tono/docs/self-hosting.md

Self-Hosting

tono can be self-hosted on any server with Python 3.10+ and Node.js 18+.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/VIPQualityPost/tono.git && cd tono
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
cd frontend && npm ci && npm run build && cd ..
TONO_HOST=0.0.0.0 python -m backend.main

The server will be available at http://<your-server-ip>:8188.

Running as a system service

To keep tono running in the background and auto-restart on reboot, create a systemd service.

Create a service user

sudo useradd --system --create-home --shell /bin/false tono
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/tono
sudo chown tono:tono /var/lib/tono

Clone and install

sudo git clone https://github.com/VIPQualityPost/tono.git /opt/tono
sudo chown -R tono:tono /opt/tono
sudo -u tono bash -c 'cd /opt/tono && python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate && pip install -e .'
sudo -u tono bash -c 'cd /opt/tono/frontend && npm ci && npm run build'

Create the unit file

Save as /etc/systemd/system/tono.service:

[Unit]
Description=tono
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=tono
WorkingDirectory=/opt/tono
ExecStart=/opt/tono/.venv/bin/python -m backend.main
Environment=TONO_HOST=127.0.0.1
Environment=TONO_PORT=8188
Environment=TONO_APPDATA=/var/lib/tono
Environment=TONO_UPDATE_CHECK=off
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable tono
sudo systemctl start tono
sudo systemctl status tono   # verify it's running

Useful commands

sudo journalctl -u tono -f          # follow logs
sudo systemctl restart tono          # restart after updates

HTTPS with Certbot

After setting up nginx (see Reverse proxy below), use Certbot to get a free TLS certificate from Let's Encrypt.

Install Certbot

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Get a certificate

Point your domain's DNS A record at your server's IP, then:

sudo certbot --nginx -d tono.yourdomain.com

Certbot will automatically:

• Obtain a certificate
• Configure nginx to use it
• Set up auto-renewal (certificates renew every 90 days)

You can verify auto-renewal works with:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
TONO_HOST	127.0.0.1	Bind address. Set to 0.0.0.0 for remote access.
TONO_PORT	8188	Listen port.
TONO_APPDATA	Platform-dependent	Data directory for sessions and uploads.
TONO_PLUGINS	0 (web mode)	Set to 1 to enable the plugin system. Warning: plugins execute arbitrary Python code.
TONO_SESSION_TTL	60	Seconds to wait after a user disconnects before cleaning up their session data. Set to 0 to disable cleanup.
TONO_UPDATE_CHECK	(enabled)	Set to off to disable the GitHub release update checker.

Reverse proxy

You will almost certainly want to run tono behind a reverse proxy for TLS termination. The key requirement is proxying WebSocket connections on /ws.

nginx

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name tono.example.com;

    ssl_certificate     /path/to/cert.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/key.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8188;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_read_timeout 86400;
        client_max_body_size 100M;
    }
}

Caddy

tono.example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8188
}

Caddy handles TLS, WebSocket upgrades, and headers automatically.

Health check

GET /health returns {"status": "ok"} and can be used by load balancers or monitoring tools.

Authentication

tono does not include built-in authentication. For access control, use your reverse proxy:

• nginx: HTTP basic auth (auth_basic) or integrate with an auth provider
• Caddy: basicauth directive or forward auth
• Cloudflare Access, Authelia, Authentik: external identity-aware proxies

Session lifecycle

Each browser tab creates an isolated session with its own uploaded files, execution engine, and cache. When a user closes their tab (WebSocket disconnects) and does not reconnect within TONO_SESSION_TTL seconds, the server automatically cleans up:

• Execution engine and cached results
• Uploaded files on disk
• Pending downloads and rate limit state

Set TONO_SESSION_TTL=0 to disable automatic cleanup (useful for single-user deployments).