Ntfy configuration

A self hosted pub/sub server wtih a FOSS app (iOS/android) that will issue push notifications.

NOTE:

ntfy has extensive configuration options not covered here, just a quickstart here.

Documentation

official docs	https://docs.ntfy.sh/
sample config	https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/blob/main/server/server.yml

Locations

${PREFIX}/etc/ntfy/server.yml

config

Server

Basics

# ${PREFIX}/etc/ntfy/server.yml

base-url: https://foo.com

# cache messages (for inconsistent internet connections like phone)
cache-file:     /var/cache/ntfy/cache.db
cache-duration: 12h

# require basic-auth or token-auth
auth-file:            /var/lib/ntfy/user.db
auth-default-access:  deny-all

# use "X-Forwarded-For" to identify unique visitors when rate-limiting
behind-proxy: true

# expose scrapable endpoint for prometheus
enable-metrics: true
metrics-listen-http: 10.0.1.1:9090

Components

Access Control

The UI will be public, but creating topics and emitting to them will require login.

# ${PREFIX}/etc/ntfy/server.yml

auth-file:            /var/lib/ntfy/user.db
auth-default-access:  deny-all

ntfy user                        # manage users from cli
ntfy user add --role=admin phil  # create a user w/ admin role

Token Auth

ntfy token                                           # manage tokens
ntfy token add --expires=30d --label="backups" phil  # create token for user 'phil'

WARNING:

You'll need to generate a token for the iOS app, and set it in the server.yml if using AUTH.

iOS

# iOS events work by polling your server
upstream-base-url: "https://foo.com"
upstream-access-token: "..."

UI vs API port

They intentionally did not provide a configuration option for this,
and suggested you allowlist IP address for UI routes.

In nginx, you can restrict routes for certain IP ranges easily, so you don't need ntfy to help you via a different port.

https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/459

iOS App

Settings:
  Default Server: foo.com:1234

Add Subscription:
  # enter the topic name

The notifications can be manually refreshed,
if using your phone apparently the expected delay is around 20-30 min.
there doesn't seem to be an estimate for how frequently the background tasks are run when configured.