On-Premises Deployment

The Charon server edition can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure. This gives teams complete control over data residency, network access, and configuration, while providing the same collaboration features as the hosted charon.live service.

When to Self-Host

Consider on-premises deployment when:

  • Data residency requirements prohibit storing game data on third-party cloud services.

  • NDA or IP restrictions require all data to stay within a private network.

  • Network isolation — studios working on unannounced titles with air-gapped environments.

  • Cost at scale — large teams where a self-hosted MongoDB instance is more economical than the hosted subscription.

Prerequisites

  • A Linux, Windows, or macOS server with .NET 8 runtime installed.

  • A running MongoDB instance (v6.0 or later recommended), accessible from the server.

  • Optional: an SMTP server or email relay for transactional emails (registration, 2FA, etc.).

  • Optional: a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, or similar) to provide HTTPS termination.

Data Compatibility

Files created by the server edition are fully compatible with the standalone CLI and engine plugins. A branch can be downloaded at any time with DATA BACKUP and opened locally:

charon DATA BACKUP \
    --dataBase "https://charon.example.com/view/data/MyGame/main/" \
    --output myGame_main.zip \
    --credentials "$CHARON_API_KEY"

unzip myGame_main.zip -d myGame/
charon SERVER START myGame/gamedata.json --launchDefaultBrowser

This portability is a deliberate design decision — teams are never locked in to the hosted service.

Contingency Plan

In the unlikely event that the Charon project is discontinued or key contributors become unavailable, the full server source code and private Docker images will be published under the MIT license by a designated successor. This guarantees that self-hosted deployments can continue to be maintained by the community indefinitely.

The CLI and engine plugins rely on published NuGet packages, which are already public and will remain unaffected regardless of the server’s status.

Getting Help

For licensing, installation, and support:

See also