Installing Firefly III Data Importer on Cloudron – Vite Manifest and Secret Issues

[AntttMan790]

Hello everyone,

First, I'm so sorry but I can't seem to select the Firefly III Category from the drop-down. It just isn't there. Mods please help

I’m working on installing the Firefly III Data Importer on my Cloudron instance (using a LAMP app) so that I can automate importing financial data into my self‑hosted Firefly III. While I’ve followed the Cloudron guide for installing the Data Importer, I’m running into a couple of major issues that I haven’t been able to resolve. Note that I'm still very new to all this so I apologize in advance!

What I’m Trying to Accomplish

• Objective: I want to install and configure the Firefly III Data Importer on Cloudron so that I can import CSV files (or later, even set up auto‑import with a JSON configuration) into my Firefly III instance.
• Setup: I've successfully installed Firefly III through Cloudron on my domain in the usual way. I’ve installed a fresh Cloudron LAMP app and used Composer to create the Firefly III Data Importer project. I’ve updated the .env file with my Firefly III URL, personal access token, auto‑import secret, and other settings (including Redis and mail configuration as provided by Cloudron). I've followed everything in the guide.

Issues Encountered

500 Server Error when opening the app:

1. Vite Manifest Not Found:
   I’m seeing the following error in the logs:

   Vite manifest not found at: /app/data/data-importer/public/build/manifest.json (View: /app/data/data-importer/resources/views/v2/index.blade.php)
   

   The error indicates that the application is expecting a Vite‑generated asset manifest, but no such file exists.

   • I tried running npm install --save-dev vite laravel-vite-plugin (using a custom cache directory to avoid read‑only filesystem errors), but I encountered further npm errors.
   • I also attempted php artisan vite:build, which returned:
     "There are no commands defined in the 'vite' namespace."
     This makes me wonder whether the project is designed to perform a dynamic Vite build or if I need to disable this integration in the Blade views and use static assets instead.

2. No Valid Secrets / Authentication Redirects:
   The logs are filled with messages like:

   No valid secrets, redirect to token.index
   

   This suggests that the application isn’t recognizing the secret values configured in my .env file. I have set my FIREFLY_III_ACCESS_TOKEN and AUTO_IMPORT_SECRET, but the app still isn’t validating them.

   • I’m not sure if this is due to a configuration error in the .env or if there’s a bug in the Data Importer’s secret handling logic.

3. Other Notable Log Warnings/Errors:

   • Redis Issues:
     • The logs show warnings about “Failed to write PID file: Permission denied,” which indicates there may be permission issues with Redis.
     • A repeated warning about memory overcommit (unsure if this could cause the 500 Server Error):

       Memory overcommit must be enabled! ... add 'vm.overcommit_memory = 1'
       

What I’ve Tried So Far

• NPM Cache Workaround:
  I created a writable cache directory (/app/data/tmp/npm-cache) and used the --cache option so that npm install could complete without the read‑only errors.
• Attempt to Set Up Vite:
  I attempted to install vite and laravel-vite-plugin and run a Vite build, but the process failed because the project doesn’t appear to include a build script or the artisan command isn’t available.
• Environment Configuration:
  I’ve updated the .env file with the required keys (including FIREFLY_III_URL, VANITY_URL, FIREFLY_III_ACCESS_TOKEN, AUTO_IMPORT_SECRET, etc.), yet I still see repeated log messages about missing valid secrets.
• Permissions and Reverse Proxy:
  I checked permissions on the Data Importer directories and the reverse proxy settings (via Cloudron logs), and these seem to be working as expected.

Questions for the Community

1. Vite Build Process:

   • Any ideas how to resolve this error?

2. Secret Configuration:

   • How do others configure the secret (AUTO_IMPORT_SECRET) so that the app recognizes it?
   • Is there a known issue or a specific format required in the .env for the secret to be validated properly?

Any guidance, suggestions, or updated documentation on installing the Data Importer on Cloudron would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[joseph]

The guide was contributed by @JLX89 . cc'ing them in case something has changed here.

[Neiluj]

Hi @AntttMan790 - Did you find a solution to this or have you heard from @JLX89 maybe?

As a quick/minor side "service-note" @staff, the Community Guide link on the related app doc page is currently leading to a 404 error:

• https://docs.cloudron.io/guides/community/firefly-iii-importer.md

I believe this should be:

• https://docs.cloudron.io/guides/community/firefly-iii-importer

[OrezBodajoy]

I got this working by adapting the instructions in the doc by @JLX89

It's pretty much the same thing, except:

• set PhP version 8.4
• do NOT run composer create-project firefly-iii/data-importer
• open the cloudron terminal and download the release there by typing
  wget https://github.com/firefly-iii/data-importer/releases/download/v1.9.0/DataImporter-v1.9.0.tar.gz
• extract that to /app/data/data-importer by doing
  tar -xvf DataImporter-v1.9.0.tar.gz -C /app/data/data-importer
• continue the setup:

  sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /app/data/data-importer
  sudo chmod -R 775 /app/data/data-importer/storage
  ...

The changes were made following this https://docs.firefly-iii.org/how-to/data-importer/installation/self-managed/