---
title: Storage
description: Configure the uploads bucket that serve opens, choose file or memory bucket URLs, serve stored files, and size upload routes.
section: services
order: 90
---
# Storage

WinterCMS stores uploads on a Laravel filesystem disk. SummerCMS stores them in one [gocloud.dev](https://gocloud.dev/howto/blob/) bucket, opened from `storage.uploads.bucket_url` by the `attach` package of [lagoon](../../modules/lagoon/README.md). The `serve` command opens the bucket at start-up, before it accepts requests, and publishes it on the application; an empty `bucket_url` stops the start-up.

## Bucket URLs

| URL | Stores |
|-----|--------|
| `file:///var/lib/acme/uploads` | In a directory on the server. |
| `mem://` | In memory, for tests. Everything is lost when the process exits. |

The keys go in `config/storage.yaml`:

```yaml
uploads:
  bucket_url: file:///var/lib/acme/uploads
  public_path_prefix: /storage/uploads
```

Files are laid out as WinterCMS lays out its uploads disk, so a copy of a WinterCMS `storage/app/uploads/public` directory can serve as the bucket after a port. `public_path_prefix` is the URL prefix that file and thumbnail URLs start with. `attach.PublicURL` builds the URL of any blob key from it, and `attach.File.URL` the URL of an original.

### The WinterCMS layout

A port whose clients already store or compare upload URLs keeps WinterCMS's URLs too. WinterCMS serves public uploads from `storage/app/uploads/public` under the URL path `/storage/app/uploads/public` (`cms.storage.uploads.path` plus `/public`). Root the bucket at that directory and use the same prefix:

```yaml
uploads:
  bucket_url: file://./storage/app/uploads/public
  public_path_prefix: /storage/app/uploads/public
```

An original then has the URL `/storage/app/uploads/public/<partition>/<disk_name>`, as WinterCMS's `File::getPath()` returns, and a 200 by 200 cropped thumbnail `/storage/app/uploads/public/<partition>/thumb_<id>_200_200_0_0_crop.<ext>`, as `getThumb()` returns. The framework default stays `/storage/uploads`, so only an application that sets these keys changes its URLs.

Application code gets the bucket with `app.Lookup[*blob.Bucket]()` and reads and writes it through the `gocloud.dev/blob` API. Model attachments, thumbnails and deleting files after commit are covered in [Attachments](../database/attachments.md).

## Serving files

The framework mounts no file route unless you ask for one. Set `storage.uploads.serve` to `true` (environment `SUMMER_STORAGE__UPLOADS__SERVE=true`, default `false`) and the router registers `GET <public_path_prefix>/{path...}` on `attach.StaticHandlerPublic`:

```yaml
storage:
  uploads:
    bucket_url: file://./storage/app/uploads/public
    public_path_prefix: /storage/app/uploads/public
    serve: true
```

The route serves originals and thumbnails and answers 404 for a missing file, an invalid path and a file whose `system_files` row is not public (`is_public` false). The stored content type is the one sniffed from the file's bytes at upload, so an uploaded text file that starts with `<html>` is stored as `text/html`; `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff` alone does not stop a browser from rendering a file whose declared type is already HTML. The route therefore protects the application origin in three ways:

- Every response carries `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff`.
- Every response carries `Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'none'; img-src 'self'; media-src 'self'; sandbox`. A file opened as a page runs no script and gets an opaque origin, so it cannot read the application's cookies or storage. The policy does not affect an `<img>` or `<video>` that embeds the file.
- A file whose type is not a raster image (`image/jpeg`, `image/png`, `image/gif`, `image/webp` or `image/avif`) is sent with `Content-Disposition: attachment`, so the browser downloads it instead of showing it. That includes HTML, SVG, PDF and plain text.

With `serve` on, `public_path_prefix` must be an absolute URL path such as `/storage/uploads`: a leading slash, no scheme or host, no query, no empty, `.` or `..` segment and no `{` or `}`. Start-up fails with an error naming the key otherwise, for example for the WinterCMS disk path `storage/app/uploads/public` or a CDN URL. With `serve` off the key only builds file URLs, so a CDN origin is fine there.

The route looks up the bucket and the database on each request: `route:list` lists it without opening either, and it answers 404 until `serve` has published them. The route owns the whole prefix, so start-up fails when a plugin registers a route at or under it.

Without the key, the application decides where files are served: mount `attach.StaticHandlerPublic` itself, or put a web server or CDN in front of the bucket directory. Either way, serve uploads from a separate origin when you can; the [Attachments](../database/attachments.md) page explains why. The built-in route is meant for development and for deployments that cannot split the origin yet.

## Upload size

Every non-raw route has a request body limit of `http.body_limits.default_bytes`. A route that accepts uploads raises its own limit with the `body.limit:<bytes>` middleware; see [Routing](routing.md). `http.body_limits.upload_bytes` is required and validated at start-up, but the framework applies it to no route; a plugin that wants its upload routes to follow it reads it in `Register` and puts the value in the route's `body.limit`.