Documentation

Shipper is a self-hosted deployment console for the server you own. These docs cover installing it, shipping an application, running it day to day, and recovering when something breaks.

New to Shipper? Start with Prerequisites, Install, and First deploy. If you are already down, open the Recovery runbook.

Get started

• Prerequisites

  Supported hosts, resources, Docker, ports, and DNS.

• Install

  Run the installer, claim the instance, and add the dashboard domain.

• What the installer changes

  Files, services, containers, and the uninstall path.

• First deploy

  From a Git repository, local folder, or image to a live URL.

• Move an existing app

  Bring a Dockerfile, Compose stack, data, and domain.

• Uninstall

  Stop Shipper, keep data, or remove everything deliberately.

Deploy

• Sources

  Git, local files, images, Compose, and inline Dockerfiles.

• Builds and checks

  Build methods, ports, health paths, and readiness.

• Domains

  Hostnames, aliases, routing, and maintenance mode.

• HTTPS and certificates

  Automatic certificates, verification, and renewal.

• Environment variables

  Build and runtime scopes, Compose, and rotation.

• Secrets

  Encrypted values, masking, and build secret mounts.

• Releases

  Release records, deploy and apply, logs, and retention.

• Rollbacks

  Restore a release and understand what data does not roll back.

• Updates

  Main and Nightly, automatic updates, and failed candidates.

Operate

• Backups

  Instance recovery plans, application data, and schedules.

• Off-server storage

  S3 destinations, retention, and a practical 3-2-1 setup.

• Restore

  Instance archives, database copies, and volume attach.

• Recovery runbook

  The first five minutes and the scenario table.

• Lost access

  Owner password, second factor, and no sign-in method.

• Host recovery

  Control plane, Docker, dashboard, and a lost server.

• Troubleshooting

  Build, runtime, route, TLS, task, and dependency failures.

• Maintenance

  Disk, cleanup, proxy repair, and host status.

Access

• Users and roles

  Provisioning, roles, sessions, and audit.

• OAuth

  Google, GitHub, and Discord sign-in.

• Two-factor authentication

  TOTP, recovery codes, and instance policy.

• API and agent tokens

  Scoped operation tokens and revocation.

• Deploy tokens

  Application-scoped tokens for deploy endpoints.

Reference

• API

  The /api/v1 contract and examples.

• Ports

  Inbound, outbound, and internal ports.

• Instance variables

  Every SHIPPER_* and Docker setting.

Help

• GitHub issues

  Report a bug or ask for a capability.

• Release notes

  What changed in each Shipper release.

• Security

  Report a vulnerability privately.