NixOS server installation port can't be configured

[nek0d3r]

Description

Following the wiki to install the server via NixOS, I included the following nix script in my configuration:

{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:

{
  services.trilium-server = {
    enable = true;
    dataDir = "/mnt/media/trilium";
    host = "0.0.0.0";
    port = 12783;
  };
}

However, after the rebuild, I found that it will continue to use the default port 8080 regardless.

TriliumNext Version

0.98.1

What operating system are you using?

Other Linux

What is your setup?

Local + server sync

Operating System Version

NixOS 25.05

Error logs

[podadmin@nixos:~]$ systemctl status trilium-server.service 
● trilium-server.service
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/trilium-server.service; enabled; preset: ignored)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2025-08-29 03:02:49 UTC; 5min ago
 Invocation: 33e446a42101472db4a7cb75ffaff1dd
   Main PID: 1369823 (node)
         IP: 8.9K in, 8.9K out
         IO: 0B read, 200K written
      Tasks: 11 (limit: 47867)
     Memory: 62.1M (peak: 104.7M)
        CPU: 899ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/trilium-server.service
             └─1369823 ./node/bin/node src/www

Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]:   "buildDate": "2024-05-18T06:17:21+02:00",
Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]:   "buildRevision": "c7f19e04fafc031910f6f9a45d2015387618e902",
Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]:   "dataDirectory": "/mnt/media/trilium",
Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]:   "clipperProtocolVersion": "1.0",
Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]:   "utcDateTime": "2025-08-29T03:02:50.022Z"
Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]: }
Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]: CPU model: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor, logical cores: 24 freq: 3786 Mhz
Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]: Trusted reverse proxy: false
Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]: App HTTP server starting up at port 8080
Aug 29 03:02:50 nixos trilium-server[1369823]: Listening on port 8080

[dosubot]

Hi @nek0d3r! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the Trilium team.

The Trilium server only respects the port setting if it's passed as the TRILIUM_PORT environment variable, a --port command-line argument, or set in config.ini. The NixOS module must propagate your configured port to one of these, but if the generated systemd unit for trilium-server doesn't set the port (as an environment variable or argument), Trilium will default to 8080 regardless of your Nix config.

To fix this, check your systemd unit file at /etc/systemd/system/trilium-server.service and see if the port is set anywhere. If not, you can manually set the environment variable by running systemctl edit trilium-server and adding:

[Service]
Environment="TRILIUM_PORT=12783"

Then reload systemd and restart the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart trilium-server

Alternatively, you can set the port in config.ini inside your Trilium data directory (e.g., /mnt/media/trilium/config.ini) by adding or editing the line:

port=12783

Both methods are supported by Trilium, but the environment variable is often more reliable in service setups (source). If you still see port 8080, double-check that the environment variable is visible to the Trilium process and that no other config or override is resetting it.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[nek0d3r]

If other configuration methods are required, that's fine, but the GitHub wiki only mentions the services.trilium-server.port nix config option.

[dosubot]

You're right—the GitHub wiki for NixOS server installation only mentions the services.trilium-server.port option, but it doesn't explain how this setting is actually applied. Trilium itself only respects the port if it's set via the TRILIUM_PORT environment variable, a --port CLI argument, or in config.ini in the data directory. If the NixOS module doesn't propagate the port option to one of these, Trilium will always use the default port 8080, regardless of your Nix config. This is a gap in the documentation and possibly in the module implementation as well. For now, the most reliable way to set the port is to use the environment variable or edit config.ini directly see details.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[BerriJ]

I suspect your Issue is due to NixOS/nixpkgs#434791