Getting Started

Your managed Mattermost at server.camp is ready. Mattermost is the privacy-first alternative to Slack and Microsoft Teams: team messaging, channels, file sharing, calls, and integrations — all on infrastructure in Germany. This guide is for freelancers, SMBs, and nonprofits that want structured internal communication, independent of US cloud services.

Many organizations communicate through a mix of email, WhatsApp, and phone calls. The problems: business conversations end up on personal phones, important information disappears in email threads, and new team members have no context for past decisions.

Mattermost creates one central communication platform — GDPR-compliant on servers in Germany, not at Slack in the US or Microsoft in some data center.

Common use cases:

• Team communication in structured channels instead of endless email threads
• Project communication — one channel per project, everyone stays informed
• Quick coordination — direct messages and group chats for short questions
• Voice calls — directly in Mattermost, including screen sharing
• Technical notifications — webhooks from monitoring, CI/CD, or shops posted directly to channels
• Boards (Kanban) — task and project management built into Mattermost
• Association communication — working groups, board, and members in separate channels

Mattermost has a tenant-level structure called teams. A team is a collection of channels, members, and settings. Within a team, you communicate with colleagues or association members. In most cases, a single team is enough.

Within a team, there are several ways to communicate:

• Channel — a topic-based area within a team (e.g. “Support”, “Project Website”). Channels can be public or private.
• Group chat — a conversation with 3–7 people, without creating a dedicated channel. Ideal for quick coordination in small groups.
• Direct message — a 1:1 conversation between two people.

Mattermost works in any browser, but native apps are available for all platforms. Install the apps on every device you use — so you never miss a message.

Download at mattermost.com/apps:

• Windows — MSI installer or portable
• macOS — DMG or via Homebrew (brew install --cask mattermost)
• Linux — AppImage, .deb, or .rpm

On first launch: enter your server address (your Mattermost URL from server.camp) → sign in.

• iOS: App Store
• Android: Google Play

In the app: “Add Server” → enter your Mattermost URL → sign in.

Desktop app over browser

The desktop app has clear advantages over the browser: independent notifications (not tied to browser state), support for multiple servers, and it doesn’t get lost in tab clutter. For daily use, the desktop app is the better choice.

Under Main Menu → Invite Members → Invitation Link, generate a link and send it to your team. Anyone who opens the link can register themselves.

Under Main Menu → Invite Members → Invite by Email, enter email addresses. Invitees receive an email with a registration link.

Limit System Admin access

System Admins can see all channels (including private ones) and change any setting. Assign this role only to people responsible for technical administration — typically 1–2 people.

Every team member can see public channels, join them, and read the full message history. Ideal for topics where transparency is valued.

Only invited members see private channels. They don’t appear in the channel list for others. Ideal for confidential topics.

Default to public

Public channels promote transparency and make knowledge accessible. Use private channels only when there’s a real reason for confidentiality. New employees or association members benefit enormously from being able to read past discussions.

Archive completed projects or unused channels instead of deleting them. Archived channels remain searchable but disappear from the active channel list. Find them under “More…” → “Archived” and restore them if needed.

Keep the channel list small

Start with 5–8 channels and expand as needed. Too many channels from the start leaves everyone unsure where things belong. Let it grow organically.

Use @channel and @all sparingly

@channel and @all notify everyone in the channel — including people in meetings or off for the day. Use these only for genuinely important announcements. For less urgent messages, a normal post without an @-mention is enough.

Reply to a message in a thread instead of directly in the channel: click the reply icon on a message. This keeps the channel view clean and groups related discussions together.

In the sidebar, “Threads” shows an overview of all threads you’re part of — so you never miss a reply.

Mattermost supports Markdown:

Click the smiley icon on any message to react with an emoji. Quick reactions like 👍, ✅, or 👀 often replace a full reply and keep the channel clean.

Tip: Agree on team conventions, e.g. 👀 = “I’ve seen this”, ✅ = “Done”, 👍 = “Agreed”.

Use reactions for quick polls

For simple polls (e.g. scheduling), post the question and add possible answers as emoji reactions (e.g. 1️⃣, 2️⃣, 3️⃣). Team members react with their choice — preferences visible at a glance.

• Pin: Important messages can be pinned in a channel — ideal for links, decisions, or recurring information. Find pinned messages via the pin icon in the channel header.
• Bookmarks: Save messages as personal bookmarks to find them later.

Upload files directly to channels (drag and drop or via the paperclip icon). Mattermost shows images and PDFs as inline previews in the conversation.

Mattermost for communication, cloud storage for files

Mattermost is great for quick file exchange in the context of a conversation. For permanent, structured storage, use Nextcloud or Seafile. Share a link to the file in cloud storage via Mattermost — the file lives in one place and is referenced in the chat.

Mattermost includes built-in voice calls (Mattermost Calls) — directly in a channel or direct message, no external tool needed.

1. Click the phone icon in the channel header or in a direct message
2. Other participants see a notification and can join
3. During the call: screen sharing for presentations or collaborative work

Calls for quick check-ins

The built-in call is ideal for short questions or quick decisions — no switching to another platform. Call, clarify, hang up. For longer meetings or video conferences, a dedicated tool like Jitsi Meet or BigBlueButton is a better fit.

The Focalboard plugin (Mattermost Boards) provides a built-in Kanban board. Manage tasks directly in Mattermost — no separate project management tool needed.

1. Click “Boards” in the left sidebar
2. Choose “Create new board” or select a template (e.g. project planning, sprint, to-do list)
3. Create cards, define columns (e.g. “To Do”, “In Progress”, “Done”)
4. Cards can have assignees, due dates, descriptions, and comments

Installing Focalboard as a plugin

Focalboard is not installed by default but can be added as a plugin. Download it from the community page and install it under System Console → Plugins → Plugin Management.

To keep Mattermost from becoming a distraction, configure notifications thoughtfully.

Under Profile Settings → Notifications:

Under Profile Settings → Notifications → Do Not Disturb, define automatic quiet hours — e.g. from 18:00 to 08:00 and on weekends. No push notifications are sent during these times.

Mute individual channels without leaving them: right-click the channel → Notification Preferences → Mute. Ideal for channels you want to read occasionally but don’t need to be notified for every message (e.g. random or monitoring).

One of Mattermost’s biggest advantages is its deep integration capability via webhooks and the REST API.

Under Integrations → Incoming Webhooks, create a URL that external systems can use to post messages to a Mattermost channel.

Typical integrations:

Mattermost supports slash commands — commands starting with / entered directly in chat:

See all slash commands

Type just / in a channel and Mattermost shows a list of all available slash commands — including those added by plugins. A quick way to see what’s available.

Outgoing webhooks let Mattermost automatically send an HTTP request to an external system when specific keywords appear in channels — e.g. to Node-RED for complex automations.

Mattermost has a powerful full-text search across all messages, channels, and files:

• Click the search icon or use Ctrl+F / Cmd+F
• Search by keywords, people, or file names
• Search modifiers for precise results:
  • from:jane.smith — messages from a specific person
  • in:sales — messages in a specific channel or chat
  • before:2026-02-01 / after:2026-01-15 — messages in a time range
  • ext:pdf — files with a specific extension

Search as your knowledge base

One of the biggest advantages over WhatsApp and phone calls: everything written in Mattermost is searchable. Looking for a decision, a link, or an agreement — search finds it. This only works if important decisions are written down in channels and not just discussed verbally.

Every user can set their status to let the team know what they’re doing:

• Online (green dot) — active
• Away (yellow dot) — briefly unavailable
• Do Not Disturb (red dot) — no notifications
• Offline (gray dot) — not signed in

Set a custom status with an emoji and text (e.g. “🏖️ On vacation until Mar 3” or “📞 On a client call”). This reduces unnecessary messages and signals to the team when you’re available.

Tip for freelancers: Use Mattermost as a personal knowledge archive. Create a private channel “Notes” just for yourself — collect links, ideas, and snippets you can find again via search.

Onboarding tip: Create an onboarding channel with pinned messages: links to documentation, key contacts, software access, and team conventions. Every new employee joins this channel and finds everything in one place.

Tip for associations: Mattermost works great as a WhatsApp replacement for association communication. Unlike WhatsApp, all communication lives on your own server, no personal phone numbers are shared, and new members can read past discussions. The mobile app is just as easy to use as any messenger.

Connect Uptime Kuma via webhook to a #monitoring channel. When a service goes down, the entire team sees the alert instantly — with monitor name, status, and timestamp.

Have Zammad post ticket updates via webhook to a #support channel. The support team stays informed even when not logged into Zammad.

Share links to files in Nextcloud or Seafile directly in Mattermost channels. Files live in structured cloud storage and are referenced in chat — no clutter from duplicate uploads.

Have Paperless-ngx send a notification to a Mattermost channel when new documents arrive — e.g. #accounting when a new invoice is scanned.

Store credentials for Mattermost and all other services centrally in Vaultwarden. Everyone on the team always has the right credentials at hand.

Every user can enable TOTP-based 2FA under Profile Settings → Security → Multi-Factor Authentication. Recommended for all users, required for admins.

Under Profile Settings → Security → Active Sessions, see all logged-in devices and end individual sessions — useful if a device is lost.

Need help setting up channels, integrations, boards, or app configuration? Reach out at support@server.camp. We’re happy to help.

Find frequently asked questions about Mattermost on our product page.