How to Deploy Outline Wiki with OIDC Authentication

Outline is the best open-source wiki for teams. It has real-time collaborative editing, markdown support, nested collections, and full-text search. It looks and works like Notion but runs on your server. Here is the complete deployment guide with OIDC authentication.

Step 1: Generate the Secret Key and Utility Secret

openssl rand -hex 32
# Use the output as SECRET_KEY

openssl rand -hex 32
# Use the output as UTILS_SECRET

Step 2: Create the Docker Compose File

services:
  outline-db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    container_name: outline-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: outline
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: outline_password
      POSTGRES_DB: outline

  outline-redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    container_name: outline-redis
    restart: unless-stopped

  outline:
    image: outlinewiki/outline:latest
    container_name: outline
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/var/lib/outline/data
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://outline:outline_password@outline-db:5432/outline
      DATABASE_URL_TEST: postgres://outline:outline_password@outline-db:5432/outline-test
      REDIS_URL: redis://outline-redis:6379
      URL: https://wiki.yourdomain.com
      SECRET_KEY: your_generated_secret_key
      UTILS_SECRET: your_generated_utils_secret
      PORT: 3000
      OIDC_CLIENT_ID: outline
      OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET: outline_oidc_secret
      OIDC_AUTH_URI: https://auth.yourdomain.com/api/oidc/authorization
      OIDC_TOKEN_URI: https://auth.yourdomain.com/api/oidc/token
      OIDC_USERINFO_URI: https://auth.yourdomain.com/api/oidc/userinfo
      OIDC_DISPLAY_NAME: Authelia
      OIDC_SCOPES: openid profile email
      OIDC_USERNAME_CLAIM: preferred_username
      OIDC_DISPLAY_NAME_CLAIM: name
      OIDC_EMAIL_CLAIM: email
      FORCE_HTTPS: "true"
      ENABLE_UPDATES: "false"
      FILE_STORAGE: local
      FILE_STORAGE_LOCAL_ROOT_DIR: /var/lib/outline/data
    depends_on:
      - outline-db
      - outline-redis

Step 3: Configure OIDC in Authelia

Add Outline as an OIDC client in Authelia's configuration:

identity_providers:
  oidc:
    clients:
      - id: outline
        secret: outline_oidc_secret
        public: false
        authorization_policy: one_factor
        redirect_uris:
          - https://wiki.yourdomain.com/auth/oidc.callback
        scopes:
          - openid
          - profile
          - email

Step 4: Configure Storage for Attachments

Outline stores file attachments in S3-compatible storage. For local storage, set FILE_STORAGE to local as shown above. For S3-compatible object storage like RustFS:

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: your_access_key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: your_secret_key
AWS_REGION: ap-southeast-1
AWS_S3_UPLOAD_BUCKET_URL: https://s3.yourdomain.com
AWS_S3_UPLOAD_BUCKET_NAME: outline
AWS_S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE: "true"
FILE_STORAGE: s3

Step 5: Start and Configure

docker compose up -d

Open https://wiki.yourdomain.com. Outline redirects to your Authelia login page. After authentication, Outline creates the first user account automatically. This first user becomes the admin.

Create collections for each team. Start writing documentation. Your entire company knowledge base is now on your server, in your control, searchable, and backed up.

If OIDC callbacks and S3 bucket configuration sound like a language you do not speak, VPS1 deploys Outline with SSO and storage. Your team gets a Notion-quality wiki. You get the confidence that company knowledge lives on company hardware.