Configuring Synapse
This is intended as a guide to the Synapse configuration. The behavior of a Synapse instance can be modified through the many configuration settings documented here — each config option is explained, including what the default is, how to change the default and what sort of behaviour the setting governs. Also included is an example configuration for each setting. If you don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about options, the config as generated sets sensible defaults for all values. Do note however that the database defaults to SQLite, which is not recommended for production usage. You can read more on this subject here.
Config Conventions
Configuration options that take a time period can be set using a number followed by a letter. Letters have the following meanings:
s
= secondm
= minuteh
= hourd
= dayw
= weeky
= year
For example, setting redaction_retention_period: 5m
would remove redacted
messages from the database after 5 minutes, rather than 5 months.
In addition, configuration options referring to size use the following suffixes:
M
= MiB, or 1,048,576 bytesK
= KiB, or 1024 bytes
For example, setting max_avatar_size: 10M
means that Synapse will not accept files larger than 10,485,760 bytes
for a user avatar.
YAML
The configuration file is a YAML file, which means that certain syntax rules apply if you want your config file to be read properly. A few helpful things to know:
-
#
before any option in the config will comment out that setting and either a default (if available) will be applied or Synapse will ignore the setting. Thus, in example #1 below, the setting will be read and applied, but in example #2 the setting will not be read and a default will be applied.Example #1:
pid_file: DATADIR/homeserver.pid
Example #2:
#pid_file: DATADIR/homeserver.pid
-
Indentation matters! The indentation before a setting will determine whether a given setting is read as part of another setting, or considered on its own. Thus, in example #1, the
enabled
setting is read as a sub-option of thepresence
setting, and will be properly applied.However, the lack of indentation before the
enabled
setting in example #2 means that when reading the config, Synapse will consider bothpresence
andenabled
as different settings. In this case,presence
has no value, and thus a default applied, andenabled
is an option that Synapse doesn't recognize and thus ignores.Example #1:
presence: enabled: false
Example #2:
presence: enabled: false
In this manual, all top-level settings (ones with no indentation) are identified at the beginning of their section (i.e. "###
example_setting
") and the sub-options, if any, are identified and listed in the body of the section. In addition, each setting has an example of its usage, with the proper indentation shown.
Modules
Server admins can expand Synapse's functionality with external modules.
See here for more documentation on how to configure or create custom modules for Synapse.
modules
Use the module
sub-option to add modules under this option to extend functionality.
The module
setting then has a sub-option, config
, which can be used to define some configuration
for the module
.
Defaults to none.
Example configuration:
modules:
- module: my_super_module.MySuperClass
config:
do_thing: true
- module: my_other_super_module.SomeClass
config: {}
Server
Define your homeserver name and other base options.
server_name
This sets the public-facing domain of the server.
The server_name
name will appear at the end of usernames and room addresses
created on your server. For example if the server_name
was example.com,
usernames on your server would be in the format @user:example.com
In most cases you should avoid using a matrix specific subdomain such as
matrix.example.com or synapse.example.com as the server_name
for the same
reasons you wouldn't use user@email.example.com as your email address.
See here
for information on how to host Synapse on a subdomain while preserving
a clean server_name
.
The server_name
cannot be changed later so it is important to
configure this correctly before you start Synapse. It should be all
lowercase and may contain an explicit port.
There is no default for this option.
Example configuration #1:
server_name: matrix.org
Example configuration #2:
server_name: localhost:8080
pid_file
When running Synapse as a daemon, the file to store the pid in. Defaults to none.
Example configuration:
pid_file: DATADIR/homeserver.pid
web_client_location
The absolute URL to the web client which /
will redirect to. Defaults to none.
Example configuration:
web_client_location: https://riot.example.com/
public_baseurl
The public-facing base URL that clients use to access this Homeserver (not including _matrix/...). This is the same URL a user might enter into the 'Custom Homeserver URL' field on their client. If you use Synapse with a reverse proxy, this should be the URL to reach Synapse via the proxy. Otherwise, it should be the URL to reach Synapse's client HTTP listener (see 'listeners' below).
Defaults to https://<server_name>/
.
Example configuration:
public_baseurl: https://example.com/
serve_server_wellknown
By default, other servers will try to reach our server on port 8448, which can be inconvenient in some environments.
Provided https://<server_name>/
on port 443 is routed to Synapse, this
option configures Synapse to serve a file at https://<server_name>/.well-known/matrix/server
.
This will tell other servers to send traffic to port 443 instead.
This option currently defaults to false.
See https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/delegate.html for more information.
Example configuration:
serve_server_wellknown: true
extra_well_known_client_content
This option allows server runners to add arbitrary key-value pairs to the client-facing .well-known
response.
Note that the public_baseurl
config option must be provided for Synapse to serve a response to /.well-known/matrix/client
at all.
If this option is provided, it parses the given yaml to json and
serves it on /.well-known/matrix/client
endpoint
alongside the standard properties.
Added in Synapse 1.62.0.
Example configuration:
extra_well_known_client_content :
option1: value1
option2: value2
soft_file_limit
Set the soft limit on the number of file descriptors synapse can use. Zero is used to indicate synapse should set the soft limit to the hard limit. Defaults to 0.
Example configuration:
soft_file_limit: 3
presence
Presence tracking allows users to see the state (e.g online/offline)
of other local and remote users. Set the enabled
sub-option to false to
disable presence tracking on this homeserver. Defaults to true.
This option replaces the previous top-level 'use_presence' option.
Example configuration:
presence:
enabled: false
require_auth_for_profile_requests
Whether to require authentication to retrieve profile data (avatars, display names) of other
users through the client API. Defaults to false. Note that profile data is also available
via the federation API, unless allow_profile_lookup_over_federation
is set to false.
Example configuration:
require_auth_for_profile_requests: true
limit_profile_requests_to_users_who_share_rooms
Use this option to require a user to share a room with another user in order to retrieve their profile information. Only checked on Client-Server requests. Profile requests from other servers should be checked by the requesting server. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
limit_profile_requests_to_users_who_share_rooms: true
include_profile_data_on_invite
Use this option to prevent a user's profile data from being retrieved and displayed in a room until they have joined it. By default, a user's profile data is included in an invite event, regardless of the values of the above two settings, and whether or not the users share a server. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
include_profile_data_on_invite: false
allow_public_rooms_without_auth
If set to true, removes the need for authentication to access the server's public rooms directory through the client API, meaning that anyone can query the room directory. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
allow_public_rooms_without_auth: true
allow_public_rooms_over_federation
If set to true, allows any other homeserver to fetch the server's public rooms directory via federation. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
allow_public_rooms_over_federation: true
default_room_version
The default room version for newly created rooms on this server.
Known room versions are listed here
For example, for room version 1, default_room_version
should be set
to "1".
Currently defaults to "9".
Example configuration:
default_room_version: "8"
gc_thresholds
The garbage collection threshold parameters to pass to gc.set_threshold
, if defined.
Defaults to none.
Example configuration:
gc_thresholds: [700, 10, 10]
gc_min_interval
The minimum time in seconds between each GC for a generation, regardless of
the GC thresholds. This ensures that we don't do GC too frequently. A value of [1s, 10s, 30s]
indicates that a second must pass between consecutive generation 0 GCs, etc.
Defaults to [1s, 10s, 30s]
.
Example configuration:
gc_min_interval: [0.5s, 30s, 1m]
filter_timeline_limit
Set the limit on the returned events in the timeline in the get and sync operations. Defaults to 100. A value of -1 means no upper limit.
Example configuration:
filter_timeline_limit: 5000
block_non_admin_invites
Whether room invites to users on this server should be blocked (except those sent by local server admins). Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
block_non_admin_invites: true
enable_search
If set to false, new messages will not be indexed for searching and users will receive errors when searching for messages. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
enable_search: false
ip_range_blacklist
This option prevents outgoing requests from being sent to the specified blacklisted IP address CIDR ranges. If this option is not specified then it defaults to private IP address ranges (see the example below).
The blacklist applies to the outbound requests for federation, identity servers, push servers, and for checking key validity for third-party invite events.
(0.0.0.0 and :: are always blacklisted, whether or not they are explicitly listed here, since they correspond to unroutable addresses.)
This option replaces federation_ip_range_blacklist
in Synapse v1.25.0.
Note: The value is ignored when an HTTP proxy is in use.
Example configuration:
ip_range_blacklist:
- '127.0.0.0/8'
- '10.0.0.0/8'
- '172.16.0.0/12'
- '192.168.0.0/16'
- '100.64.0.0/10'
- '192.0.0.0/24'
- '169.254.0.0/16'
- '192.88.99.0/24'
- '198.18.0.0/15'
- '192.0.2.0/24'
- '198.51.100.0/24'
- '203.0.113.0/24'
- '224.0.0.0/4'
- '::1/128'
- 'fe80::/10'
- 'fc00::/7'
- '2001:db8::/32'
- 'ff00::/8'
- 'fec0::/10'
ip_range_whitelist
List of IP address CIDR ranges that should be allowed for federation, identity servers, push servers, and for checking key validity for third-party invite events. This is useful for specifying exceptions to wide-ranging blacklisted target IP ranges - e.g. for communication with a push server only visible in your network.
This whitelist overrides ip_range_blacklist
and defaults to an empty
list.
Example configuration:
ip_range_whitelist:
- '192.168.1.1'
listeners
List of ports that Synapse should listen on, their purpose and their configuration.
Sub-options for each listener include:
-
port
: the TCP port to bind to. -
bind_addresses
: a list of local addresses to listen on. The default is 'all local interfaces'. -
type
: the type of listener. Normallyhttp
, but other valid options are: -
tls
: set to true to enable TLS for this listener. Will use the TLS key/cert specified in tls_private_key_path / tls_certificate_path. -
x_forwarded
: Only valid for an 'http' listener. Set to true to use the X-Forwarded-For header as the client IP. Useful when Synapse is behind a reverse-proxy. -
request_id_header
: The header extracted from each incoming request that is used as the basis for the request ID. The request ID is used in logs and tracing to correlate and match up requests. When unset, Synapse will automatically generate sequential request IDs. This option is useful when Synapse is behind a reverse-proxy.Added in Synapse 1.68.0.
-
resources
: Only valid for an 'http' listener. A list of resources to host on this port. Sub-options for each resource are:-
names
: a list of names of HTTP resources. See below for a list of valid resource names. -
compress
: set to true to enable gzip compression on HTTP bodies for this resource. This is currently only supported with theclient
,consent
,metrics
andfederation
resources.
-
-
additional_resources
: Only valid for an 'http' listener. A map of additional endpoints which should be loaded via dynamic modules.
Valid resource names are:
-
client
: the client-server API (/_matrix/client), and the synapse admin API (/_synapse/admin). Also impliesmedia
andstatic
. -
consent
: user consent forms (/_matrix/consent). See here for more. -
federation
: the server-server API (/_matrix/federation). Also impliesmedia
,keys
,openid
-
keys
: the key discovery API (/_matrix/key). -
media
: the media API (/_matrix/media). -
metrics
: the metrics interface. See here. -
openid
: OpenID authentication. See here. -
replication
: the HTTP replication API (/_synapse/replication). See here. -
static
: static resources under synapse/static (/_matrix/static). (Mostly useful for 'fallback authentication'.)
Example configuration #1:
listeners:
# TLS-enabled listener: for when matrix traffic is sent directly to synapse.
#
# (Note that you will also need to give Synapse a TLS key and certificate: see the TLS section
# below.)
#
- port: 8448
type: http
tls: true
resources:
- names: [client, federation]
Example configuration #2:
listeners:
# Unsecure HTTP listener: for when matrix traffic passes through a reverse proxy
# that unwraps TLS.
#
# If you plan to use a reverse proxy, please see
# https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/reverse_proxy.html.
#
- port: 8008
tls: false
type: http
x_forwarded: true
bind_addresses: ['::1', '127.0.0.1']
resources:
- names: [client, federation]
compress: false
# example additional_resources:
additional_resources:
"/_matrix/my/custom/endpoint":
module: my_module.CustomRequestHandler
config: {}
# Turn on the twisted ssh manhole service on localhost on the given
# port.
- port: 9000
bind_addresses: ['::1', '127.0.0.1']
type: manhole
manhole_settings
Connection settings for the manhole. You can find more information on the manhole here. Manhole sub-options include:
username
: the username for the manhole. This defaults to 'matrix'.password
: The password for the manhole. This defaults to 'rabbithole'.ssh_priv_key_path
andssh_pub_key_path
: The private and public SSH key pair used to encrypt the manhole traffic. If these are left unset, then hardcoded and non-secret keys are used, which could allow traffic to be intercepted if sent over a public network.
Example configuration:
manhole_settings:
username: manhole
password: mypassword
ssh_priv_key_path: CONFDIR/id_rsa
ssh_pub_key_path: CONFDIR/id_rsa.pub
dummy_events_threshold
Forward extremities can build up in a room due to networking delays between
homeservers. Once this happens in a large room, calculation of the state of
that room can become quite expensive. To mitigate this, once the number of
forward extremities reaches a given threshold, Synapse will send an
org.matrix.dummy_event
event, which will reduce the forward extremities
in the room.
This setting defines the threshold (i.e. number of forward extremities in the room) at which dummy events are sent. The default value is 10.
Example configuration:
dummy_events_threshold: 5
delete_stale_devices_after
An optional duration. If set, Synapse will run a daily background task to log out and delete any device that hasn't been accessed for more than the specified amount of time.
Defaults to no duration, which means devices are never pruned.
Example configuration:
delete_stale_devices_after: 1y
Homeserver blocking
Useful options for Synapse admins.
admin_contact
How to reach the server admin, used in ResourceLimitError
. Defaults to none.
Example configuration:
admin_contact: 'mailto:admin@server.com'
hs_disabled
and hs_disabled_message
Blocks users from connecting to the homeserver and provides a human-readable reason why the connection was blocked. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
hs_disabled: true
hs_disabled_message: 'Reason for why the HS is blocked'
limit_usage_by_mau
This option disables/enables monthly active user blocking. Used in cases where the admin or
server owner wants to limit to the number of monthly active users. When enabled and a limit is
reached the server returns a ResourceLimitError
with error type Codes.RESOURCE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED
.
Defaults to false. If this is enabled, a value for max_mau_value
must also be set.
See Monthly Active Users for details on how to configure MAU.
Example configuration:
limit_usage_by_mau: true
max_mau_value
This option sets the hard limit of monthly active users above which the server will start
blocking user actions if limit_usage_by_mau
is enabled. Defaults to 0.
Example configuration:
max_mau_value: 50
mau_trial_days
The option mau_trial_days
is a means to add a grace period for active users. It
means that users must be active for the specified number of days before they
can be considered active and guards against the case where lots of users
sign up in a short space of time never to return after their initial
session. Defaults to 0.
Example configuration:
mau_trial_days: 5
mau_appservice_trial_days
The option mau_appservice_trial_days
is similar to mau_trial_days
, but applies a different
trial number if the user was registered by an appservice. A value
of 0 means no trial days are applied. Appservices not listed in this dictionary
use the value of mau_trial_days
instead.
Example configuration:
mau_appservice_trial_days:
my_appservice_id: 3
another_appservice_id: 6
mau_limit_alerting
The option mau_limit_alerting
is a means of limiting client-side alerting
should the mau limit be reached. This is useful for small instances
where the admin has 5 mau seats (say) for 5 specific people and no
interest increasing the mau limit further. Defaults to true, which
means that alerting is enabled.
Example configuration:
mau_limit_alerting: false
mau_stats_only
If enabled, the metrics for the number of monthly active users will
be populated, however no one will be limited based on these numbers. If limit_usage_by_mau
is true, this is implied to be true. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
mau_stats_only: true
mau_limit_reserved_threepids
Sometimes the server admin will want to ensure certain accounts are
never blocked by mau checking. These accounts are specified by this option.
Defaults to none. Add accounts by specifying the medium
and address
of the
reserved threepid (3rd party identifier).
Example configuration:
mau_limit_reserved_threepids:
- medium: 'email'
address: 'reserved_user@example.com'
server_context
This option is used by phonehome stats to group together related servers. Defaults to none.
Example configuration:
server_context: context
limit_remote_rooms
When this option is enabled, the room "complexity" will be checked before a user joins a new remote room. If it is above the complexity limit, the server will disallow joining, or will instantly leave. This is useful for homeservers that are resource-constrained. Options for this setting include:
enabled
: whether this check is enabled. Defaults to false.complexity
: the limit above which rooms cannot be joined. The default is 1.0.complexity_error
: override the error which is returned when the room is too complex with a custom message.admins_can_join
: allow server admins to join complex rooms. Default is false.
Room complexity is an arbitrary measure based on factors such as the number of users in the room.
Example configuration:
limit_remote_rooms:
enabled: true
complexity: 0.5
complexity_error: "I can't let you do that, Dave."
admins_can_join: true
require_membership_for_aliases
Whether to require a user to be in the room to add an alias to it. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
require_membership_for_aliases: false
allow_per_room_profiles
Whether to allow per-room membership profiles through the sending of membership events with profile information that differs from the target's global profile. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
allow_per_room_profiles: false
max_avatar_size
The largest permissible file size in bytes for a user avatar. Defaults to no restriction. Use M for MB and K for KB.
Note that user avatar changes will not work if this is set without using Synapse's media repository.
Example configuration:
max_avatar_size: 10M
allowed_avatar_mimetypes
The MIME types allowed for user avatars. Defaults to no restriction.
Note that user avatar changes will not work if this is set without using Synapse's media repository.
Example configuration:
allowed_avatar_mimetypes: ["image/png", "image/jpeg", "image/gif"]
redaction_retention_period
How long to keep redacted events in unredacted form in the database. After this period redacted events get replaced with their redacted form in the DB.
Synapse will check whether the rentention period has concluded for redacted
events every 5 minutes. Thus, even if this option is set to 0
, Synapse may
still take up to 5 minutes to purge redacted events from the database.
Defaults to 7d
. Set to null
to disable.
Example configuration:
redaction_retention_period: 28d
user_ips_max_age
How long to track users' last seen time and IPs in the database.
Defaults to 28d
. Set to null
to disable clearing out of old rows.
Example configuration:
user_ips_max_age: 14d
request_token_inhibit_3pid_errors
Inhibits the /requestToken
endpoints from returning an error that might leak
information about whether an e-mail address is in use or not on this
homeserver. Defaults to false.
Note that for some endpoints the error situation is the e-mail already being
used, and for others the error is entering the e-mail being unused.
If this option is enabled, instead of returning an error, these endpoints will
act as if no error happened and return a fake session ID ('sid') to clients.
Example configuration:
request_token_inhibit_3pid_errors: true
next_link_domain_whitelist
A list of domains that the domain portion of next_link
parameters
must match.
This parameter is optionally provided by clients while requesting validation of an email or phone number, and maps to a link that users will be automatically redirected to after validation succeeds. Clients can make use this parameter to aid the validation process.
The whitelist is applied whether the homeserver or an identity server is handling validation.
The default value is no whitelist functionality; all domains are allowed. Setting this value to an empty list will instead disallow all domains.
Example configuration:
next_link_domain_whitelist: ["matrix.org"]
templates
and custom_template_directory
These options define templates to use when generating email or HTML page contents.
The custom_template_directory
determines which directory Synapse will try to
find template files in to use to generate email or HTML page contents.
If not set, or a file is not found within the template directory, a default
template from within the Synapse package will be used.
See here for more information about using custom templates.
Example configuration:
templates:
custom_template_directory: /path/to/custom/templates/
retention
This option and the associated options determine message retention policy at the server level.
Room admins and mods can define a retention period for their rooms using the
m.room.retention
state event, and server admins can cap this period by setting
the allowed_lifetime_min
and allowed_lifetime_max
config options.
If this feature is enabled, Synapse will regularly look for and purge events which are older than the room's maximum retention period. Synapse will also filter events received over federation so that events that should have been purged are ignored and not stored again.
The message retention policies feature is disabled by default. Please be advised that enabling this feature carries some risk. There are known bugs with the implementation which can cause database corruption. Setting retention to delete older history is less risky than deleting newer history but in general caution is advised when enabling this experimental feature. You can read more about this feature here.
This setting has the following sub-options:
-
default_policy
: Default retention policy. If set, Synapse will apply it to rooms that lack the 'm.room.retention' state event. This option is further specified by themin_lifetime
andmax_lifetime
sub-options associated with it. Note that the value ofmin_lifetime
doesn't matter much because Synapse doesn't take it into account yet. -
allowed_lifetime_min
andallowed_lifetime_max
: Retention policy limits. If set, and the state of a room contains am.room.retention
event in its state which contains amin_lifetime
or amax_lifetime
that's out of these bounds, Synapse will cap the room's policy to these limits when running purge jobs. -
purge_jobs
and the associatedshortest_max_lifetime
andlongest_max_lifetime
sub-options: Server admins can define the settings of the background jobs purging the events whose lifetime has expired under thepurge_jobs
section.If no configuration is provided for this option, a single job will be set up to delete expired events in every room daily.
Each job's configuration defines which range of message lifetimes the job takes care of. For example, if
shortest_max_lifetime
is '2d' andlongest_max_lifetime
is '3d', the job will handle purging expired events in rooms whose state defines amax_lifetime
that's both higher than 2 days, and lower than or equal to 3 days. Both the minimum and the maximum value of a range are optional, e.g. a job with noshortest_max_lifetime
and alongest_max_lifetime
of '3d' will handle every room with a retention policy whosemax_lifetime
is lower than or equal to three days.The rationale for this per-job configuration is that some rooms might have a retention policy with a low
max_lifetime
, where history needs to be purged of outdated messages on a more frequent basis than for the rest of the rooms (e.g. every 12h), but not want that purge to be performed by a job that's iterating over every room it knows, which could be heavy on the server.If any purge job is configured, it is strongly recommended to have at least a single job with neither
shortest_max_lifetime
norlongest_max_lifetime
set, or one job withoutshortest_max_lifetime
and one job withoutlongest_max_lifetime
set. Otherwise some rooms might be ignored, even ifallowed_lifetime_min
andallowed_lifetime_max
are set, because capping a room's policy to these values is done after the policies are retrieved from Synapse's database (which is done using the range specified in a purge job's configuration).
Example configuration:
retention:
enabled: true
default_policy:
min_lifetime: 1d
max_lifetime: 1y
allowed_lifetime_min: 1d
allowed_lifetime_max: 1y
purge_jobs:
- longest_max_lifetime: 3d
interval: 12h
- shortest_max_lifetime: 3d
interval: 1d
TLS
Options related to TLS.
tls_certificate_path
This option specifies a PEM-encoded X509 certificate for TLS. This certificate, as of Synapse 1.0, will need to be a valid and verifiable certificate, signed by a recognised Certificate Authority. Defaults to none.
Be sure to use a .pem
file that includes the full certificate chain including
any intermediate certificates (for instance, if using certbot, use
fullchain.pem
as your certificate, not cert.pem
).
Example configuration:
tls_certificate_path: "CONFDIR/SERVERNAME.tls.crt"
tls_private_key_path
PEM-encoded private key for TLS. Defaults to none.
Example configuration:
tls_private_key_path: "CONFDIR/SERVERNAME.tls.key"
federation_verify_certificates
Whether to verify TLS server certificates for outbound federation requests.
Defaults to true. To disable certificate verification, set the option to false.
Example configuration:
federation_verify_certificates: false
federation_client_minimum_tls_version
The minimum TLS version that will be used for outbound federation requests.
Defaults to 1
. Configurable to 1
, 1.1
, 1.2
, or 1.3
. Note
that setting this value higher than 1.2
will prevent federation to most
of the public Matrix network: only configure it to 1.3
if you have an
entirely private federation setup and you can ensure TLS 1.3 support.
Example configuration:
federation_client_minimum_tls_version: 1.2
federation_certificate_verification_whitelist
Skip federation certificate verification on a given whitelist of domains.
This setting should only be used in very specific cases, such as federation over Tor hidden services and similar. For private networks of homeservers, you likely want to use a private CA instead.
Only effective if federation_verify_certicates
is true
.
Example configuration:
federation_certificate_verification_whitelist:
- lon.example.com
- "*.domain.com"
- "*.onion"
federation_custom_ca_list
List of custom certificate authorities for federation traffic.
This setting should only normally be used within a private network of homeservers.
Note that this list will replace those that are provided by your operating environment. Certificates must be in PEM format.
Example configuration:
federation_custom_ca_list:
- myCA1.pem
- myCA2.pem
- myCA3.pem
Federation
Options related to federation.
federation_domain_whitelist
Restrict federation to the given whitelist of domains. N.B. we recommend also firewalling your federation listener to limit inbound federation traffic as early as possible, rather than relying purely on this application-layer restriction. If not specified, the default is to whitelist everything.
Example configuration:
federation_domain_whitelist:
- lon.example.com
- nyc.example.com
- syd.example.com
federation_metrics_domains
Report prometheus metrics on the age of PDUs being sent to and received from the given domains. This can be used to give an idea of "delay" on inbound and outbound federation, though be aware that any delay can be due to problems at either end or with the intermediate network.
By default, no domains are monitored in this way.
Example configuration:
federation_metrics_domains:
- matrix.org
- example.com
allow_profile_lookup_over_federation
Set to false to disable profile lookup over federation. By default, the Federation API allows other homeservers to obtain profile data of any user on this homeserver.
Example configuration:
allow_profile_lookup_over_federation: false
allow_device_name_lookup_over_federation
Set this option to true to allow device display name lookup over federation. By default, the Federation API prevents other homeservers from obtaining the display names of any user devices on this homeserver.
Example configuration:
allow_device_name_lookup_over_federation: true
Caching
Options related to caching.
event_cache_size
The number of events to cache in memory. Defaults to 10K. Like other caches,
this is affected by caches.global_factor
(see below).
Note that this option is not part of the caches
section.
Example configuration:
event_cache_size: 15K
caches
and associated values
A cache 'factor' is a multiplier that can be applied to each of Synapse's caches in order to increase or decrease the maximum number of entries that can be stored.
caches
can be configured through the following sub-options:
-
global_factor
: Controls the global cache factor, which is the default cache factor for all caches if a specific factor for that cache is not otherwise set.This can also be set by the
SYNAPSE_CACHE_FACTOR
environment variable. Setting by environment variable takes priority over setting through the config file.Defaults to 0.5, which will halve the size of all caches.
-
per_cache_factors
: A dictionary of cache name to cache factor for that individual cache. Overrides the global cache factor for a given cache.These can also be set through environment variables comprised of
SYNAPSE_CACHE_FACTOR_
+ the name of the cache in capital letters and underscores. Setting by environment variable takes priority over setting through the config file. Ex.SYNAPSE_CACHE_FACTOR_GET_USERS_WHO_SHARE_ROOM_WITH_USER=2.0
Some caches have '*' and other characters that are not alphanumeric or underscores. These caches can be named with or without the special characters stripped. For example, to specify the cache factor for
*stateGroupCache*
via an environment variable would beSYNAPSE_CACHE_FACTOR_STATEGROUPCACHE=2.0
. -
expire_caches
: Controls whether cache entries are evicted after a specified time period. Defaults to true. Set to false to disable this feature. Note that never expiring caches may result in excessive memory usage. -
cache_entry_ttl
: Ifexpire_caches
is enabled, this flag controls how long an entry can be in a cache without having been accessed before being evicted. Defaults to 30m. -
sync_response_cache_duration
: Controls how long the results of a /sync request are cached for after a successful response is returned. A higher duration can help clients with intermittent connections, at the cost of higher memory usage. A value of zero means that sync responses are not cached. Defaults to 2m.Changed in Synapse 1.62.0: The default was changed from 0 to 2m.
-
cache_autotuning
and its sub-optionsmax_cache_memory_usage
,target_cache_memory_usage
, andmin_cache_ttl
work in conjunction with each other to maintain a balance between cache memory usage and cache entry availability. You must be using jemalloc to utilize this option, and all three of the options must be specified for this feature to work. This option defaults to off, enable it by providing values for the sub-options listed below. Please note that the feature will not work and may cause unstable behavior (such as excessive emptying of caches or exceptions) if all of the values are not provided. Please see the Config Conventions for information on how to specify memory size and cache expiry durations.max_cache_memory_usage
sets a ceiling on how much memory the cache can use before caches begin to be continuously evicted. They will continue to be evicted until the memory usage drops below thetarget_memory_usage
, set in the setting below, or until themin_cache_ttl
is hit. There is no default value for this option.target_memory_usage
sets a rough target for the desired memory usage of the caches. There is no default value for this option.min_cache_ttl
sets a limit under which newer cache entries are not evicted and is only applied when caches are actively being evicted/max_cache_memory_usage
has been exceeded. This is to protect hot caches from being emptied while Synapse is evicting due to memory. There is no default value for this option.
Example configuration:
event_cache_size: 15K
caches:
global_factor: 1.0
per_cache_factors:
get_users_who_share_room_with_user: 2.0
sync_response_cache_duration: 2m
cache_autotuning:
max_cache_memory_usage: 1024M
target_cache_memory_usage: 758M
min_cache_ttl: 5m
Reloading cache factors
The cache factors (i.e. caches.global_factor
and caches.per_cache_factors
) may be reloaded at any time by sending a
SIGHUP
signal to Synapse using e.g.
kill -HUP [PID_OF_SYNAPSE_PROCESS]
If you are running multiple workers, you must individually update the worker config file and send this signal to each worker process.
If you're using the example systemd service
file in Synapse's contrib
directory, you can send a SIGHUP
signal by using
systemctl reload matrix-synapse
.
Database
Config options related to database settings.
database
The database
setting defines the database that synapse uses to store all of
its data.
Associated sub-options:
-
name
: this option specifies the database engine to use: eithersqlite3
(for SQLite) orpsycopg2
(for PostgreSQL). If no name is specified Synapse will default to SQLite. -
txn_limit
gives the maximum number of transactions to run per connection before reconnecting. Defaults to 0, which means no limit. -
allow_unsafe_locale
is an option specific to Postgres. Under the default behavior, Synapse will refuse to start if the postgres db is set to a non-C locale. You can override this behavior (which is not recommended) by settingallow_unsafe_locale
to true. Note that doing so may corrupt your database. You can find more information here and here. -
args
gives options which are passed through to the database engine, except for options starting withcp_
, which are used to configure the Twisted connection pool. For a reference to valid arguments, see:- for sqlite
- for postgres
- for the connection pool
For more information on using Synapse with Postgres, see here.
Example SQLite configuration:
database:
name: sqlite3
args:
database: /path/to/homeserver.db
Example Postgres configuration:
database:
name: psycopg2
txn_limit: 10000
args:
user: synapse_user
password: secretpassword
database: synapse
host: localhost
port: 5432
cp_min: 5
cp_max: 10
databases
The databases
option allows specifying a mapping between certain database tables and
database host details, spreading the load of a single Synapse instance across multiple
database backends. This is often referred to as "database sharding". This option is only
supported for PostgreSQL database backends.
Important note: This is a supported option, but is not currently used in production by the Matrix.org Foundation. Proceed with caution and always make backups.
databases
is a dictionary of arbitrarily-named database entries. Each entry is equivalent
to the value of the database
homeserver config option (see above), with the addition of
a data_stores
key. data_stores
is an array of strings that specifies the data store(s)
(a defined label for a set of tables) that should be stored on the associated database
backend entry.
The currently defined values for data_stores
are:
-
"state"
: Database that relates to state groups will be stored in this database.Specifically, that means the following tables:
state_groups
state_group_edges
state_groups_state
And the following sequences:
state_groups_seq_id
-
"main"
: All other database tables and sequences.
All databases will end up with additional tables used for tracking database schema migrations and any pending background updates. Synapse will create these automatically on startup when checking for and/or performing database schema migrations.
To migrate an existing database configuration (e.g. all tables on a single database) to a different configuration (e.g. the "main" data store on one database, and "state" on another), do the following:
-
Take a backup of your existing database. Things can and do go wrong and database corruption is no joke!
-
Ensure all pending database migrations have been applied and background updates have run. The simplest way to do this is to use the
update_synapse_database
script supplied with your Synapse installation.update_synapse_database --database-config homeserver.yaml --run-background-updates
-
Copy over the necessary tables and sequences from one database to the other. Tables relating to database migrations, schemas, schema versions and background updates should not be copied.
As an example, say that you'd like to split out the "state" data store from an existing database which currently contains all data stores.
Simply copy the tables and sequences defined above for the "state" datastore from the existing database to the secondary database. As noted above, additional tables will be created in the secondary database when Synapse is started.
-
Modify/create the
databases
option in yourhomeserver.yaml
to match the desired database configuration. -
Start Synapse. Check that it starts up successfully and that things generally seem to be working.
-
Drop the old tables that were copied in step 3.
Only one of the options database
or databases
may be specified in your config, but not both.
Example configuration:
databases:
basement_box:
name: psycopg2
txn_limit: 10000
data_stores: ["main"]
args:
user: synapse_user
password: secretpassword
database: synapse_main
host: localhost
port: 5432
cp_min: 5
cp_max: 10
my_other_database:
name: psycopg2
txn_limit: 10000
data_stores: ["state"]
args:
user: synapse_user
password: secretpassword
database: synapse_state
host: localhost
port: 5432
cp_min: 5
cp_max: 10
Logging
Config options related to logging.
log_config
This option specifies a yaml python logging config file as described here.
Example configuration:
log_config: "CONFDIR/SERVERNAME.log.config"
Ratelimiting
Options related to ratelimiting in Synapse.
Each ratelimiting configuration is made of two parameters:
per_second
: number of requests a client can send per second.burst_count
: number of requests a client can send before being throttled.
rc_message
Ratelimiting settings for client messaging.
This is a ratelimiting option for messages that ratelimits sending based on the account the client
is using. It defaults to: per_second: 0.2
, burst_count: 10
.
Example configuration:
rc_message:
per_second: 0.5
burst_count: 15
rc_registration
This option ratelimits registration requests based on the client's IP address.
It defaults to per_second: 0.17
, burst_count: 3
.
Example configuration:
rc_registration:
per_second: 0.15
burst_count: 2
rc_registration_token_validity
This option checks the validity of registration tokens that ratelimits requests based on
the client's IP address.
Defaults to per_second: 0.1
, burst_count: 5
.
Example configuration:
rc_registration_token_validity:
per_second: 0.3
burst_count: 6
rc_login
This option specifies several limits for login:
-
address
ratelimits login requests based on the client's IP address. Defaults toper_second: 0.17
,burst_count: 3
. -
account
ratelimits login requests based on the account the client is attempting to log into. Defaults toper_second: 0.17
,burst_count: 3
. -
failed_attempts
ratelimits login requests based on the account the client is attempting to log into, based on the amount of failed login attempts for this account. Defaults toper_second: 0.17
,burst_count: 3
.
Example configuration:
rc_login:
address:
per_second: 0.15
burst_count: 5
account:
per_second: 0.18
burst_count: 4
failed_attempts:
per_second: 0.19
burst_count: 7
rc_admin_redaction
This option sets ratelimiting redactions by room admins. If this is not explicitly
set then it uses the same ratelimiting as per rc_message
. This is useful
to allow room admins to deal with abuse quickly.
Example configuration:
rc_admin_redaction:
per_second: 1
burst_count: 50
rc_joins
This option allows for ratelimiting number of rooms a user can join. This setting has the following sub-options:
-
local
: ratelimits when users are joining rooms the server is already in. Defaults toper_second: 0.1
,burst_count: 10
. -
remote
: ratelimits when users are trying to join rooms not on the server (which can be more computationally expensive than restricting locally). Defaults toper_second: 0.01
,burst_count: 10
Example configuration:
rc_joins:
local:
per_second: 0.2
burst_count: 15
remote:
per_second: 0.03
burst_count: 12
rc_joins_per_room
This option allows admins to ratelimit joins to a room based on the number of recent joins (local or remote) to that room. It is intended to mitigate mass-join spam waves which target multiple homeservers.
By default, one join is permitted to a room every second, with an accumulating buffer of up to ten instantaneous joins.
Example configuration (default values):
rc_joins_per_room:
per_second: 1
burst_count: 10
Added in Synapse 1.64.0.
rc_3pid_validation
This option ratelimits how often a user or IP can attempt to validate a 3PID.
Defaults to per_second: 0.003
, burst_count: 5
.
Example configuration:
rc_3pid_validation:
per_second: 0.003
burst_count: 5
rc_invites
This option sets ratelimiting how often invites can be sent in a room or to a
specific user. per_room
defaults to per_second: 0.3
, burst_count: 10
and
per_user
defaults to per_second: 0.003
, burst_count: 5
.
Client requests that invite user(s) when creating a
room
will count against the rc_invites.per_room
limit, whereas
client requests to invite a single user to a
room
will count against both the rc_invites.per_user
and rc_invites.per_room
limits.
Federation requests to invite a user will count against the rc_invites.per_user
limit only, as Synapse presumes ratelimiting by room will be done by the sending server.
The rc_invites.per_user
limit applies to the receiver of the invite, rather than the
sender, meaning that a rc_invite.per_user.burst_count
of 5 mandates that a single user
cannot receive more than a burst of 5 invites at a time.
In contrast, the rc_invites.per_issuer
limit applies to the issuer of the invite, meaning that a rc_invite.per_issuer.burst_count
of 5 mandates that single user cannot send more than a burst of 5 invites at a time.
Changed in version 1.63: added the per_issuer
limit.
Example configuration:
rc_invites:
per_room:
per_second: 0.5
burst_count: 5
per_user:
per_second: 0.004
burst_count: 3
per_issuer:
per_second: 0.5
burst_count: 5
rc_third_party_invite
This option ratelimits 3PID invites (i.e. invites sent to a third-party ID
such as an email address or a phone number) based on the account that's
sending the invite. Defaults to per_second: 0.2
, burst_count: 10
.
Example configuration:
rc_third_party_invite:
per_second: 0.2
burst_count: 10
rc_federation
Defines limits on federation requests.
The rc_federation
configuration has the following sub-options:
window_size
: window size in milliseconds. Defaults to 1000.sleep_limit
: number of federation requests from a single server in a window before the server will delay processing the request. Defaults to 10.sleep_delay
: duration in milliseconds to delay processing events from remote servers by if they go over the sleep limit. Defaults to 500.reject_limit
: maximum number of concurrent federation requests allowed from a single server. Defaults to 50.concurrent
: number of federation requests to concurrently process from a single server. Defaults to 3.
Example configuration:
rc_federation:
window_size: 750
sleep_limit: 15
sleep_delay: 400
reject_limit: 40
concurrent: 5
federation_rr_transactions_per_room_per_second
Sets outgoing federation transaction frequency for sending read-receipts, per-room.
If we end up trying to send out more read-receipts, they will get buffered up into fewer transactions. Defaults to 50.
Example configuration:
federation_rr_transactions_per_room_per_second: 40
Media Store
Config options related to Synapse's media store.
enable_media_repo
Enable the media store service in the Synapse master. Defaults to true. Set to false if you are using a separate media store worker.
Example configuration:
enable_media_repo: false
media_store_path
Directory where uploaded images and attachments are stored.
Example configuration:
media_store_path: "DATADIR/media_store"
media_storage_providers
Media storage providers allow media to be stored in different locations. Defaults to none. Associated sub-options are:
module
: type of resource, e.g.file_system
.store_local
: whether to store newly uploaded local filesstore_remote
: whether to store newly downloaded local filesstore_synchronous
: whether to wait for successful storage for local uploadsconfig
: sets a path to the resource through thedirectory
option
Example configuration:
media_storage_providers:
- module: file_system
store_local: false
store_remote: false
store_synchronous: false
config:
directory: /mnt/some/other/directory
max_upload_size
The largest allowed upload size in bytes.
If you are using a reverse proxy you may also need to set this value in your reverse proxy's config. Defaults to 50M. Notably Nginx has a small max body size by default. See here for more on using a reverse proxy with Synapse.
Example configuration:
max_upload_size: 60M
max_image_pixels
Maximum number of pixels that will be thumbnailed. Defaults to 32M.
Example configuration:
max_image_pixels: 35M
dynamic_thumbnails
Whether to generate new thumbnails on the fly to precisely match the resolution requested by the client. If true then whenever a new resolution is requested by the client the server will generate a new thumbnail. If false the server will pick a thumbnail from a precalculated list. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
dynamic_thumbnails: true
thumbnail_sizes
List of thumbnails to precalculate when an image is uploaded. Associated sub-options are:
width
height
method
: i.e.crop
,scale
, etc.
Example configuration:
thumbnail_sizes:
- width: 32
height: 32
method: crop
- width: 96
height: 96
method: crop
- width: 320
height: 240
method: scale
- width: 640
height: 480
method: scale
- width: 800
height: 600
method: scale
media_retention
Controls whether local media and entries in the remote media cache (media that is downloaded from other homeservers) should be removed under certain conditions, typically for the purpose of saving space.
Purging media files will be the carried out by the media worker
(that is, the worker that has the enable_media_repo
homeserver config
option set to 'true'). This may be the main process.
The media_retention.local_media_lifetime
and
media_retention.remote_media_lifetime
config options control whether
media will be purged if it has not been accessed in a given amount of
time. Note that media is 'accessed' when loaded in a room in a client, or
otherwise downloaded by a local or remote user. If the media has never
been accessed, the media's creation time is used instead. Both thumbnails
and the original media will be removed. If either of these options are unset,
then media of that type will not be purged.
Local or cached remote media that has been quarantined will not be deleted. Similarly, local media that has been marked as protected from quarantine will not be deleted.
Example configuration:
media_retention:
local_media_lifetime: 90d
remote_media_lifetime: 14d
url_preview_enabled
This setting determines whether the preview URL API is enabled.
It is disabled by default. Set to true to enable. If enabled you must specify a
url_preview_ip_range_blacklist
blacklist.
Example configuration:
url_preview_enabled: true
url_preview_ip_range_blacklist
List of IP address CIDR ranges that the URL preview spider is denied from accessing. There are no defaults: you must explicitly specify a list for URL previewing to work. You should specify any internal services in your network that you do not want synapse to try to connect to, otherwise anyone in any Matrix room could cause your synapse to issue arbitrary GET requests to your internal services, causing serious security issues.
(0.0.0.0 and :: are always blacklisted, whether or not they are explicitly listed here, since they correspond to unroutable addresses.)
This must be specified if url_preview_enabled
is set. It is recommended that
you use the following example list as a starting point.
Note: The value is ignored when an HTTP proxy is in use.
Example configuration:
url_preview_ip_range_blacklist:
- '127.0.0.0/8'
- '10.0.0.0/8'
- '172.16.0.0/12'
- '192.168.0.0/16'
- '100.64.0.0/10'
- '192.0.0.0/24'
- '169.254.0.0/16'
- '192.88.99.0/24'
- '198.18.0.0/15'
- '192.0.2.0/24'
- '198.51.100.0/24'
- '203.0.113.0/24'
- '224.0.0.0/4'
- '::1/128'
- 'fe80::/10'
- 'fc00::/7'
- '2001:db8::/32'
- 'ff00::/8'
- 'fec0::/10'
url_preview_ip_range_whitelist
This option sets a list of IP address CIDR ranges that the URL preview spider is allowed
to access even if they are specified in url_preview_ip_range_blacklist
.
This is useful for specifying exceptions to wide-ranging blacklisted
target IP ranges - e.g. for enabling URL previews for a specific private
website only visible in your network. Defaults to none.
Example configuration:
url_preview_ip_range_whitelist:
- '192.168.1.1'
url_preview_url_blacklist
Optional list of URL matches that the URL preview spider is
denied from accessing. You should use url_preview_ip_range_blacklist
in preference to this, otherwise someone could define a public DNS
entry that points to a private IP address and circumvent the blacklist.
This is more useful if you know there is an entire shape of URL that
you know that will never want synapse to try to spider.
Each list entry is a dictionary of url component attributes as returned by urlparse.urlsplit as applied to the absolute form of the URL. See here for more information. Some examples are:
username
netloc
scheme
path
The values of the dictionary are treated as a filename match pattern applied to that component of URLs, unless they start with a ^ in which case they are treated as a regular expression match. If all the specified component matches for a given list item succeed, the URL is blacklisted.
Example configuration:
url_preview_url_blacklist:
# blacklist any URL with a username in its URI
- username: '*'
# blacklist all *.google.com URLs
- netloc: 'google.com'
- netloc: '*.google.com'
# blacklist all plain HTTP URLs
- scheme: 'http'
# blacklist http(s)://www.acme.com/foo
- netloc: 'www.acme.com'
path: '/foo'
# blacklist any URL with a literal IPv4 address
- netloc: '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$'
max_spider_size
The largest allowed URL preview spidering size in bytes. Defaults to 10M.
Example configuration:
max_spider_size: 8M
url_preview_accept_language
A list of values for the Accept-Language HTTP header used when downloading webpages during URL preview generation. This allows Synapse to specify the preferred languages that URL previews should be in when communicating with remote servers.
Each value is a IETF language tag; a 2-3 letter identifier for a language, optionally followed by subtags separated by '-', specifying a country or region variant.
Multiple values can be provided, and a weight can be added to each by using quality value syntax (;q=). '*' translates to any language.
Defaults to "en".
Example configuration:
url_preview_accept_language:
- 'en-UK'
- 'en-US;q=0.9'
- 'fr;q=0.8'
- '*;q=0.7'
oembed
oEmbed allows for easier embedding content from a website. It can be
used for generating URLs previews of services which support it. A default list of oEmbed providers
is included with Synapse. Set disable_default_providers
to true to disable using
these default oEmbed URLs. Use additional_providers
to specify additional files with oEmbed configuration (each
should be in the form of providers.json). By default this list is empty.
Example configuration:
oembed:
disable_default_providers: true
additional_providers:
- oembed/my_providers.json
Captcha
See here for full details on setting up captcha.
recaptcha_public_key
This homeserver's ReCAPTCHA public key. Must be specified if
enable_registration_captcha
is enabled.
Example configuration:
recaptcha_public_key: "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY"
recaptcha_private_key
This homeserver's ReCAPTCHA private key. Must be specified if
enable_registration_captcha
is
enabled.
Example configuration:
recaptcha_private_key: "YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY"
enable_registration_captcha
Set to true
to require users to complete a CAPTCHA test when registering an account.
Requires a valid ReCaptcha public/private key.
Defaults to false
.
Note that enable_registration
must also be set to allow account registration.
Example configuration:
enable_registration_captcha: true
recaptcha_siteverify_api
The API endpoint to use for verifying m.login.recaptcha
responses.
Defaults to https://www.recaptcha.net/recaptcha/api/siteverify
.
Example configuration:
recaptcha_siteverify_api: "https://my.recaptcha.site"
TURN
Options related to adding a TURN server to Synapse.
turn_uris
The public URIs of the TURN server to give to clients.
Example configuration:
turn_uris: [turn:example.org]
turn_shared_secret
The shared secret used to compute passwords for the TURN server.
Example configuration:
turn_shared_secret: "YOUR_SHARED_SECRET"
turn_username
and turn_password
The Username and password if the TURN server needs them and does not use a token.
Example configuration:
turn_username: "TURNSERVER_USERNAME"
turn_password: "TURNSERVER_PASSWORD"
turn_user_lifetime
How long generated TURN credentials last. Defaults to 1h.
Example configuration:
turn_user_lifetime: 2h
turn_allow_guests
Whether guests should be allowed to use the TURN server. This defaults to true, otherwise VoIP will be unreliable for guests. However, it does introduce a slight security risk as it allows users to connect to arbitrary endpoints without having first signed up for a valid account (e.g. by passing a CAPTCHA).
Example configuration:
turn_allow_guests: false
Registration
Registration can be rate-limited using the parameters in the Ratelimiting section of this manual.
enable_registration
Enable registration for new users. Defaults to false
.
It is highly recommended that if you enable registration, you set one or more or the following options, to avoid abuse of your server by "bots":
(In order to enable registration without any verification, you must also set
enable_registration_without_verification
.)
Note that even if this setting is disabled, new accounts can still be created
via the admin API if
registration_shared_secret
is set.
Example configuration:
enable_registration: true
enable_registration_without_verification
Enable registration without email or captcha verification. Note: this option is not recommended,
as registration without verification is a known vector for spam and abuse. Defaults to false
. Has no effect
unless enable_registration
is also enabled.
Example configuration:
enable_registration_without_verification: true
registrations_require_3pid
If this is set, users must provide all of the specified types of 3PID when registering an account.
Note that enable_registration
must also be set to allow account registration.
Example configuration:
registrations_require_3pid:
- email
- msisdn
disable_msisdn_registration
Explicitly disable asking for MSISDNs from the registration
flow (overrides registrations_require_3pid
if MSISDNs are set as required).
Example configuration:
disable_msisdn_registration: true
allowed_local_3pids
Mandate that users are only allowed to associate certain formats of
3PIDs with accounts on this server, as specified by the medium
and pattern
sub-options.
Example configuration:
allowed_local_3pids:
- medium: email
pattern: '^[^@]+@matrix\.org$'
- medium: email
pattern: '^[^@]+@vector\.im$'
- medium: msisdn
pattern: '\+44'
enable_3pid_lookup
Enable 3PIDs lookup requests to identity servers from this server. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
enable_3pid_lookup: false
registration_requires_token
Require users to submit a token during registration.
Tokens can be managed using the admin API.
Disabling this option will not delete any tokens previously generated.
Defaults to false
. Set to true
to enable.
Note that enable_registration
must also be set to allow account registration.
Example configuration:
registration_requires_token: true
registration_shared_secret
If set, allows registration of standard or admin accounts by anyone who has the
shared secret, even if enable_registration
is not
set.
This is primarily intended for use with the register_new_matrix_user
script
(see Registering a user);
however, the interface is documented.
See also registration_shared_secret_path
.
Example configuration:
registration_shared_secret: <PRIVATE STRING>
registration_shared_secret_path
An alternative to registration_shared_secret
:
allows the shared secret to be specified in an external file.
The file should be a plain text file, containing only the shared secret.
If this file does not exist, Synapse will create a new signing key on startup and store it in this file.
Example configuration:
registration_shared_secret_file: /path/to/secrets/file
Added in Synapse 1.67.0.
bcrypt_rounds
Set the number of bcrypt rounds used to generate password hash. Larger numbers increase the work factor needed to generate the hash. The default number is 12 (which equates to 2^12 rounds). N.B. that increasing this will exponentially increase the time required to register or login - e.g. 24 => 2^24 rounds which will take >20 mins. Example configuration:
bcrypt_rounds: 14
allow_guest_access
Allows users to register as guests without a password/email/etc, and participate in rooms hosted on this server which have been made accessible to anonymous users. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
allow_guest_access: true
default_identity_server
The identity server which we suggest that clients should use when users log in on this server.
(By default, no suggestion is made, so it is left up to the client.
This setting is ignored unless public_baseurl
is also explicitly set.)
Example configuration:
default_identity_server: https://matrix.org
account_threepid_delegates
Delegate verification of phone numbers to an identity server.
When a user wishes to add a phone number to their account, we need to verify that they
actually own that phone number, which requires sending them a text message (SMS).
Currently Synapse does not support sending those texts itself and instead delegates the
task to an identity server. The base URI for the identity server to be used is
specified by the account_threepid_delegates.msisdn
option.
If this is left unspecified, Synapse will not allow users to add phone numbers to their account.
(Servers handling the these requests must answer the /requestToken
endpoints defined
by the Matrix Identity Service API
specification.)
Deprecated in Synapse 1.64.0: The email
option is deprecated.
Removed in Synapse 1.66.0: The email
option has been removed.
If present, Synapse will report a configuration error on startup.
Example configuration:
account_threepid_delegates:
msisdn: http://localhost:8090 # Delegate SMS sending to this local process
enable_set_displayname
Whether users are allowed to change their displayname after it has been initially set. Useful when provisioning users based on the contents of a third-party directory.
Does not apply to server administrators. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
enable_set_displayname: false
enable_set_avatar_url
Whether users are allowed to change their avatar after it has been initially set. Useful when provisioning users based on the contents of a third-party directory.
Does not apply to server administrators. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
enable_set_avatar_url: false
enable_3pid_changes
Whether users can change the third-party IDs associated with their accounts (email address and msisdn).
Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
enable_3pid_changes: false
auto_join_rooms
Users who register on this homeserver will automatically be joined to the rooms listed under this option.
By default, any room aliases included in this list will be created as a publicly joinable room when the first user registers for the homeserver. If the room already exists, make certain it is a publicly joinable room, i.e. the join rule of the room must be set to 'public'. You can find more options relating to auto-joining rooms below.
As Spaces are just rooms under the hood, Space aliases may also be used.
Example configuration:
auto_join_rooms:
- "#exampleroom:example.com"
- "#anotherexampleroom:example.com"
autocreate_auto_join_rooms
Where auto_join_rooms
are specified, setting this flag ensures that
the rooms exist by creating them when the first user on the
homeserver registers. This option will not create Spaces.
By default the auto-created rooms are publicly joinable from any federated
server. Use the autocreate_auto_join_rooms_federated
and
autocreate_auto_join_room_preset
settings to customise this behaviour.
Setting to false means that if the rooms are not manually created, users cannot be auto-joined since they do not exist.
Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
autocreate_auto_join_rooms: false
autocreate_auto_join_rooms_federated
Whether the rooms listed in auto_join_rooms
that are auto-created are available
via federation. Only has an effect if autocreate_auto_join_rooms
is true.
Note that whether a room is federated cannot be modified after creation.
Defaults to true: the room will be joinable from other servers. Set to false to prevent users from other homeservers from joining these rooms.
Example configuration:
autocreate_auto_join_rooms_federated: false
autocreate_auto_join_room_preset
The room preset to use when auto-creating one of auto_join_rooms
. Only has an
effect if autocreate_auto_join_rooms
is true.
Possible values for this option are:
- "public_chat": the room is joinable by anyone, including
federated servers if
autocreate_auto_join_rooms_federated
is true (the default). - "private_chat": an invitation is required to join these rooms.
- "trusted_private_chat": an invitation is required to join this room and the invitee is assigned a power level of 100 upon joining the room.
If a value of "private_chat" or "trusted_private_chat" is used then
auto_join_mxid_localpart
must also be configured.
Defaults to "public_chat".
Example configuration:
autocreate_auto_join_room_preset: private_chat
auto_join_mxid_localpart
The local part of the user id which is used to create auto_join_rooms
if
autocreate_auto_join_rooms
is true. If this is not provided then the
initial user account that registers will be used to create the rooms.
The user id is also used to invite new users to any auto-join rooms which are set to invite-only.
It must be configured if autocreate_auto_join_room_preset
is set to
"private_chat" or "trusted_private_chat".
Note that this must be specified in order for new users to be correctly invited to any auto-join rooms which have been set to invite-only (either at the time of creation or subsequently).
Note that, if the room already exists, this user must be joined and have the appropriate permissions to invite new members.
Example configuration:
auto_join_mxid_localpart: system
auto_join_rooms_for_guests
When auto_join_rooms
is specified, setting this flag to false prevents
guest accounts from being automatically joined to the rooms.
Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
auto_join_rooms_for_guests: false
inhibit_user_in_use_error
Whether to inhibit errors raised when registering a new account if the user ID
already exists. If turned on, requests to /register/available
will always
show a user ID as available, and Synapse won't raise an error when starting
a registration with a user ID that already exists. However, Synapse will still
raise an error if the registration completes and the username conflicts.
Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
inhibit_user_in_use_error: true
User session management
session_lifetime
Time that a user's session remains valid for, after they log in.
Note that this is not currently compatible with guest logins.
Note also that this is calculated at login time: changes are not applied retrospectively to users who have already logged in.
By default, this is infinite.
Example configuration:
session_lifetime: 24h
refresh_access_token_lifetime
Time that an access token remains valid for, if the session is using refresh tokens.
For more information about refresh tokens, please see the manual.
Note that this only applies to clients which advertise support for refresh tokens.
Note also that this is calculated at login time and refresh time: changes are not applied to existing sessions until they are refreshed.
By default, this is 5 minutes.
Example configuration:
refreshable_access_token_lifetime: 10m
refresh_token_lifetime: 24h
Time that a refresh token remains valid for (provided that it is not exchanged for another one first). This option can be used to automatically log-out inactive sessions. Please see the manual for more information.
Note also that this is calculated at login time and refresh time: changes are not applied to existing sessions until they are refreshed.
By default, this is infinite.
Example configuration:
refresh_token_lifetime: 24h
nonrefreshable_access_token_lifetime
Time that an access token remains valid for, if the session is NOT using refresh tokens.
Please note that not all clients support refresh tokens, so setting this to a short value may be inconvenient for some users who will then be logged out frequently.
Note also that this is calculated at login time: changes are not applied retrospectively to existing sessions for users that have already logged in.
By default, this is infinite.
Example configuration:
nonrefreshable_access_token_lifetime: 24h
Metrics
Config options related to metrics.
enable_metrics
Set to true to enable collection and rendering of performance metrics. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
enable_metrics: true
enable_legacy_metrics
Set to true
to publish both legacy and non-legacy Prometheus metric names,
or to false
to only publish non-legacy Prometheus metric names.
Defaults to true
. Has no effect if enable_metrics
is false
.
In Synapse v1.71.0, this will default to false
before being removed in Synapse v1.73.0.
Legacy metric names include:
- metrics containing colons in the name, such as
synapse_util_caches_response_cache:hits
, because colons are supposed to be reserved for user-defined recording rules; - counters that don't end with the
_total
suffix, such assynapse_federation_client_sent_edus
, therefore not adhering to the OpenMetrics standard.
These legacy metric names are unconventional and not compliant with OpenMetrics standards. They are included for backwards compatibility.
Example configuration:
enable_legacy_metrics: false
See https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/11106 for context.
Since v1.67.0.
Will be removed in v1.73.0.
sentry
Use this option to enable sentry integration. Provide the DSN assigned to you by sentry
with the dsn
setting.
NOTE: While attempts are made to ensure that the logs don't contain any sensitive information, this cannot be guaranteed. By enabling this option the sentry server may therefore receive sensitive information, and it in turn may then disseminate sensitive information through insecure notification channels if so configured.
Example configuration:
sentry:
dsn: "..."
metrics_flags
Flags to enable Prometheus metrics which are not suitable to be
enabled by default, either for performance reasons or limited use.
Currently the only option is known_servers
, which publishes
synapse_federation_known_servers
, a gauge of the number of
servers this homeserver knows about, including itself. May cause
performance problems on large homeservers.
Example configuration:
metrics_flags:
known_servers: true
report_stats
Whether or not to report homeserver usage statistics. This is originally set when generating the config. Set this option to true or false to change the current behavior. See Reporting Homeserver Usage Statistics for information on what data is reported.
Statistics will be reported 5 minutes after Synapse starts, and then every 3 hours after that.
Example configuration:
report_stats: true
report_stats_endpoint
The endpoint to report homeserver usage statistics to. Defaults to https://matrix.org/report-usage-stats/push
Example configuration:
report_stats_endpoint: https://example.com/report-usage-stats/push
API Configuration
Config settings related to the client/server API
room_prejoin_state
Controls for the state that is shared with users who receive an invite to a room. By default, the following state event types are shared with users who receive invites to the room:
- m.room.join_rules
- m.room.canonical_alias
- m.room.avatar
- m.room.encryption
- m.room.name
- m.room.create
- m.room.topic
To change the default behavior, use the following sub-options:
disable_default_event_types
: set to true to disable the above defaults. If this is enabled, only the event types listed inadditional_event_types
are shared. Defaults to false.additional_event_types
: Additional state event types to share with users when they are invited to a room. By default, this list is empty (so only the default event types are shared).
Example configuration:
room_prejoin_state:
disable_default_event_types: true
additional_event_types:
- org.example.custom.event.type
- m.room.join_rules
track_puppeted_user_ips
We record the IP address of clients used to access the API for various reasons, including displaying it to the user in the "Where you're signed in" dialog.
By default, when puppeting another user via the admin API, the client IP address is recorded against the user who created the access token (ie, the admin user), and not the puppeted user.
Set this option to true to also record the IP address against the puppeted
user. (This also means that the puppeted user will count as an "active" user
for the purpose of monthly active user tracking - see limit_usage_by_mau
etc
above.)
Example configuration:
track_puppeted_user_ips: true
app_service_config_files
A list of application service config files to use.
Example configuration:
app_service_config_files:
- app_service_1.yaml
- app_service_2.yaml
track_appservice_user_ips
Defaults to false. Set to true to enable tracking of application service IP addresses. Implicitly enables MAU tracking for application service users.
Example configuration:
track_appservice_user_ips: true
macaroon_secret_key
A secret which is used to sign
- access token for guest users,
- short-term login token used during SSO logins (OIDC or SAML2) and
- token used for unsubscribing from email notifications.
If none is specified, the registration_shared_secret
is used, if one is given;
otherwise, a secret key is derived from the signing key.
Example configuration:
macaroon_secret_key: <PRIVATE STRING>
form_secret
A secret which is used to calculate HMACs for form values, to stop falsification of values. Must be specified for the User Consent forms to work.
Example configuration:
form_secret: <PRIVATE STRING>
Signing Keys
Config options relating to signing keys
signing_key_path
Path to the signing key to sign events and federation requests with.
New in Synapse 1.67: If this file does not exist, Synapse will create a new signing key on startup and store it in this file.
Example configuration:
signing_key_path: "CONFDIR/SERVERNAME.signing.key"
old_signing_keys
The keys that the server used to sign messages with but won't use
to sign new messages. For each key, key
should be the base64-encoded public key, and
expired_ts
should be the time (in milliseconds since the unix epoch) that
it was last used.
It is possible to build an entry from an old signing.key
file using the
export_signing_key
script which is provided with synapse.
Example configuration:
old_signing_keys:
"ed25519:id": { key: "base64string", expired_ts: 123456789123 }
key_refresh_interval
How long key response published by this server is valid for.
Used to set the valid_until_ts
in /key/v2
APIs.
Determines how quickly servers will query to check which keys
are still valid. Defaults to 1d.
Example configuration:
key_refresh_interval: 2d
trusted_key_servers
The trusted servers to download signing keys from.
When we need to fetch a signing key, each server is tried in parallel.
Normally, the connection to the key server is validated via TLS certificates.
Additional security can be provided by configuring a verify key
, which
will make synapse check that the response is signed by that key.
This setting supercedes an older setting named perspectives
. The old format
is still supported for backwards-compatibility, but it is deprecated.
trusted_key_servers
defaults to matrix.org, but using it will generate a
warning on start-up. To suppress this warning, set
suppress_key_server_warning
to true.
Options for each entry in the list include:
server_name
: the name of the server. Required.verify_keys
: an optional map from key id to base64-encoded public key. If specified, we will check that the response is signed by at least one of the given keys.accept_keys_insecurely
: a boolean. Normally, ifverify_keys
is unset, andfederation_verify_certificates
is nottrue
, synapse will refuse to start, because this would allow anyone who can spoof DNS responses to masquerade as the trusted key server. If you know what you are doing and are sure that your network environment provides a secure connection to the key server, you can set this totrue
to override this behaviour.
Example configuration #1:
trusted_key_servers:
- server_name: "my_trusted_server.example.com"
verify_keys:
"ed25519:auto": "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmopqr"
- server_name: "my_other_trusted_server.example.com"
Example configuration #2:
trusted_key_servers:
- server_name: "matrix.org"
suppress_key_server_warning
Set the following to true to disable the warning that is emitted when the
trusted_key_servers
include 'matrix.org'. See above.
Example configuration:
suppress_key_server_warning: true
key_server_signing_keys_path
The signing keys to use when acting as a trusted key server. If not specified defaults to the server signing key.
Can contain multiple keys, one per line.
Example configuration:
key_server_signing_keys_path: "key_server_signing_keys.key"
Single sign-on integration
The following settings can be used to make Synapse use a single sign-on provider for authentication, instead of its internal password database.
You will probably also want to set the following options to false
to
disable the regular login/registration flows:
saml2_config
Enable SAML2 for registration and login. Uses pysaml2. To learn more about pysaml and to find a full list options for configuring pysaml, read the docs here.
At least one of sp_config
or config_path
must be set in this section to
enable SAML login. You can either put your entire pysaml config inline using the sp_config
option, or you can specify a path to a psyaml config file with the sub-option config_path
.
This setting has the following sub-options:
sp_config
: the configuration for the pysaml2 Service Provider. See pysaml2 docs for format of config. Default values will be used for theentityid
andservice
settings, so it is not normally necessary to specify them unless you need to override them. Here are a few useful sub-options for configuring pysaml:metadata
: Point this to the IdP's metadata. You must provide either a local file via thelocal
attribute or (preferably) a URL via theremote
attribute.accepted_time_diff: 3
: Allowed clock difference in seconds between the homeserver and IdP. Defaults to 0.service
: By default, the user has to go to our login page first. If you'd like to allow IdP-initiated login, setallow_unsolicited
to true undersp
in theservice
section.
config_path
: specify a separate pysaml2 configuration file thusly:config_path: "CONFDIR/sp_conf.py"
saml_session_lifetime
: The lifetime of a SAML session. This defines how long a user has to complete the authentication process, ifallow_unsolicited
is unset. The default is 15 minutes.user_mapping_provider
: Using this option, an external module can be provided as a custom solution to mapping attributes returned from a saml provider onto a matrix user. Theuser_mapping_provider
has the following attributes:module
: The custom module's class.config
: Custom configuration values for the module. Use the values provided in the example if you are using the built-in user_mapping_provider, or provide your own config values for a custom class if you are using one. This section will be passed as a Python dictionary to the module'sparse_config
method. The built-in provider takes the following two options:mxid_source_attribute
: The SAML attribute (after mapping via the attribute maps) to use to derive the Matrix ID from. It is 'uid' by default. Note: This used to be configured by thesaml2_config.mxid_source_attribute option
. If that is still defined, its value will be used instead.mxid_mapping
: The mapping system to use for mapping the saml attribute onto a matrix ID. Options include:hexencode
(which maps unpermitted characters to '=xx') anddotreplace
(which replaces unpermitted characters with '.'). The default ishexencode
. Note: This used to be configured by thesaml2_config.mxid_mapping option
. If that is still defined, its value will be used instead.
grandfathered_mxid_source_attribute
: In previous versions of synapse, the mapping from SAML attribute to MXID was always calculated dynamically rather than stored in a table. For backwards- compatibility, we will look foruser_ids
matching such a pattern before creating a new account. This setting controls the SAML attribute which will be used for this backwards-compatibility lookup. Typically it should be 'uid', but if the attribute maps are changed, it may be necessary to change it. The default is 'uid'.attribute_requirements
: It is possible to configure Synapse to only allow logins if SAML attributes match particular values. The requirements can be listed underattribute_requirements
as shown in the example. All of the listed attributes must match for the login to be permitted.idp_entityid
: If the metadata XML contains multiple IdP entities then theidp_entityid
option must be set to the entity to redirect users to. Most deployments only have a single IdP entity and so should omit this option.
Once SAML support is enabled, a metadata file will be exposed at
https://<server>:<port>/_synapse/client/saml2/metadata.xml
, which you may be able to
use to configure your SAML IdP with. Alternatively, you can manually configure
the IdP to use an ACS location of
https://<server>:<port>/_synapse/client/saml2/authn_response
.
Example configuration:
saml2_config:
sp_config:
metadata:
local: ["saml2/idp.xml"]
remote:
- url: https://our_idp/metadata.xml
accepted_time_diff: 3
service:
sp:
allow_unsolicited: true
# The examples below are just used to generate our metadata xml, and you
# may well not need them, depending on your setup. Alternatively you
# may need a whole lot more detail - see the pysaml2 docs!
description: ["My awesome SP", "en"]
name: ["Test SP", "en"]
ui_info:
display_name:
- lang: en
text: "Display Name is the descriptive name of your service."
description:
- lang: en
text: "Description should be a short paragraph explaining the purpose of the service."
information_url:
- lang: en
text: "https://example.com/terms-of-service"
privacy_statement_url:
- lang: en
text: "https://example.com/privacy-policy"
keywords:
- lang: en
text: ["Matrix", "Element"]
logo:
- lang: en
text: "https://example.com/logo.svg"
width: "200"
height: "80"
organization:
name: Example com
display_name:
- ["Example co", "en"]
url: "http://example.com"
contact_person:
- given_name: Bob
sur_name: "the Sysadmin"
email_address": ["admin@example.com"]
contact_type": technical
saml_session_lifetime: 5m
user_mapping_provider:
# Below options are intended for the built-in provider, they should be
# changed if using a custom module.
config:
mxid_source_attribute: displayName
mxid_mapping: dotreplace
grandfathered_mxid_source_attribute: upn
attribute_requirements:
- attribute: userGroup
value: "staff"
- attribute: department
value: "sales"
idp_entityid: 'https://our_idp/entityid'
oidc_providers
List of OpenID Connect (OIDC) / OAuth 2.0 identity providers, for registration and login. See here for information on how to configure these options.
For backwards compatibility, it is also possible to configure a single OIDC
provider via an oidc_config
setting. This is now deprecated and admins are
advised to migrate to the oidc_providers
format. (When doing that migration,
use oidc
for the idp_id
to ensure that existing users continue to be
recognised.)
Options for each entry include:
-
idp_id
: a unique identifier for this identity provider. Used internally by Synapse; should be a single word such as 'github'. Note that, if this is changed, users authenticating via that provider will no longer be recognised as the same user! (Use "oidc" here if you are migrating from an oldoidc_config
configuration.) -
idp_name
: A user-facing name for this identity provider, which is used to offer the user a choice of login mechanisms. -
idp_icon
: An optional icon for this identity provider, which is presented by clients and Synapse's own IdP picker page. If given, must be an MXC URI of the format mxc:/// . (An easy way to obtain such an MXC URI is to upload an image to an (unencrypted) room and then copy the "url" from the source of the event.) -
idp_brand
: An optional brand for this identity provider, allowing clients to style the login flow according to the identity provider in question. See the spec for possible options here. -
discover
: set to false to disable the use of the OIDC discovery mechanism to discover endpoints. Defaults to true. -
issuer
: Required. The OIDC issuer. Used to validate tokens and (if discovery is enabled) to discover the provider's endpoints. -
client_id
: Required. oauth2 client id to use. -
client_secret
: oauth2 client secret to use. May be omitted ifclient_secret_jwt_key
is given, or ifclient_auth_method
is 'none'. -
client_secret_jwt_key
: Alternative to client_secret: details of a key used to create a JSON Web Token to be used as an OAuth2 client secret. If given, must be a dictionary with the following properties:-
key
: a pem-encoded signing key. Must be a suitable key for the algorithm specified. Required unlesskey_file
is given. -
key_file
: the path to file containing a pem-encoded signing key file. Required unlesskey
is given. -
jwt_header
: a dictionary giving properties to include in the JWT header. Must include the keyalg
, giving the algorithm used to sign the JWT, such as "ES256", using the JWA identifiers in RFC7518. -
jwt_payload
: an optional dictionary giving properties to include in the JWT payload. Normally this should include aniss
key.
-
-
client_auth_method
: auth method to use when exchanging the token. Valid values areclient_secret_basic
(default),client_secret_post
andnone
. -
scopes
: list of scopes to request. This should normally include the "openid" scope. Defaults to ["openid"]. -
authorization_endpoint
: the oauth2 authorization endpoint. Required if provider discovery is disabled. -
token_endpoint
: the oauth2 token endpoint. Required if provider discovery is disabled. -
userinfo_endpoint
: the OIDC userinfo endpoint. Required if discovery is disabled and the 'openid' scope is not requested. -
jwks_uri
: URI where to fetch the JWKS. Required if discovery is disabled and the 'openid' scope is used. -
skip_verification
: set to 'true' to skip metadata verification. Use this if you are connecting to a provider that is not OpenID Connect compliant. Defaults to false. Avoid this in production. -
user_profile_method
: Whether to fetch the user profile from the userinfo endpoint, or to rely on the data returned in the id_token from thetoken_endpoint
. Valid values are:auto
oruserinfo_endpoint
. Defaults toauto
, which uses the userinfo endpoint ifopenid
is not included inscopes
. Set touserinfo_endpoint
to always use the userinfo endpoint. -
allow_existing_users
: set to true to allow a user logging in via OIDC to match a pre-existing account instead of failing. This could be used if switching from password logins to OIDC. Defaults to false. -
user_mapping_provider
: Configuration for how attributes returned from a OIDC provider are mapped onto a matrix user. This setting has the following sub-properties:-
module
: The class name of a custom mapping module. Default issynapse.handlers.oidc.JinjaOidcMappingProvider
. See https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/sso_mapping_providers.html#openid-mapping-providers for information on implementing a custom mapping provider. -
config
: Configuration for the mapping provider module. This section will be passed as a Python dictionary to the user mapping provider module'sparse_config
method.For the default provider, the following settings are available:
-
subject_claim: name of the claim containing a unique identifier for the user. Defaults to 'sub', which OpenID Connect compliant providers should provide.
-
localpart_template
: Jinja2 template for the localpart of the MXID. If this is not set, the user will be prompted to choose their own username (see the documentation for thesso_auth_account_details.html
template). This template can use thelocalpart_from_email
filter. -
confirm_localpart
: Whether to prompt the user to validate (or change) the generated localpart (see the documentation for the 'sso_auth_account_details.html' template), instead of registering the account right away. -
display_name_template
: Jinja2 template for the display name to set on first login. If unset, no displayname will be set. -
email_template
: Jinja2 template for the email address of the user. If unset, no email address will be added to the account. -
extra_attributes
: a map of Jinja2 templates for extra attributes to send back to the client during login. Note that these are non-standard and clients will ignore them without modifications.
-
When rendering, the Jinja2 templates are given a 'user' variable, which is set to the claims returned by the UserInfo Endpoint and/or in the ID Token.
-
It is possible to configure Synapse to only allow logins if certain attributes
match particular values in the OIDC userinfo. The requirements can be listed under
attribute_requirements
as shown here:
attribute_requirements:
- attribute: family_name
value: "Stephensson"
- attribute: groups
value: "admin"
All of the listed attributes must match for the login to be permitted. Additional attributes can be added to
userinfo by expanding the scopes
section of the OIDC config to retrieve
additional information from the OIDC provider.
If the OIDC claim is a list, then the attribute must match any value in the list.
Otherwise, it must exactly match the value of the claim. Using the example
above, the family_name
claim MUST be "Stephensson", but the groups
claim MUST contain "admin".
Example configuration:
oidc_providers:
# Generic example
#
- idp_id: my_idp
idp_name: "My OpenID provider"
idp_icon: "mxc://example.com/mediaid"
discover: false
issuer: "https://accounts.example.com/"
client_id: "provided-by-your-issuer"
client_secret: "provided-by-your-issuer"
client_auth_method: client_secret_post
scopes: ["openid", "profile"]
authorization_endpoint: "https://accounts.example.com/oauth2/auth"
token_endpoint: "https://accounts.example.com/oauth2/token"
userinfo_endpoint: "https://accounts.example.com/userinfo"
jwks_uri: "https://accounts.example.com/.well-known/jwks.json"
skip_verification: true
user_mapping_provider:
config:
subject_claim: "id"
localpart_template: "{{ user.login }}"
display_name_template: "{{ user.name }}"
email_template: "{{ user.email }}"
attribute_requirements:
- attribute: userGroup
value: "synapseUsers"
cas_config
Enable Central Authentication Service (CAS) for registration and login. Has the following sub-options:
enabled
: Set this to true to enable authorization against a CAS server. Defaults to false.server_url
: The URL of the CAS authorization endpoint.displayname_attribute
: The attribute of the CAS response to use as the display name. If no name is given here, no displayname will be set.required_attributes
: It is possible to configure Synapse to only allow logins if CAS attributes match particular values. All of the keys given below must exist and the values must match the given value. Alternately if the given value isNone
then any value is allowed (the attribute just must exist). All of the listed attributes must match for the login to be permitted.
Example configuration:
cas_config:
enabled: true
server_url: "https://cas-server.com"
displayname_attribute: name
required_attributes:
userGroup: "staff"
department: None
sso
Additional settings to use with single-sign on systems such as OpenID Connect, SAML2 and CAS.
Server admins can configure custom templates for pages related to SSO. See here for more information.
Options include:
client_whitelist
: A list of client URLs which are whitelisted so that the user does not have to confirm giving access to their account to the URL. Any client whose URL starts with an entry in the following list will not be subject to an additional confirmation step after the SSO login is completed. WARNING: An entry such as "https://my.client" is insecure, because it will also match "https://my.client.evil.site", exposing your users to phishing attacks from evil.site. To avoid this, include a slash after the hostname: "https://my.client/". The login fallback page (used by clients that don't natively support the required login flows) is whitelisted in addition to any URLs in this list. By default, this list contains only the login fallback page.update_profile_information
: Use this setting to keep a user's profile fields in sync with information from the identity provider. Currently only syncing the displayname is supported. Fields are checked on every SSO login, and are updated if necessary. Note that enabling this option will override user profile information, regardless of whether users have opted-out of syncing that information when first signing in. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
sso:
client_whitelist:
- https://riot.im/develop
- https://my.custom.client/
update_profile_information: true
jwt_config
JSON web token integration. The following settings can be used to make Synapse JSON web tokens for authentication, instead of its internal password database.
Each JSON Web Token needs to contain a "sub" (subject) claim, which is used as the localpart of the mxid.
Additionally, the expiration time ("exp"), not before time ("nbf"), and issued at ("iat") claims are validated if present.
Note that this is a non-standard login type and client support is expected to be non-existent.
See here for more.
Additional sub-options for this setting include:
enabled
: Set to true to enable authorization using JSON web tokens. Defaults to false.secret
: This is either the private shared secret or the public key used to decode the contents of the JSON web token. Required ifenabled
is set to true.algorithm
: The algorithm used to sign (or HMAC) the JSON web token. Supported algorithms are listed here (section JWS). Required ifenabled
is set to true.subject_claim
: Name of the claim containing a unique identifier for the user. Optional, defaults tosub
.issuer
: The issuer to validate the "iss" claim against. Optional. If provided the "iss" claim will be required and validated for all JSON web tokens.audiences
: A list of audiences to validate the "aud" claim against. Optional. If provided the "aud" claim will be required and validated for all JSON web tokens. Note that if the "aud" claim is included in a JSON web token then validation will fail without configuring audiences.
Example configuration:
jwt_config:
enabled: true
secret: "provided-by-your-issuer"
algorithm: "provided-by-your-issuer"
subject_claim: "name_of_claim"
issuer: "provided-by-your-issuer"
audiences:
- "provided-by-your-issuer"
password_config
Use this setting to enable password-based logins.
This setting has the following sub-options:
enabled
: Defaults to true. Set to false to disable password authentication. Set toonly_for_reauth
to allow users with existing passwords to use them to log in and reauthenticate, whilst preventing new users from setting passwords.localdb_enabled
: Set to false to disable authentication against the local password database. This is ignored ifenabled
is false, and is only useful if you have otherpassword_providers
. Defaults to true.pepper
: Set the value here to a secret random string for extra security. DO NOT CHANGE THIS AFTER INITIAL SETUP!policy
: Define and enforce a password policy, such as minimum lengths for passwords, etc. Each parameter is optional. This is an implementation of MSC2000. Parameters are as follows:enabled
: Defaults to false. Set to true to enable.minimum_length
: Minimum accepted length for a password. Defaults to 0.require_digit
: Whether a password must contain at least one digit. Defaults to false.require_symbol
: Whether a password must contain at least one symbol. A symbol is any character that's not a number or a letter. Defaults to false.require_lowercase
: Whether a password must contain at least one lowercase letter. Defaults to false.require_uppercase
: Whether a password must contain at least one uppercase letter. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
password_config:
enabled: false
localdb_enabled: false
pepper: "EVEN_MORE_SECRET"
policy:
enabled: true
minimum_length: 15
require_digit: true
require_symbol: true
require_lowercase: true
require_uppercase: true
ui_auth
The amount of time to allow a user-interactive authentication session to be active.
This defaults to 0, meaning the user is queried for their credentials before every action, but this can be overridden to allow a single validation to be re-used. This weakens the protections afforded by the user-interactive authentication process, by allowing for multiple (and potentially different) operations to use the same validation session.
This is ignored for potentially "dangerous" operations (including deactivating an account, modifying an account password, and adding a 3PID).
Use the session_timeout
sub-option here to change the time allowed for credential validation.
Example configuration:
ui_auth:
session_timeout: "15s"
email
Configuration for sending emails from Synapse.
Server admins can configure custom templates for email content. See here for more information.
This setting has the following sub-options:
-
smtp_host
: The hostname of the outgoing SMTP server to use. Defaults to 'localhost'. -
smtp_port
: The port on the mail server for outgoing SMTP. Defaults to 465 ifforce_tls
is true, else 25.Changed in Synapse 1.64.0: the default port is now aware of
force_tls
. -
smtp_user
andsmtp_pass
: Username/password for authentication to the SMTP server. By default, no authentication is attempted. -
force_tls
: By default, Synapse connects over plain text and then optionally upgrades to TLS via STARTTLS. If this option is set to true, TLS is used from the start (Implicit TLS), and the optionrequire_transport_security
is ignored. It is recommended to enable this if supported by your mail server.New in Synapse 1.64.0.
-
require_transport_security
: Set to true to require TLS transport security for SMTP. By default, Synapse will connect over plain text, and will then switch to TLS via STARTTLS if the SMTP server supports it. If this option is set, Synapse will refuse to connect unless the server supports STARTTLS. -
enable_tls
: By default, if the server supports TLS, it will be used, and the server must present a certificate that is valid for 'smtp_host'. If this option is set to false, TLS will not be used. -
notif_from
: defines the "From" address to use when sending emails. It must be set if email sending is enabled. The placeholder '%(app)s' will be replaced by the application name, which is normally set inapp_name
, but may be overridden by the Matrix client application. Note that the placeholder must be written '%(app)s', including the trailing 's'. -
app_name
:app_name
defines the default value for '%(app)s' innotif_from
and email subjects. It defaults to 'Matrix'. -
enable_notifs
: Set to true to enable sending emails for messages that the user has missed. Disabled by default. -
notif_for_new_users
: Set to false to disable automatic subscription to email notifications for new users. Enabled by default. -
client_base_url
: Custom URL for client links within the email notifications. By default links will be based on "https://matrix.to". (This setting used to be calledriot_base_url
; the old name is still supported for backwards-compatibility but is now deprecated.) -
validation_token_lifetime
: Configures the time that a validation email will expire after sending. Defaults to 1h. -
invite_client_location
: The web client location to direct users to during an invite. This is passed to the identity server as theorg.matrix.web_client_location
key. Defaults to unset, giving no guidance to the identity server. -
subjects
: Subjects to use when sending emails from Synapse. The placeholder '%(app)s' will be replaced with the value of theapp_name
setting, or by a value dictated by the Matrix client application. In addition, each subject can use the following placeholders: '%(person)s', which will be replaced by the displayname of the user(s) that sent the message(s), e.g. "Alice and Bob", and '%(room)s', which will be replaced by the name of the room the message(s) have been sent to, e.g. "My super room". In addition, emails related to account administration will can use the '%(server_name)s' placeholder, which will be replaced by the value of theserver_name
setting in your Synapse configuration.Here is a list of subjects for notification emails that can be set:
message_from_person_in_room
: Subject to use to notify about one message from one or more user(s) in a room which has a name. Defaults to "[%(app)s] You have a message on %(app)s from %(person)s in the %(room)s room..."message_from_person
: Subject to use to notify about one message from one or more user(s) in a room which doesn't have a name. Defaults to "[%(app)s] You have a message on %(app)s from %(person)s..."messages_from_person
: Subject to use to notify about multiple messages from one or more users in a room which doesn't have a name. Defaults to "[%(app)s] You have messages on %(app)s from %(person)s..."messages_in_room
: Subject to use to notify about multiple messages in a room which has a name. Defaults to "[%(app)s] You have messages on %(app)s in the %(room)s room..."messages_in_room_and_others
: Subject to use to notify about multiple messages in multiple rooms. Defaults to "[%(app)s] You have messages on %(app)s in the %(room)s room and others..."messages_from_person_and_others
: Subject to use to notify about multiple messages from multiple persons in multiple rooms. This is similar to the setting above except it's used when the room in which the notification was triggered has no name. Defaults to "[%(app)s] You have messages on %(app)s from %(person)s and others..."invite_from_person_to_room
: Subject to use to notify about an invite to a room which has a name. Defaults to "[%(app)s] %(person)s has invited you to join the %(room)s room on %(app)s..."invite_from_person
: Subject to use to notify about an invite to a room which doesn't have a name. Defaults to "[%(app)s] %(person)s has invited you to chat on %(app)s..."password_reset
: Subject to use when sending a password reset email. Defaults to "[%(server_name)s] Password reset"email_validation
: Subject to use when sending a verification email to assert an address's ownership. Defaults to "[%(server_name)s] Validate your email"
Example configuration:
email:
smtp_host: mail.server
smtp_port: 587
smtp_user: "exampleusername"
smtp_pass: "examplepassword"
force_tls: true
require_transport_security: true
enable_tls: false
notif_from: "Your Friendly %(app)s homeserver <noreply@example.com>"
app_name: my_branded_matrix_server
enable_notifs: true
notif_for_new_users: false
client_base_url: "http://localhost/riot"
validation_token_lifetime: 15m
invite_client_location: https://app.element.io
subjects:
message_from_person_in_room: "[%(app)s] You have a message on %(app)s from %(person)s in the %(room)s room..."
message_from_person: "[%(app)s] You have a message on %(app)s from %(person)s..."
messages_from_person: "[%(app)s] You have messages on %(app)s from %(person)s..."
messages_in_room: "[%(app)s] You have messages on %(app)s in the %(room)s room..."
messages_in_room_and_others: "[%(app)s] You have messages on %(app)s in the %(room)s room and others..."
messages_from_person_and_others: "[%(app)s] You have messages on %(app)s from %(person)s and others..."
invite_from_person_to_room: "[%(app)s] %(person)s has invited you to join the %(room)s room on %(app)s..."
invite_from_person: "[%(app)s] %(person)s has invited you to chat on %(app)s..."
password_reset: "[%(server_name)s] Password reset"
email_validation: "[%(server_name)s] Validate your email"
Push
Configuration settings related to push notifications
push
This setting defines options for push notifications.
This option has a number of sub-options. They are as follows:
include_content
: Clients requesting push notifications can either have the body of the message sent in the notification poke along with other details like the sender, or just the event ID and room ID (event_id_only
). If clients choose the to have the body sent, this option controls whether the notification request includes the content of the event (other details like the sender are still included). Ifevent_id_only
is enabled, it has no effect. For modern android devices the notification content will still appear because it is loaded by the app. iPhone, however will send a notification saying only that a message arrived and who it came from. Defaults to true. Set to false to only include the event ID and room ID in push notification payloads.group_unread_count_by_room: false
: When a push notification is received, an unread count is also sent. This number can either be calculated as the number of unread messages for the user, or the number of rooms the user has unread messages in. Defaults to true, meaning push clients will see the number of rooms with unread messages in them. Set to false to instead send the number of unread messages.
Example configuration:
push:
include_content: false
group_unread_count_by_room: false
Rooms
Config options relating to rooms.
encryption_enabled_by_default
Controls whether locally-created rooms should be end-to-end encrypted by default.
Possible options are "all", "invite", and "off". They are defined as:
- "all": any locally-created room
- "invite": any room created with the
private_chat
ortrusted_private_chat
room creation presets - "off": this option will take no effect
The default value is "off".
Note that this option will only affect rooms created after it is set. It will also not affect rooms created by other servers.
Example configuration:
encryption_enabled_by_default_for_room_type: invite
user_directory
This setting defines options related to the user directory.
This option has the following sub-options:
enabled
: Defines whether users can search the user directory. If false then empty responses are returned to all queries. Defaults to true.search_all_users
: Defines whether to search all users visible to your HS when searching the user directory. If false, search results will only contain users visible in public rooms and users sharing a room with the requester. Defaults to false. NB. If you set this to true, and the last time the user_directory search indexes were (re)built was before Synapse 1.44, you'll have to rebuild the indexes in order to search through all known users. These indexes are built the first time Synapse starts; admins can manually trigger a rebuild via API following the instructions at https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/usage/administration/admin_api/background_updates.html#run Set to true to return search results containing all known users, even if that user does not share a room with the requester.prefer_local_users
: Defines whether to prefer local users in search query results. If set to true, local users are more likely to appear above remote users when searching the user directory. Defaults to false.
Example configuration:
user_directory:
enabled: false
search_all_users: true
prefer_local_users: true
user_consent
For detailed instructions on user consent configuration, see here.
Parts of this section are required if enabling the consent
resource under
listeners
, in particular template_dir
and version
.
-
template_dir
: gives the location of the templates for the HTML forms. This directory should contain one subdirectory per language (eg,en
,fr
), and each language directory should contain the policy document (named as.html) and a success page (success.html). -
version
: specifies the 'current' version of the policy document. It defines the version to be served by the consent resource if there is no 'v' parameter. -
server_notice_content
: if enabled, will send a user a "Server Notice" asking them to consent to the privacy policy. Theserver_notices
section must also be configured for this to work. Notices will not be sent to guest users unlesssend_server_notice_to_guests
is set to true. -
block_events_error
, if set, will block any attempts to send events until the user consents to the privacy policy. The value of the setting is used as the text of the error. -
require_at_registration
, if enabled, will add a step to the registration process, similar to how captcha works. Users will be required to accept the policy before their account is created. -
policy_name
is the display name of the policy users will see when registering for an account. Has no effect unlessrequire_at_registration
is enabled. Defaults to "Privacy Policy".
Example configuration:
user_consent:
template_dir: res/templates/privacy
version: 1.0
server_notice_content:
msgtype: m.text
body: >-
To continue using this homeserver you must review and agree to the
terms and conditions at %(consent_uri)s
send_server_notice_to_guests: true
block_events_error: >-
To continue using this homeserver you must review and agree to the
terms and conditions at %(consent_uri)s
require_at_registration: false
policy_name: Privacy Policy
stats
Settings for local room and user statistics collection. See here for more.
enabled
: Set to false to disable room and user statistics. Note that doing so may cause certain features (such as the room directory) not to work correctly. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
stats:
enabled: false
server_notices
Use this setting to enable a room which can be used to send notices from the server to users. It is a special room which users cannot leave; notices in the room come from a special "notices" user id.
If you use this setting, you must define the system_mxid_localpart
sub-setting, which defines the id of the user which will be used to send the
notices.
Sub-options for this setting include:
system_mxid_display_name
: set the display name of the "notices" usersystem_mxid_avatar_url
: set the avatar for the "notices" userroom_name
: set the room name of the server notices room
Example configuration:
server_notices:
system_mxid_localpart: notices
system_mxid_display_name: "Server Notices"
system_mxid_avatar_url: "mxc://server.com/oumMVlgDnLYFaPVkExemNVVZ"
room_name: "Server Notices"
enable_room_list_search
Set to false to disable searching the public room list. When disabled blocks searching local and remote room lists for local and remote users by always returning an empty list for all queries. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
enable_room_list_search: false
alias_creation
The alias_creation
option controls who is allowed to create aliases
on this server.
The format of this option is a list of rules that contain globs that match against user_id, room_id and the new alias (fully qualified with server name). The action in the first rule that matches is taken, which can currently either be "allow" or "deny".
Missing user_id/room_id/alias fields default to "*".
If no rules match the request is denied. An empty list means no one can create aliases.
Options for the rules include:
user_id
: Matches against the creator of the alias. Defaults to "*".alias
: Matches against the alias being created. Defaults to "*".room_id
: Matches against the room ID the alias is being pointed at. Defaults to "*"action
: Whether to "allow" or "deny" the request if the rule matches. Defaults to allow.
Example configuration:
alias_creation_rules:
- user_id: "bad_user"
alias: "spammy_alias"
room_id: "*"
action: deny
room_list_publication_rules
The room_list_publication_rules
option controls who can publish and
which rooms can be published in the public room list.
The format of this option is the same as that for
alias_creation_rules
.
If the room has one or more aliases associated with it, only one of
the aliases needs to match the alias rule. If there are no aliases
then only rules with alias: *
match.
If no rules match the request is denied. An empty list means no one can publish rooms.
Options for the rules include:
user_id
: Matches against the creator of the alias. Defaults to "*".alias
: Matches against any current local or canonical aliases associated with the room. Defaults to "*".room_id
: Matches against the room ID being published. Defaults to "*".action
: Whether to "allow" or "deny" the request if the rule matches. Defaults to allow.
Example configuration:
room_list_publication_rules:
- user_id: "*"
alias: "*"
room_id: "*"
action: allow
default_power_level_content_override
The default_power_level_content_override
option controls the default power
levels for rooms.
Useful if you know that your users need special permissions in rooms
that they create (e.g. to send particular types of state events without
needing an elevated power level). This takes the same shape as the
power_level_content_override
parameter in the /createRoom API, but
is applied before that parameter.
Note that each key provided inside a preset (for example events
in the example
below) will overwrite all existing defaults inside that key. So in the example
below, newly-created private_chat rooms will have no rules for any event types
except com.example.foo
.
Example configuration:
default_power_level_content_override:
private_chat: { "events": { "com.example.foo" : 0 } }
trusted_private_chat: null
public_chat: null
Opentracing
Configuration options related to Opentracing support.
opentracing
These settings enable and configure opentracing, which implements distributed tracing. This allows you to observe the causal chains of events across servers including requests, key lookups etc., across any server running synapse or any other services which support opentracing (specifically those implemented with Jaeger).
Sub-options include:
enabled
: whether tracing is enabled. Set to true to enable. Disabled by default.homeserver_whitelist
: The list of homeservers we wish to send and receive span contexts and span baggage. See here for more. This is a list of regexes which are matched against theserver_name
of the homeserver. By default, it is empty, so no servers are matched.force_tracing_for_users
: # A list of the matrix IDs of users whose requests will always be traced, even if the tracing system would otherwise drop the traces due to probabilistic sampling. By default, the list is empty.jaeger_config
: Jaeger can be configured to sample traces at different rates. All configuration options provided by Jaeger can be set here. Jaeger's configuration is mostly related to trace sampling which is documented here.
Example configuration:
opentracing:
enabled: true
homeserver_whitelist:
- ".*"
force_tracing_for_users:
- "@user1:server_name"
- "@user2:server_name"
jaeger_config:
sampler:
type: const
param: 1
logging:
false
Workers
Configuration options related to workers.
send_federation
Controls sending of outbound federation transactions on the main process. Set to false if using a federation sender worker. Defaults to true.
Example configuration:
send_federation: false
federation_sender_instances
It is possible to run multiple federation sender workers, in which case the work is balanced across them. Use this setting to list the senders.
This configuration setting must be shared between all federation sender workers, and if changed all federation sender workers must be stopped at the same time and then started, to ensure that all instances are running with the same config (otherwise events may be dropped).
Example configuration:
federation_sender_instances:
- federation_sender1
instance_map
When using workers this should be a map from worker name to the HTTP replication listener of the worker, if configured.
Example configuration:
instance_map:
worker1:
host: localhost
port: 8034
stream_writers
Experimental: When using workers you can define which workers should
handle event persistence and typing notifications. Any worker
specified here must also be in the instance_map
.
Example configuration:
stream_writers:
events: worker1
typing: worker1
run_background_tasks_on
The worker that is used to run background tasks (e.g. cleaning up expired data). If not provided this defaults to the main process.
Example configuration:
run_background_tasks_on: worker1
worker_replication_secret
A shared secret used by the replication APIs to authenticate HTTP requests from workers.
By default this is unused and traffic is not authenticated.
Example configuration:
worker_replication_secret: "secret_secret"
redis
Configuration for Redis when using workers. This must be enabled when using workers (unless using old style direct TCP configuration). This setting has the following sub-options:
enabled
: whether to use Redis support. Defaults to false.host
andport
: Optional host and port to use to connect to redis. Defaults to localhost and 6379password
: Optional password if configured on the Redis instance.
Example configuration:
redis:
enabled: true
host: localhost
port: 6379
password: <secret_password>
Background Updates
Configuration settings related to background updates.
background_updates
Background updates are database updates that are run in the background in batches. The duration, minimum batch size, default batch size, whether to sleep between batches and if so, how long to sleep can all be configured. This is helpful to speed up or slow down the updates. This setting has the following sub-options:
background_update_duration_ms
: How long in milliseconds to run a batch of background updates for. Defaults to 100. Set a different time to change the default.sleep_enabled
: Whether to sleep between updates. Defaults to true. Set to false to change the default.sleep_duration_ms
: If sleeping between updates, how long in milliseconds to sleep for. Defaults to 1000. Set a duration to change the default.min_batch_size
: Minimum size a batch of background updates can be. Must be greater than 0. Defaults to 1. Set a size to change the default.default_batch_size
: The batch size to use for the first iteration of a new background update. The default is 100. Set a size to change the default.
Example configuration:
background_updates:
background_update_duration_ms: 500
sleep_enabled: false
sleep_duration_ms: 300
min_batch_size: 10
default_batch_size: 50