP_ARCHIVE_UNREAD_DAYS — Number of days before the cleanup job archives unread entries. Archiving deletes non-bookmarked, non-shared unread entries from the database and records a tombstone to prevent the same entry from being imported again during a later feed refresh. Set to -1 to disable automatic archiving of unread entries. Default is 180 days. 🪦
  • CLEANUP_FREQUENCY_HOURS — Interval in hours between cleanup jobs (remove old sessions and archive entries). Default is 24 hours. ⏳
  • CLEANUP_REMOVE_SESSIONS_DAYS — Number of days after which sessions are removed from the database. Default is 30 days. 💀
  • CREATE_ADMIN — Set to 1 to create an admin user from environment variables. Disabled by default. 👑
  • DATABASE_CONNECTION_LIFETIME — Maximum amount of time in minutes a connection may be reused. Default is 5 minutes. ⏱️
  • DATABASE_MAX_CONNS — Maximum number of database connections. Default is 20. 🔌
  • DATABASE_MIN_CONNS — Minimum number of database connections. Must be less than or equal to DATABASE_MAX_CONNS. Default is 1. 🔌
  • DATABASE_URL — PostgreSQL connection parameters. Default is user=postgres password=postgres dbname=miniflux2 sslmode=disable. 🐘
  • DATABASE_URL_FILE — Path to a secret key exposed as a file, it should contain the DATABASE_URL value. Default is empty. 🔑
  • DISABLE_API — Disable miniflux's API. Default is false (the API is enabled). 💀
  • DISABLE_HSTS — Disable HTTP Strict Transport Security header if HTTPS is set. Default is false (HSTS is enabled). 🛡️
  • DISABLE_HTTP_SERVICE — Set the value to 1 to disable the HTTP service. Default is false (the HTTP service is enabled). 🚫
  • DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH — Disable local authentication. When set to true, the username/password form is hidden from the login screen, and the options to change username/password or unlink OAuth2 account are hidden from the settings page. Password authentication is also rejected by the login form and by the REST API HTTP Basic Authentication, and passwords can no longer be changed. API clients must use an API key instead. This option requires an alternative authentication source such as OAuth2, auth proxy, or WebAuthn/Passkeys. If remote user creation is disabled, only existing users can sign in. To use WebAuthn as the only authentication method, register at least one Passkey while another authentication method is available, before enabling DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH. Default is false. 🔐
  • DISABLE_SCHEDULER_SERVICE — Set the value to 1 to disable the internal scheduler service. Default is false (the internal scheduler service is enabled). 🚫
  • FETCHER_ALLOW_PRIVATE_FEED_PROXY — Set to 1 to allow feed proxy URLs to use private or loopback network addresses. This option applies to all authenticated users and should only be enabled when the private proxy boundary is trusted. Disabled by default. ⚠️
  • FETCHER_ALLOW_PRIVATE_NETWORKS — Set to 1 to allow outgoing fetcher requests to private or loopback networks. Disabled by default, private networks are refused. ⚠️
  • FETCH_BILIBILI_WATCH_TIME — Set the value to 1 to scrape video duration from Bilibili website and use it as a reading time. Disabled by default. 🎬
  • FETCH_NEBULA_WATCH_TIME — Set the value to 1 to scrape video duration from Nebula website and use it as a reading time. Disabled by default. 🎬
  • FETCH_ODYSEE_WATCH_TIME — Set the value to 1 to scrape video duration from Odysee website and use it as a reading time. Disabled by default. 🎬
  • FETCH_YOUTUBE_WATCH_TIME — Set the value to 1 to scrape video duration from YouTube website and use it as a reading time. Disabled by default. 🎬
  • FORCE_REFRESH_INTERVAL — Minimum interval in minutes between two manual refreshes. Default is 30 minutes. ⏰
  • HTTP_CLIENT_MAX_BODY_SIZE — Maximum body size for HTTP requests in Mebibyte (MiB). Default is 15 MiB. 📦
  • HTTP_CLIENT_PROXIES — Enable proxy rotation for outgoing requests by providing a comma-separated list of proxy URLs. Default is empty. 🔀
  • HTTP_CLIENT_PROXY — Proxy URL to use when the "Fetch via proxy" feed option is enabled. Default is empty. 🔀
  • HTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT — Time limit in seconds before the HTTP client cancels the request. Default is 20 seconds. ⏱️
  • HTTP_CLIENT_USER_AGENT — The default User-Agent header to use for the HTTP client. It can be overridden in per-feed settings. When empty, Miniflux uses a default User-Agent that includes the Miniflux version. Default is empty. 🕵️
  • HTTP_SERVER_TIMEOUT — Read, write, and idle timeout in seconds for the HTTP server. Default is 300 seconds. ⏱️
  • HTTPS — forces cookies to use the secure flag and sends the HSTS header 💅. Default is disabled.
  • INTEGRATION_ALLOW_PRIVATE_NETWORKS — set to 1 to let outgoing integration requests hit private or loopback networks. Disabled by default — meaning private networks get refused, no exceptions, bestie 🙈.
  • INVIDIOUS_INSTANCE — sets a custom invidious instance to use. Default is yewtu.be.
  • KEY_FILE — path to the SSL private key. Must be used with CERT_FILE (they're a package deal 🫶). Default is empty.
  • LISTEN_ADDR — the address to listen on. Multiple addresses can be specified, separated by commas, for example 127.0.0.1:8080, 127.0.0.1:8081 ✨.

Use an absolute path to listen on a Unix socket (/var/run/miniflux.sock). When Miniflux creates the socket itself, it uses mode 0660. This mode is hardcoded and cannot be configured — so don't go looking for a setting, it does not exist 😭.

With systemd socket activation, Miniflux uses the socket passed by systemd and only the first address is taken into account.

Default is 127.0.0.1:8080.

  • LOG_DATE_TIME — displays the date and time in log messages. Disabled by default.
  • LOG_FILE — supported values are "stderr", "stdout", or a file name. Default is "stderr".
  • LOG_FORMAT — supported log formats are "text" or "json". Default is "text".
  • LOG_LEVEL — supported values are "debug", "info", "warning", or "error". Default is "info".
  • MAINTENANCE_MESSAGE — defines a custom maintenance message. Default is "Miniflux is currently under maintenance".
  • MAINTENANCE_MODE — set to 1 to enable maintenance mode 🔧. Disabled by default.
  • MEDIA_PROXY_CUSTOM_URL — sets an external server to proxy media through. Default is empty, which means Miniflux does the proxying itself.
  • MEDIA_PROXY_HTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT — time limit in seconds before the media proxy HTTP client cancels the request ⏳. Default is 120 seconds.
  • MEDIA_PROXY_MODE — possible values are:
    • http-only — proxy only media served over insecure HTTP.
    • all — proxy all media.
    • none — disable the media proxy.

Default is "http-only".

  • MEDIA_PROXY_PRIVATE_KEY — sets a custom private key used to sign proxified media URLs 🔐.

By default, a secret key is randomly generated during startup. Proxified URLs are therefore invalidated on restart and are not shared between multiple instances. Set this option to keep them stable.

  • MEDIA_PROXY_RESOURCE_TYPES — a comma-separated list of media types to proxify. Supported values are: image, audio, video. Default is image.
  • METRICS_ALLOWED_NETWORKS — list of networks allowed to access the metrics endpoint (comma-separated values). Default is 127.0.0.1/8.
  • METRICS_COLLECTOR — set to 1 to enable the metrics collector and expose a /metrics endpoint for Prometheus 📊. Disabled by default.
  • METRICS_PASSWORD — metrics endpoint password for basic HTTP authentication. Must be used with METRICS_USERNAME. Default is empty.
  • METRICS_PASSWORD_FILE — path to a file that contains the password for the metrics endpoint HTTP authentication. Default is empty.
  • METRICS_REFRESH_INTERVAL — interval in seconds between two collections of database metrics. Default is 60 seconds.
  • METRICS_USERNAME — metrics endpoint username for basic HTTP authentication. Must be used with METRICS_PASSWORD. Default is empty.
  • METRICS_USERNAME_FILE — path to a file that contains the username for the metrics endpoint HTTP authentication. Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_ADDITIONAL_SCOPES — additional OAuth2 scopes to request. Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_ADMIN_GROUP — group for administrators. When set, the admin role is mapped based on the specified group 👑. Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID — OAuth2 client ID. Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID_FILE — path to a secret key exposed as a file; it should contain the OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID value. Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET — OAuth2 client secret. Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET_FILE — path to a secret key exposed as a file; it should contain the OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET value. Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_GROUP_CLAIM — claim that contains user groups, which can be used for mapping the admin role.

The claim is read from the user info response, then from the ID token. Users without this claim are not administrators — periodt.

Default is empty.

  • OAUTH2_OIDC_DISCOVERY_ENDPOINT — OpenID Connect discovery endpoint. Required when OAUTH2_PROVIDER is set to "oidc". Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_OIDC_PROVIDER_NAME — name to display for the OIDC provider. Default is "OpenID Connect".
  • OAUTH2_PROVIDER — possible values are "google" or "oidc". Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_REDIRECT_URL — OAuth2 redirect URL. This URL must be registered with the provider and is something like https://miniflux.example.org/oauth2/oidc/callback. Default is empty.
  • OAUTH2_USER_CREATION — set to 1 to authorize OAuth2 user creation. When disabled, users must already exist in Miniflux or have a linked OAuth2 account to sign in. Disabled by default.
  • POLLING_FREQUENCY — interval in minutes for the background job scheduler. It determines how often a batch of feeds is selected for refresh, based on their last refresh time ⏰. Default is 60 minutes.
  • POLLING_LIMIT_PER_HOST — limits the number of concurrent requests to the same hostname when polling feeds. This helps prevent overwhelming a single server during batch processing by the worker pool 🫶. Default is 0 (disabled).
  • POLLING_PARSING_ERROR_LIMIT — the maximum number of parsing errors that the program will try before stopping polling a feed. Once the limit is reached, the user must refresh the feed manually. Set to 0 for unlimited. Default is 3.
  • POLLING_SCHEDULER — determines the strategy used to schedule feed polling. Supported values are:
    • round_robin — feeds are polled in a fixed, rotating order.
    • entry_frequency — the polling interval for each feed is based on the average update frequency over the past week.

The number of feeds polled in a given period is limited by the POLLING_FREQUENCY and BATCH_SIZE settings. Regardless of the scheduler used, the total number of polled feeds will not exceed the maximum allowed per polling cycle.

Default is "round_robin".

  • PORT — override LISTEN_ADDR with :$PORT, which listens on all network interfaces. The value must be between 1 and 65535. Default is empty.
  • RUN_MIGRATIONS — set to 1 to run database migrations. Disabled by default.
  • SCHEDULER_ENTRY_FREQUENCY_FACTOR — factor to increase refresh frequency for the entry frequency scheduler. Default is 1.
  • SCHEDULER_ENTRY_FREQUENCY_MAX_INTERVAL — maximum interval in minutes for the entry frequency scheduler. Default is 1440 minutes (24 hours).
  • SCHEDULER_ENTRY_FREQUENCY_MIN_INTERVAL — minimum interval in minutes for the entry frequency scheduler. Must be less than or equal to SCHEDULER_ENTRY_FREQUENCY_MAX_INTERVAL. Default is 5 minutes.
  • SCHEDULER_ROUND_ROBIN_MAX_INTERVAL — maximum interval in minutes for the round robin scheduler. Default is 1440 minutes (24 hours).
  • SCHEDULER_ROUND_ROBIN_MIN_INTERVAL — minimum interval in minutes for the round robin scheduler. Must be less than or equal to SCHEDULER_ROUND_ROBIN_MAX_INTERVAL. Default is 60 minutes.
  • TRUSTED_REVERSE_PROXY_NETWORKS — a comma-separated list of networks (CIDR notation) allowed to use the proxy authentication header, X-Forwarded-For, X-Forwarded-Proto, and X-Real-Ip headers 🛡️. Default is empty.
  • WATCHDOG — enable or disable Systemd watchdog. Enabled by default.
  • WEBAUTHN — enable or disable WebAuthn/Passkey authentication 🔑.

You must provide a username on the login page if you are using non-discoverable (non-resident) credentials, such as some hardware security keys. This is not required for discoverable credentials (Passkeys).

Default is disabled.

  • WORKER_POOL_SIZE — number of background workers. Default is 16 workers.
  • YOUTUBE_API_KEY — YouTube API key for use with FETCH_YOUTUBE_WATCH_TIME. If nonempty, the duration will be fetched from the YouTube API. Otherwise, the duration will be fetched from the YouTube website 📺. Default is empty.
  • YOUTUBE_EMBED_URL_OVERRIDE — YouTube URL which will be used for embeds. Default is https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/.

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /etc/miniflux.conf — the configuration file installed by the Debian and RPM packages. The systemd service loads it as environment variables ✨.

💀 EXIT STATUS 💀

miniflux exits with status 0 on success and 1 on error ✅. With -healthcheck, a non-zero status means the health check failed.

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Run the database migrations and create an admin user from environment variables:

export DATABASE_URL="postgres://miniflux:secret@localhost/miniflux?sslmode=disable"
RUN_MIGRATIONS=1 CREATE_ADMIN=1 ADMIN_USERNAME=admin \
    ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme miniflux

Start Miniflux with a configuration file:

miniflux -c /etc/miniflux.conf

Check that a running instance is healthy, for example in a container health check:

miniflux -healthcheck auto

Export the feeds of a user:

miniflux -export-user-feeds someone > feeds.xml

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Online documentation: https://miniflux.app/docs/

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Miniflux is developed and maintained by Frédéric Guillot with contributions from the Miniflux community 🫶💖.

Miniflux is released under the Apache 2.0 license.

And that's the whole page, bestie, you made it to the end 🎉💅✨ — this masterpiece is MINIFLUX(1), dated October 31, 2026. Now go read some feeds, you've earned it 🌈🦋🎀

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