Configuration

Ding is configured through environment variables on the server side and data attributes on the widget side.

Server configuration

Set these in your .env file or in the environment where Ding runs.

Required

Variable	Description
`DING_ADMIN_USERNAME`	Admin dashboard login username
`DING_ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH`	Bcrypt hash of the admin password
`DING_JWT_SECRET`	Secret used to sign admin session cookies
`DING_IP_SALT`	Salt used before hashing IP addresses

Optional

Variable	Default	Description
`DING_DB_PATH`	`./data/ding.db`	Path to the SQLite database file
`DING_TRUST_PROXY`	not set	Set to `true` when Ding is behind a reverse proxy
`PORT`	`3000`	HTTP server port
`NODE_ENV`	not set	Use `production` in production

Production notes

Run npm run setup to generate a .env file with secure values
Ding refuses weak development secrets for DING_JWT_SECRET and DING_IP_SALT in production
Set DING_TRUST_PROXY=true when using Caddy, Nginx, Traefik, or a cloud proxy
Use NODE_ENV=production to enable secure cookie flags and production behaviour

Example .env

DING_ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
DING_ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH=$2b$10$...
DING_JWT_SECRET=a-random-generated-secret
DING_IP_SALT=another-random-salt
DING_DB_PATH=/app/data/ding.db
DING_TRUST_PROXY=true
PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=production

The widget is configured through HTML data- attributes on the script tag.

Attribute	Default	Description
`data-position`	`bottom-right`	Widget position on screen
`data-color`	`#6366f1`	Accent colour for the widget UI
`data-trigger`	`bell`	One of `bell`, `banner`, or `both`

data-position

Controls where the widget appears on the page:

bottom-right
bottom-left
top-right
top-left

data-color

Any valid 6-digit hex colour, for example:

#6366f1 (indigo)
#155eef (blue)
#dc2626 (red)
#059669 (green)

data-trigger

bell — A bell icon in the corner that opens a panel
banner — A top banner showing the latest announcement
both — Both bell and banner

Production checklist

HTTPS is configured at the reverse proxy level
NODE_ENV=production is set
Secrets were generated with npm run setup, not copied from .env.example
The database is backed up regularly
The widget embed URL points to the production server, not localhost