AsterDrive

Self-hosted file infrastructure in Rust for small teams that need storage control, reliable large-file uploads, WebDAV/WOPI, and operations visibility without adopting a full private-cloud suite.
Route files across local, S3-compatible, and remote-node backends with one MIT-licensed Rust + React service built for deployment, auditability, and modification.

What is AsterDrive?

AsterDrive is an MIT-licensed self-hosted file service for people who want control over where files live and how they move through the system. It is built around the core drive workflow: upload reliably, organize folders, recover mistakes, share access, connect WebDAV clients, open Office files through WOPI-compatible services, and route objects to the right storage backend.

It is not trying to become a full private-cloud suite. AsterDrive focuses on file infrastructure: storage policies, large-file upload paths, team and personal workspaces, sharing, version history, WebDAV, WOPI, auditability, and deployment/operations tooling.

The current v0.2.x line is an early stable release. It is usable for personal and small-team deployments, but still evolving quickly.

Where it fits

AsterDrive is a good fit when you want:

• a single self-hosted service with embedded frontend assets
• SQLite out of the box, with optional PostgreSQL / MySQL later
• local filesystem, S3-compatible object storage, or remote AsterDrive follower-node storage
• upload strategies for both small files and large objects: direct, resumable chunked, S3 presigned, and S3 multipart
• personal and team workspaces with quotas, shares, trash, tasks, audit logs, and storage policy groups
• WebDAV access with independent accounts and scoped root folders
• Office preview/editing through external WOPI services such as OnlyOffice or Collabora
• a codebase that is meant to be read, modified, and deployed without a plugin marketplace or enterprise stack

AsterDrive is probably not the right first choice when you need:

• a complete collaboration suite with calendars, contacts, chat, mail, and an app ecosystem
• mature native desktop and mobile sync clients today
• an ultra-minimal web UI over a single server directory
• multi-primary clustering, automatic failover, or enterprise compliance guarantees
• a vendor-managed SaaS where someone else owns the deployment and data responsibility

Design focus

• File safety first - trash, version history, locks, quota checks, and cleanup tasks are part of the core workflow, not decorative extras.
• Storage control - policies can route uploads to local storage, S3-compatible storage, or remote follower nodes by user, team, and file size.
• Large-file paths - the backend negotiates direct uploads, chunked uploads, S3 presigned uploads, and S3 multipart uploads based on policy and object size.
• Interoperability without sprawl - WebDAV and WOPI cover practical client and Office workflows without turning the project into an all-in-one cloud suite.
• Operations built in - health checks, runtime configuration, audit logs, background tasks, storage tests, doctor, and migration commands are first-class features.
• Hackable core - Rust backend, React frontend, SeaORM migrations, explicit error codes, API docs, and clear service/repository boundaries.

Quick start

Run with Docker

For a local HTTP trial, prepare a writable data directory and start the official image:

mkdir -p ./data
sudo chown -R 10001:10001 ./data

docker run -d \
  --name asterdrive \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e ASTER__SERVER__HOST=0.0.0.0 \
  -e ASTER__AUTH__BOOTSTRAP_INSECURE_COOKIES=true \
  -e "ASTER__DATABASE__URL=sqlite:///data/asterdrive.db?mode=rwc" \
  -v "$(pwd)/data:/data" \
  ghcr.io/apts-1547/asterdrive:latest

Open:

http://127.0.0.1:3000

The first registered user becomes admin.

ASTER__AUTH__BOOTSTRAP_INSECURE_COOKIES=true is only for local or internal HTTP testing. For production, put AsterDrive behind HTTPS and keep secure cookies enabled.

You can also use the included Compose file:

mkdir -p ./data
sudo chown -R 10001:10001 ./data
docker compose up -d

See docs/deployment/docker.md for the full Docker guide.

Run from source

git clone https://github.com/AptS-1547/AsterDrive.git
cd AsterDrive

cd frontend-panel
bun install
bun run build
cd ..

cargo run

On first startup, AsterDrive will automatically:

• generate data/config.toml under the current working directory if it does not exist
• create the default SQLite database when using the default database URL
• run all database migrations
• create the default local storage policy and default policy group
• initialize built-in runtime configuration items in system_config

Production notes

• Do not expose :3000 directly to the public Internet. Put AsterDrive behind a reverse proxy that handles HTTPS, upload limits, WebDAV/WOPI passthrough, and security headers.
• Configure public site URLs before relying on share links, WebDAV URLs, mail links, or WOPI callbacks.
• Run ./aster_drive doctor after deployment and upgrades. The default SQLite search acceleration expects FTS5 + trigram tokenizer support.
• Plan backups for the database, uploaded blobs, config, and any external object-storage credentials. Start with docs/deployment/backup.md.
• If you enable WOPI, test real docx, xlsx, and pptx files through the final public URL and confirm that edits save back into AsterDrive.

Core capabilities

File management

• folders, breadcrumbs, list/grid views, search, multi-select, and batch operations
• file upload, folder upload, download, rename, move, copy, delete, restore, and purge
• archive download, online archive compression/extraction, and background task progress
• thumbnails, browser-native previews, read-only ZIP/7z archive manifest previews, and configurable external preview apps
• Monaco-based text editing, lock awareness, version history, restore, and version deletion

Workspaces and sharing

• personal workspace plus team workspaces
• independent files, shares, trash, tasks, quotas, audit records, and policy groups per workspace
• public file and folder shares at /s/:token
• optional share password, expiration time, download limits, open/download counters, and direct links
• shared-folder browsing with child-file download, preview, and thumbnail access

Access and editing

• HttpOnly cookie auth plus Bearer JWT for API clients
• first-user setup, registration controls, activation, password reset, and email-change confirmation
• WebDAV accounts with independent passwords, scoped root folders, database-backed locks, custom properties, and a small DeltaV subset
• WOPI launch sessions and file endpoints for Office preview/editing through external WOPI hosts
• optional Passkey / WebAuthn registration and login endpoints

Storage and delivery

• local storage, S3-compatible storage, and remote follower-node storage policies
• policy groups that route uploads by user, team, and file size
• optional local-only blob deduplication using SHA-256 and reference counting
• S3 upload/download strategies: relay_stream, presigned, and multipart uploads
• remote-node upload/download strategies: relay_stream and presigned
• streaming upload/download paths where the selected strategy allows it

Administration and operations

• admin overview, users, teams, storage policies, policy groups, remote nodes, shares, tasks, locks, runtime settings, and audit logs
• schema-driven runtime configuration stored in system_config
• health endpoints: /health, /health/ready, optional /health/memory, and optional /health/metrics
• storage policy and remote-node connection tests
• background task records for archive jobs, thumbnail generation, mail dispatch, cleanup, and runtime tasks
• periodic cleanup for uploads, trash, locks, audit logs, teams, WOPI sessions, and orphaned blobs
• Swagger UI in debug builds with the openapi feature, plus static OpenAPI export

Roadmap

v0.2.x: operational maturity

The v0.2.x line focuses on making AsterDrive easier to operate in real deployments: storage migration, scoped access, background workflows, safer error semantics, and remote-node deployment flexibility.

• storage-policy blob migration tasks
• team-scoped WebDAV accounts
• offline HTTP/HTTPS import tasks with SSRF protection
• broader archive preview and extraction support
• email verification login
• error-code taxonomy cleanup
• deployment and operations documentation
• reverse-connection support for follower nodes behind NAT

v0.3: organization and extensibility

The v0.3 line focuses on richer workspace organization and the foundation for controlled integrations.

• tags for files and folders
• tag-based filtering in file lists and search
• WASM/Extism plugin design and spike
• capability-based plugin permissions
• event subscriptions and webhook-style automation
• file actions and plugin-provided admin settings

Documentation

• Getting started
• User guide
• Teams and permissions
• Sharing and public access
• Preview and WOPI
• Storage backends
• Remote follower storage
• Docker deployment
• Production checklist
• Backup and restore
• Operations CLI
• Developer docs
• Architecture
• API overview

Development

Requirements

• Rust 1.94.0+
• Bun
• Node.js 24+ for the current Docker frontend build stage

Common commands

# Backend
cargo run
cargo check
cargo test
cargo test --features openapi --test generate_openapi

# Frontend
cd frontend-panel
bun install
bun run dev
bun run build
bun run check

Notes

• Type checking uses tsgo, not tsc
• Linting uses biome, not ESLint
• TypeScript enum is not allowed; use as const objects
• Type-only imports must use import type

Project structure

src/                    Rust backend
migration/              SeaORM migrations
frontend-panel/         React admin/file panel
docs/                   Deployment and end-user documentation
developer-docs/         API, architecture, testing, and internal positioning docs
tests/                  Integration tests

License

MIT - Copyright (c) 2026 AptS-1547