Kiwix

Offline Wikipedia and other content served from ZIM files.

Kiwix is an open-source tool for offline reading of web content. It serves Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, Stack Overflow, and other knowledge bases packaged as ZIM files. Self-hosting Kiwix makes large knowledge bases accessible without internet connectivity and with very low latency.

Alternatives considered

Cloud Hosted

Tool	Open Source	Free Tier	Monthly Cost
Wikipedia	Yes	Yes	Free
DevDocs	Yes	Yes	Free; dev docs only

Self Hosted

Tool	Open Source	Full Features	Notes
Zeal	Yes	Yes	Desktop-only offline docs browser

Installation

Architecture

• Deployment: Single kiwix deployment in the kiwix namespace
• Image: ghcr.io/kiwix/kiwix-serve:3.8.2 (digest-pinned)
• Storage: NFS volume from TrueNAS for ZIM files (read-only content serving)
• Networking: ClusterIP service on port 80, HTTPRoute via public gateway; NetworkPolicy allows ingress from Envoy Gateway and Homepage

Security

No securityContext configured. No secrets required — read-only content serving with no writable state.

Updates

Managed by Renovate. Image is digest-pinned.

Data Management

No PVCs. ZIM files reside on the TrueNAS NFS share and are managed by TrueNAS. To add content, download ZIM files from kiwix.org and place them in the NFS share directory.

User Management

No authentication configured. Public access via HTTPRoute.

Configuration Management

No ConfigMaps or Secrets. ZIM file path passed as command argument to the container.

Administration

Usage

Download ZIM files from the Kiwix library (kiwix.org/en/download) and place them in the data volume. Access the web UI to browse and search all loaded knowledge bases. Particularly useful as an offline reference for Wikipedia and technical documentation.

Cluster-specific deviations from the above live in the per-cluster README — see k8s/apps/talos/kiwix/README.md.

Cluster Deployment

App URLs

• kiwix.web.kueber.eu

Depends on

• Envoy Gateway

Kiwix — Talos cluster

Cluster-specific notes only. General product info, "why we use it", and alternatives live in docusaurus/docs/apps/kiwix.mdx.

Deviations from defaults

Defaults live in docusaurus/docs/apps/kiwix.mdx — document anything this cluster does differently here, with a one-line reason.

Kubernetes Metadata

• Image: ghcr.io/kiwix/kiwix-serve:3.8.2@sha256:7431be257ac0b0b6f14633ef088774f6d5122246940b594b3017a70169058b08

Rendered manifests (kustomize build)

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  annotations:
    kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/force: enabled
  labels:
    app: kiwix
  name: kiwix
  namespace: kiwix
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: kiwix
      ingress: public
  strategy:
    rollingUpdate: null
    type: Recreate
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: kiwix
        ingress: public
    spec:
      containers:
        - args:
            - '-M'
            - '*.zim'
          image: ghcr.io/kiwix/kiwix-serve:3.8.2@sha256:7431be257ac0b0b6f14633ef088774f6d5122246940b594b3017a70169058b08
          livenessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /
              port: 8080
            initialDelaySeconds: 5
            periodSeconds: 10
          name: kiwix
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8080
              name: web
              protocol: TCP
          readinessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /
              port: 8080
            initialDelaySeconds: 5
            periodSeconds: 10
          volumeMounts:
            - mountPath: /data/
              name: kiwix-data
              subPath: kiwix
      volumes:
        - name: kiwix-data
          nfs:
            path: /mnt/zima/reading
            server: 192.168.100.200