Host on a server

A den can live on a machine that stays on, such as a home server, a mini PC in a cupboard, or a small rented server, instead of on the computer you use every day. This guide puts Dens on a Linux server you reach over SSH, and moves a den you host now onto it, or starts a new one there. The server needs no desktop or browser: everything on it is a command, and you keep running the den from your own computer, as its owner.

What you need

A Linux machine that stays on, running one of the distributions Dens installs on. Debian 13 is a good pick for a server. A container on Proxmox or Incus works too.
SSH access to it, with an account that can use sudo, or as root.
Your domain and your router, as in Host a den. On a rented server, the provider’s firewall stands in for the router.

Install Dens on the server

Over SSH, as your own account, download the installer and run it with sudo, as on any Linux (Install):

curl -fsSLO https://releases.dens.chat/install.sh
sudo sh install.sh

If the server has only root, as a fresh container often does, make an account for yourself first, and name it when you install: Dens’s commands answer that one account, and it can’t be root.

adduser alice
sh install.sh --user alice

From then on, run this guide’s sudo commands as root, without sudo, and the others as that account: log in over SSH as it, or switch to it with su - alice.

In a Proxmox or Incus container

Use Debian 13, with nesting on: on Proxmox, it’s under the container’s Options, in Features, and on Incus, it’s incus config set NAME security.nesting=true.

The first time, the installer stops and says why: LXC adds a setting to every service in a container that turns off the locks Dens runs under, including the one that keeps its key. Switch that setting off, as root, and run the installer again:

mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/service.d
ln -s /dev/null /etc/systemd/system/service.d/zzz-lxc-service.conf
systemctl daemon-reload

Export the den

On the computer that hosts the den now, open Dens’s Settings, and under System, in Hosting, choose Move the den to another computer. It asks your local password, turns hosting off, and your browser downloads the den’s export: a file named like dens-main-den-20261023-153000.backup.

Or, from a terminal on that computer, as yourself:

dens den hosting off
dens den export

The export only holds the den: its members, messages and files, and the key that proves it’s your den. None of your client data goes with it: the dens you’ve joined from this computer, your keys there and your settings stay on it. Like a backup, the export is locked with your local password.

Members can’t reach the den from here on until the server hosts it, so do the next steps in one go.

Restore it on the server

Copy the file to the server, from your computer:

scp dens-main-den-20261023-153000.backup alice@server.example:

Then, on the server:

sudo dens restore dens-main-den-20261023-153000.backup

It asks the export’s local password, the one from your computer, which is the server’s local password from now on.

Turn hosting on

On the server, as your account:

dens den hosting on

It asks the local password, and says where the den is served:

Hosting is on, and My Den serves at https://den.example.com.
Caddy forwards the den's address to 127.0.0.1:8485, and the router forwards
port 7881 (UDP) and port 7882 (TCP) to this computer, for calls.

Move Caddy and the ports

Set Caddy up on the server, as in Host a den, in its Linux tab. Then point the den’s traffic at the server:

At home, your public address doesn’t change, so neither does your domain. In your router’s settings, move the four port forwards to the server’s local address, and reserve that address for it.
On a rented server, change your domain’s A record (and AAAA, if it has one) to the server’s address, and let ports 80, 443, 7881 (UDP) and 7882 (TCP) through the provider’s firewall.

Stop Caddy on your own computer, which has nothing to serve now:

sudo systemctl disable --now caddy

Members’ Dens reconnect by themselves once the den answers at its address. A change to a domain’s record can take a while to reach everyone.

Remove the den from your computer

Your computer still has its copy. Once the server serves the den, open Hosting again and choose Remove from this computer, or run:

dens den remove

It asks your local password, and checks first that hosting is off on this computer, that you exported the den since it was last on, and that the den answers at its address from here, as itself. Then it deletes this computer’s copy, and Dens reaches the den at its address like any member’s does, with your account, your history and your DMs.

Starting a new den on the server

To start a den on the server rather than move one there, install Dens on it as above. Then, over SSH, as your account:

Set the local password

dens password

It asks for a new local password, twice. As on your own computer, it protects Dens on the server: hosting, backups and the den’s commands ask for it, and a backup of the server opens only with it.

Turn hosting on

dens den hosting on

It asks the local password, and says where Caddy and the router send the den. Set Caddy up on the server and forward the ports to it, as in Host a den.

Create the den

Give it a name, and the address members will reach it at:

dens den create "My Den" https://den.example.com

It asks the local password, and prints the den’s owner invite:

Created My Den, which members reach at https://den.example.com. Its owner invite:

dens1:...

Whoever pastes it into Add a den, on their own Dens page, becomes the den's owner.
It works once, within the hour; make another with: dens den owner-invite

Become its owner

On your own computer, in Dens, choose Add a den, paste the invite, and choose a username and a den password. You join as the den’s owner, and run it from there, from its Manage: invite your members, and set it up as you like.

Reaching the den from home

If the den is on a server at home and your computer can’t reach it at its address, as when Remove from this computer says the den doesn’t answer there, or its owner invite won’t go through, your router may not reach its own public address from inside your home. Some routers can, under a setting called NAT loopback or hairpin NAT. If yours can’t, give your computer a hosts entry: a line that points your den’s name at the server’s local address, such as 192.168.1.20, on this computer alone.

echo '192.168.1.20 den.example.com' | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

Calls go to whatever address the name points at, so with the hosts entry, yours stay on your home network. Do the same on any other computer in your home that’s in the den.

Running the den on the server

The local password. dens password changes it, given the current one. A backup made before still opens with the password it was made under.
Hosting. dens den hosting off and dens den hosting on turn it off and on, and dens status says whether the den serves, and why not when it can’t. Turning it off asks first, since members can’t reach the den until it’s back on.
Running the den happens from your own computer, as its owner: its Manage is where it always was.
Handing it on. dens den owner-invite, on the server, makes a one-time invite that makes whoever joins with it the owner (Backups and moving).
Updates. dens status says when a new version is out. Update with sudo dens update; members reconnect by themselves once the server’s back.
Backups. dens backup, as your account, writes a backup of the server into the folder you’re in. Copy it off the server, to keep it somewhere else. It holds the den, as the export did.
Logs. dens logs saves the newest logs into the folder you’re in, to send with a problem, and dens logs --level debug has them say the most, calls in detail, until you set it back with --level warn (Sending logs).

Host a den Backups and moving