Getting Started

Setting Up a New Site

1

Create the directory structure

mkdir -p /home/mysite/{includes,assets/{css,js,icons},api,endpoints,help}

2

Copy shared assets

cp /home/test/includes/security.php /home/mysite/includes/
cp /home/test/includes/functions.php /home/mysite/includes/
cp -r /home/test/assets/css /home/mysite/assets/
cp -r /home/test/assets/js /home/mysite/assets/

3

Create index.php

<?php
require_once __DIR__ . '/includes/security.php';
?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>My Site</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/css/app.css">
</head>
<body>
    <button id="theme-toggle" class="theme-toggle" aria-label="Toggle theme">&#9789;</button>
    <div class="container">
        <h1>Welcome</h1>
    </div>
    <script src="/assets/js/app.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

4

Add Nginx vhost + SSL

See the Troubleshooting page for the full vhost template and SSL setup steps.

Nginx Vhost Template

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name mysite.kim8.s4s.host;
    return 301 https://mysite.kim8.s4s.host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name mysite.kim8.s4s.host;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/mysite.kim8.s4s.host/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/mysite.kim8.s4s.host/privkey.pem;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_ciphers HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;

    root /home/mysite;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 300;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known) {
        deny all;
    }

    location /assets/ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

Save to /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite.kim8.s4s.host.conf, symlink, and reload:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite.kim8.s4s.host.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

SSL Setup with Certbot

# Install certbot (if not already)
apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Get certificate
certbot --nginx -d mysite.kim8.s4s.host

# Verify auto-renewal
certbot renew --dry-run

Certbot automatically adds SSL directives to your Nginx config and sets up a cron job for renewal.

PHP Requirements

PHP Version	`8.3.6` (FPM)
Required Extensions	curl, json, mbstring, openssl
PHP-FPM Socket	`unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock`
Process Manager	dynamic

Install PHP extensions

apt install php8.3-fpm php8.3-curl php8.3-mbstring php8.3-xml php8.3-mysql

Git Workflow

Edit files directly in /home/mysite/ — changes are live immediately

Track changes with git:

cd /home/mysite
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial setup"

After making changes:

git add .
git commit -m "Description of changes"

Update CHANGELOG.md and TODO.md as needed

Common Maintenance Tasks

Reload Nginx

nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

Restart PHP-FPM

systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

Renew SSL

certbot renew

Check Disk Space

df -h

Check Service Status

systemctl status nginx php8.3-fpm mariadb

Clear PHP Session Files

find /tmp/sess_* -mtime +7 -delete 2>/dev/null

Sister Sites

test.kim8.s4s.host	Main hub, API reference, project docs
vision.kim8.s4s.host	Vision AI, OCR, screenshot QA
featherless.kim8.s4s.host	Model catalog, text playground
generate.kim8.s4s.host	Image generation, upscaling
api.kim8.s4s.host	Unified API gateway (no auth needed)