Replace MinIO with an alternative S3-compatible storage for local development

[matrixise]

Problem

MinIO has entered maintenance mode and is no longer actively developed for the open-source community. The MinIO team is now focusing on a commercial, paid version.

Reference: minio/minio@27742d4

This means that for local development, we should migrate away from MinIO to ensure we have a well-maintained and actively supported S3-compatible storage solution.

Current Usage

MinIO is currently used in our docker-compose.yml for local S3-compatible object storage during development. This allows developers to test S3 integration locally without needing AWS credentials.

Proposed Alternatives

1. Garage (Recommended to investigate first)

Website: https://garagehq.deuxfleurs.fr/
GitHub: https://git.deuxfleurs.fr/Deuxfleurs/garage

Pros:

• Lightweight and designed for self-hosting
• S3-compatible API
• Active development by Deuxfleurs
• Open-source (AGPL-3.0)
• Good documentation

Cons:

• Smaller community compared to MinIO
• Need to evaluate maturity and stability

2. LocalStack

Website: https://localstack.cloud/
GitHub: https://github.com/localstack/localstack

Pros:

• Very popular for local AWS development
• Emulates multiple AWS services (not just S3)
• Well-documented
• Large community
• Actively maintained

Cons:

• More heavyweight (emulates many AWS services we don't need)
• Some advanced features require a paid license
• May be overkill if we only need S3

3. Other Options to Consider

• MinIO fork: Check if there's an active community fork
• AWS S3 LocalStack: Use only the S3 component of LocalStack
• SeaweedFS: Another distributed storage system with S3 compatibility
• Ceph with RGW: More complex but enterprise-grade

Tasks

• Research and compare Garage vs LocalStack for our specific use case
• Test chosen alternative with our current S3 integration
• Update docker-compose.yml to use the new solution
• Update development documentation (CLAUDE.md, README)
• Test that media uploads work correctly in local development
• Ensure compatibility with production S3 usage (boto3, django-storages)

Additional Context

Our production setup uses AWS S3 with boto3 and django-storages. The local development alternative must be compatible with the same boto3 S3 API to ensure consistency between development and production environments.

Files to update:

• docker-compose.yml
• CLAUDE.md (development setup instructions)
• Any scripts or documentation referencing MinIO

Questions

1. Do we need any S3 features beyond basic object storage (GET, PUT, DELETE, LIST)?
2. Are there any MinIO-specific configurations we're using that need equivalent support?
3. Should we prioritize lightweight (Garage) or feature-complete (LocalStack)?