Relay Configuration

The relay server is configured entirely through environment variables. There is no config file.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
PORT	8080	HTTP port to listen on
DB_PATH	/data/relay.db	Path to the SQLite database
RETENTION_DAYS	7	How long to keep clips before deleting them
MAX_BODY_MB	20	Maximum clip size in megabytes
AUTH_TOKEN	—	If set, all requests must include Authorization: Bearer <token>
CORS_ORIGINS	*	Allowed CORS origins (comma-separated)
LOG_LEVEL	info	Log level: debug, info, warn, error

Docker example with all options

docker run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v cinch-data:/data \
  -e RETENTION_DAYS=14 \
  -e MAX_BODY_MB=50 \
  -e AUTH_TOKEN=your-secret-token \
  -e LOG_LEVEL=info \
  ghcr.io/jinmugo/cinch-relay:latest

Docker Compose example

services:
  relay:
    image: ghcr.io/jinmugo/cinch-relay:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - cinch-data:/data
    environment:
      RETENTION_DAYS: "14"
      MAX_BODY_MB: "50"
      AUTH_TOKEN: "${CINCH_TOKEN}"
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  cinch-data:

Pointing the CLI at your relay

After deploying, tell the CLI where to find your relay:

cinch config set relay-url https://relay.example.com

Or set the environment variable:

export CINCH_RELAY_URL=https://relay.example.com

Note

The AUTH_TOKEN variable requires clients to pass the token with every request. Set it via cinch config set token <value> on each paired machine.

SQLite database

The relay uses a single SQLite file. Its schema is minimal:

CREATE TABLE clips (
  id         INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
  payload    BLOB    NOT NULL,
  mime_type  TEXT    NOT NULL DEFAULT 'text/plain',
  created_at INTEGER NOT NULL,  -- Unix timestamp
  expires_at INTEGER NOT NULL   -- Unix timestamp
);

Clips are deleted by a background goroutine that runs every hour and removes rows where expires_at < now().

The database is safe to back up with a standard SQLite copy while the relay is running — SQLite’s WAL mode is enabled by default.