---
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). Every response carries `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff`, so a browser does not sniff a stored file into HTML or script. 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. A plugin route with the same pattern fails boot as a duplicate.

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`.