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Personalizing your instance

Before you start your Overleaf instance for the first time, update the config/variables.env configuration file with your custom information.
1

Edit the variables file

Open config/variables.env in your favorite text editor and update the environment variables below with the required values.
2

Required environment variables

Update the following variables in config/variables.env:Once you have updated these environment variables, save and quit.
3

Setup Sandbox Compile

Next, configure TeX Live Full for sandboxed-compiles.md. Open config/variables.env and update the following environment variables:
config/variables.env
4

Start your instance

To start your instance run:
Start the instance
This command will download the required images including texlive, create the containers (using your customizations), and start the instance. You should see log output from the various Docker containers.To start them up again later (without attaching to the log output) run:
Start without attaching to logs
The Toolkit uses docker compose to manage the Overleaf Docker containers. The Toolkit provides a set of scripts which wrap docker compose and take care of most details for you.
If all goes well, you should be able to view the login page for your new Overleaf instance by navigating to http://127.0.0.1/ or http://localhost/ in your browser.
Depending on your network configuration and where your Overleaf instance is hosted, you may need to make additional configuration changes. See the Toolkit settings for more details: toolkit-settings.md
Last modified on October 4, 2026