Host a Zipper Node

A node is the place a room assembles. You don't need to run one to use Zipper — but if you'd rather rooms build in your memory, on your server, this is everything you need.

What it takes

A small Linux VPS. A $5/month box is plenty — 256 MB of RAM and a sliver of one CPU core run a node comfortably.
Docker with the Compose plugin.
A domain name you can point a DNS record at — the node lives at zipper.yourdomain.com.
nginx in front for TLS. An example config and a one-line certbot command are in the package.

The node itself is one small, hardened container. It holds many rooms at once, writes nothing to disk, keeps no logs, and evaporates every room the moment it empties. Nothing to maintain — it runs or it doesn't.

Where to run it

A node needs very little, so a low-cost VPS covers it. We run our own Zipper nodes on Contabo — their entry Cloud VPS runs about $5 a month^* and comes with 4 vCPUs, 8 GB of RAM and 75 GB of NVMe storage. A Zipper node uses a fraction of that, so even the smallest plan has room to spare.

Get a VPS at Contabo

* Approximate — see Contabo for current pricing.

How you set it up

Unpack the package on your server One folder: the node, a docker-compose file, an example nginx config, a setup script, and a full README.

Run the setup script sh setup.sh builds the container and starts it on loopback. It tells you the two steps it leaves to you.

Point a domain and add the reverse proxy Copy the example nginx config, drop in your domain, reload nginx.

Turn on HTTPS One certbot command issues a free certificate and switches the node to HTTPS. Done — your node is live.

Download Node Package

Everything above, in one zip. The README walks every step in full — read it before you start.

Public nodes

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Listing your node

Every node has a built-in management page at /manage.html. Open it on your own node and unlock it with the admin key you set as ZIPPER_ADMIN_KEY. Flip the Listed switch on, give the node a name, region and public URL, and save — it announces itself to the directory and appears here within a few minutes.

Flip the switch off and save to delist; the node drops off the list within 15 minutes. No restart, no editing files — you list and unlist yourself, whenever you want.