Quickstart

This guide takes a new team from an empty account to a deployed application. You need a clean, supported Ubuntu server or an account with a supported cloud provider. A GitHub repository is needed for a Git-backed application, and a domain is optional because web applications can start on a generated preview hostname.

1. Add a server

Open Servers, choose New server, and select one of the onboarding paths:

• Cloud provider creates a new server through a connected DigitalOcean, Akamai Cloud (Linode), or Vultr account.
• Managed SSH connects to a clean Ubuntu server you already own with a one-time root password. ServerChirp uses the password only for provisioning and permanently deletes it afterward.
• Manual installation gives you a generated bootstrap script to run as root on a clean Ubuntu server you already own.

Do not connect a machine already running production services. Existing packages, users, firewall rules, or web-server configuration can conflict with the managed stack.

Choose the smallest server that safely fits your workload. A PHP or Node.js application plus a local database generally needs more memory than a static site.

2. Follow provisioning

ServerChirp shows each provisioning stage and its live output. The server becomes available after provisioning completes and its outbound agent connects.

If provisioning stops, open the failed step and review its output before retrying. Do not reuse an old manual-installation script: loading the command again creates a new one-time enrollment token.

3. Create an application

Open the server and choose New application. Select the application type and runtime, enter the application details, and either reuse an existing system user or enter the name of a new passwordless system user for ServerChirp to create.

For a Git-backed application:

1. Connect GitHub if it is not already connected.
2. Select the repository and branch.
3. Review the stack-specific build and runtime settings.
4. Add required environment variables.
5. Enable push-to-deploy if this branch should deploy automatically.

For managed JavaScript applications, the deployer can detect the package manager and workspace root from the repository. The application type and runtime are choices you make; ServerChirp does not guess them from the repository.

4. Add a domain and SSL

An HTTP application created without a custom domain receives a generated preview hostname. To use your own domain, add it to the application and point its DNS records at the server. ServerChirp can then issue a Let's Encrypt certificate from the application's SSL settings.

example.com.      A      203.0.113.10
www.example.com.  CNAME  example.com.

ServerChirp validates the Nginx configuration before applying it. A public Let's Encrypt certificate can be issued only after the selected hostnames resolve to this server and are reachable over HTTP.

5. Deploy and verify

Start a deployment and follow its live stages and output. Git deployments use versioned release directories and activate the new release only after the required pre-activation work succeeds.

After the deployment:

• Open the application through its domain.
• Review the deployment result and the application's process state.
• Create an uptime monitor if the application has a public URL.
• Configure a backup for the files and databases that need recovery, run it once, and verify that it contains what you expect.

Next, read deployments for release hooks and rollback behavior.