Thanks for writing this up. I went through the same migration last year and can confirm — it is not as smooth as “just swap the binary” anymore since the hard fork.

A few extra tips that saved me headaches:

• Backup everything first — obvious but worth emphasizing. Dump the database AND copy the entire data directory. pg_dump if you are on Postgres, or just copy the SQLite file.
• Check your Gitea version first — Forgejo migration paths assume specific Gitea versions. If you are on an old Gitea, you might need to step through intermediate Gitea versions before jumping to Forgejo.
• Webhooks and integrations — These survived the migration for me, but the API tokens did not. Had to regenerate them all.
• Runner compatibility — If you use Gitea Actions/runners, make sure to switch to Forgejo’s runner binary too. They have diverged enough that mixing them causes subtle issues.

Overall though, Forgejo has been great post-migration. More responsive to community issues and the federation work they are doing is exciting.