Storage Configuration

Overview

Rebase supports two storage backends:

• Local filesystem — Files stored on disk (great for development)
• S3-compatible — AWS S3, MinIO, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces

Configuration

Storage is configured in the storage block of initializeRebaseBackend:

Local Storage

const backend = await initializeRebaseBackend({
    // ...
    storage: {
        type: "local",
        basePath: "./uploads"   // Directory for file storage
    }
});

S3 Storage

const backend = await initializeRebaseBackend({
    // ...
    storage: {
        type: "s3",
        bucket: env.S3_BUCKET!,
        region: env.S3_REGION || "auto",
        accessKeyId: env.S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID || "",
        secretAccessKey: env.S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY || "",
        endpoint: env.S3_ENDPOINT,          // For MinIO, R2, etc.
        forcePathStyle: env.S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE  // Required for MinIO
    }
});

Multiple Storage Backends

You can configure multiple named backends and route different fields to different storage:

storage: {
    "(default)": { type: "local", basePath: "./uploads" },
    "media": { type: "s3", bucket: "media-bucket", region: "us-east-1", ... }
}

Then in your collection properties, reference a specific backend:

image: {
    type: "string",
    name: "Image",
    storage: {
        storagePath: "products",
        backend: "media"       // Routes to the "media" S3 backend
    }
}

Storage Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
POST	/api/storage/upload	Upload a file
GET	/api/storage/files/:path	Download/serve a file
DELETE	/api/storage/files/:path	Delete a file

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
STORAGE_TYPE	"local" or "s3"
STORAGE_PATH	Local storage directory (default: ./uploads)
S3_BUCKET	S3 bucket name
S3_REGION	AWS region (default: "auto")
S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID	AWS access key
S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	AWS secret key
S3_ENDPOINT	Custom S3 endpoint (for MinIO, R2)
S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE	Use path-style URLs (required for MinIO)

Production Tips

Caution

Local storage is not suitable for production deployments on ephemeral platforms (Cloud Run, Heroku, etc.) where the filesystem is wiped on each deploy. Use S3 for production.

• Mount a persistent volume if using local storage on Docker/Kubernetes
• Use S3 or compatible (R2, MinIO) for production deployments
• Configure a CDN (CloudFront, Cloudflare) in front of your S3 bucket for performance

Next Steps

• Frontend Storage & File Uploads — File upload fields and hooks
• Properties — Storage property configuration