Server configuration

This page explains the configuration options in /etc/zulip/settings.py, the main configuration file used by system administrators to configure their Zulip server.

Organization administrators can also configure many options for a Zulip organization from the web or desktop app. See system and deployment configuration documentation for advanced configuration of the various services that make up a complete Zulip installation (/etc/zulip/zulip.conf).

Important

If you are using Docker, see Compose: Providing settings via environment for configuring settings.py via SETTING_* environment variables, or Compose: Providing settings using files to edit it directly.

Server settings overview

The Zulip server self-documents more than a hundred settings in the organized comments in /etc/zulip/settings.py. You can read the latest version of the settings.py template in a browser.

Important settings in /etc/zulip/settings.py include:

• The mandatory EXTERNAL_HOST and ZULIP_ADMINISTRATOR settings, which are prefilled by the installer.

• Authentication methods, including data synchronization options like LDAP and SCIM.

• The email gateway, which lets users send emails into Zulip.

• Video and voice call integrations.

• How the server should store uploaded files.

Changing server settings

To change any of the settings in /etc/zulip/settings.py, modify and save the file on your Zulip server, and restart the server with the following command:

su zulip -c '/home/zulip/deployments/current/scripts/restart-server'

If you have questions about how to configure your server, best-effort community support is available in the Zulip development community. Contact sales@zulip.com to learn about paid support options.

Customizing user onboarding

Navigation tour video

New users are offered a 2-minute video tour, which shows where to find everything to get started with Zulip.

You can modify NAVIGATION_TOUR_VIDEO_URL in /etc/zulip/settings.py in order to host the official video on your network, or to provide your own introductory video with information on how your organization uses Zulip. A value of None disables the navigation tour video experience.

Terms of Service and Privacy policy

Important

If you are using this feature, please make sure the name of your organization appears prominently in all documents, to avoid confusion with policies for Zulip Cloud.

Zulip lets you configure your server’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy pages.

Policy documents are stored as Markdown files in the configured POLICIES_DIRECTORY. We recommend using /etc/zulip/policies as the directory, so that your policies are naturally backed up with the server’s other configurations.

To provide Terms of Service and a Privacy Policy for your users, place Markdown files named terms.md and privacy.md in the configured directory, and set TERMS_OF_SERVICE_VERSION to 1.0 to enable this feature.

You can put additional files in the same directory to document other policies; if you do so, you may want to:

• Create a Markdown file sidebar_index.md listing the pages in your policies site; this generates the policies site navigation.

• Create a Markdown file missing.md with custom content for 404s in this directory.