- Is Shaark a Composer package I can install into an existing Laravel app?
- No. Shaark is a full Laravel and Vue.js application you self-host, not an embeddable Composer library. You can run it as a standalone service and integrate over HTTP, or fork it as the base for an internal knowledge-base product. It is a poor fit if the requirement is a component embedded inside an existing codebase.
- Which Laravel version does Shaark use, and can I upgrade it to a supported release?
- Version 1.2.44 targets Laravel 6.20, which has been out of security support since 2022. There is no guaranteed upstream path to a supported major, so fork-and-upgrade to Laravel 10 or 11 should be treated as a costed decision that gates rollout. Staying on 6.x means you own framework security patching.
- How do I install and run Shaark with Docker Compose?
- Clone the repository or use the included Docker Compose artifacts, run artisan migrate, and seed the default admin. MySQL or MariaDB is the conventional database, while SQLite is acceptable for evaluation. Disable or rotate the default admin credentials immediately after the instance is up.
- Does Shaark support LDAP, SAML, or OIDC single sign-on?
- Core Shaark has no first-class LDAP, SAML, or OIDC support. Common approaches are placing an SSO reverse proxy such as oauth2-proxy in front, or adding a Laravel-6-compatible community package. Confirm that the chosen pattern satisfies your audit and offboarding requirements before broad rollout.
- How do I import my existing bookmarks into Shaark?
- Shaark supports HTML bookmark import, which is the practical path for a greenfield deployment. A sensible sequence is pilot instance, HTML bookmark import, pilot cohort, then broader rollout. If you are displacing an existing bookmarking tool, export format fidelity is the main migration workstream.
- Is Shaark suitable for storing passwords in production?
- Shaark includes a password vault, but production suitability depends heavily on your deployment and patching discipline. The dominant risk is that 1.2.44 pins Laravel 6.20, so security fixes become your burden or require a fork-and-upgrade project. You should also account for single-maintainer risk and explicitly regression-test account create, delete, and deactivate flows.
- How do I change the default admin email [email protected]?
- The default [email protected] address uses a reserved domain and will silently fail password resets or notifications. Immediately rotate or disable the default admin, update its stored address to a real mailbox, and review provisioning scripts and test fixtures that assert the old value. Existing users keep their stored addresses, so blast radius is limited to new accounts and seeded admins.
- How do I back up and restore a Shaark instance?
- Backup and restore are operator responsibilities rather than features called out in core. Back up the database and application files, and verify an actual restore rather than only taking a dump. Include a tested restore in your pilot sequencing before expanding to production users.
- Is Shaark actively maintained, and does it offer commercial support?
- Shaark is a single-maintainer project with a small contributor base and irregular release cadence. Support is community-only through GitHub issues, with no vendor or SLA. Pin to a reviewed commit rather than tracking latest, and treat upstream as a feature source rather than a security source.
- Can I automate Shaark through an API or CLI?
- The documented interface is primarily the web UI, and the evaluation flags API and CLI sufficiency as an open question. Before committing, verify whether an API or CLI surface covers the automations you need, or plan to integrate over HTTP against the standalone service. If the web UI is the only contract, automation may require forking or scripting.