03-kiwix.md

kstack: book: Centerpoint Home Lab chapter: Utilities page: Kiwix tags: [kiwix, offline, wikipedia, zim, authentik]

Overview

Kiwix serves offline ZIM-format content — primarily Wikipedia snapshots and other reference material — accessible without an internet connection. ZIM files are stored on the Ceph OSD volume. The external route is gated behind Authentik ForwardAuth. The internal route has no additional auth middleware.

Access

Configuration

Image: ghcr.io/kiwix/kiwix-serve:latest

Traefik Labels

traefik.http.routers.kiwix-external.rule: Host(`kiwix.jeeves5454.ddns.net`)
traefik.http.routers.kiwix-external.entrypoints: websecure
traefik.http.routers.kiwix-external.tls.certresolver: letsencrypt
traefik.http.routers.kiwix-external.middlewares: plex-geoblock@file,crowdsec-bouncer@file,authentik-auth@docker
traefik.http.routers.kiwix-external.service: kiwix-svc

traefik.http.routers.kiwix-internal.rule: Host(`kiwix.home.local`)
traefik.http.routers.kiwix-internal.entrypoints: websecure
traefik.http.routers.kiwix-internal.tls.certresolver: step-ca
traefik.http.routers.kiwix-internal.service: kiwix-svc

traefik.http.services.kiwix-svc.loadbalancer.server.port: 8080

Volumes / Bind Mounts

ZIM files are stored on the second Ceph OSD volume (nvme2n1, /media/jeeves/1TB_Vol1). kiwix-serve auto-discovers all .zim files in /data on startup and presents them in the library UI.

Notes / Gotchas

• ZIM files can be very large (Wikipedia full English is ~100GB). Ensure adequate space on the Ceph volume before downloading new content.
• New ZIM files can be added by placing them in /media/jeeves/1TB_Vol1/Kiwix_Images. A container restart is required for kiwix-serve to discover them.
• Kiwix has no built-in authentication — the internal route is unprotected on the LAN. The external route relies entirely on Authentik ForwardAuth.
• ZIM files can be downloaded from library.kiwix.org and transferred to the Ceph volume via FileBrowser or SCP.

Last Updated: 2026-06-17