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Getting Started

Getting Started

From zero to a live app on your own cloud. Six steps — sign in, create a workspace, activate a region, deploy, point a domain at it, then automate.

If a term here is unfamiliar, the Core Concepts page defines the model (workspaces, regions, instances, the install gate). For a tour of the controls you’ll click, see the Dashboard Guide.

1. Sign in

Go to cloady.com and sign in. You can use:

  • Email — enter your address and continue; a sign-in link lands in your inbox.
  • Google — click Continue with Google.
  • GitHub — click Continue with GitHub. Signing in with GitHub also makes later deploy-from-repo smoother, since your GitHub identity is already linked.

First sign-in creates your account. You land on an empty dashboard — no workspaces yet.

2. Create a workspace

A workspace is your tenancy unit: identity, members, integrations, and a fixed resource pool. It gets its own URL at cloady.com/w/{slug}.

Click New workspace to open the Create workspace modal:

  1. Name — e.g. Acme Labs. Cloady derives the slug from the name (acme-labs) and shows it live; the slug is taken on collision and a suffix is added automatically.
  2. Icon · optional — upload one, or skip it. An uploaded icon seeds the gradient colors.
  3. Gradient · two colors — pick two hues for the workspace’s visual identity.
  4. Plan · resource pool — choose a tier. The free Hobby tier is available where eligible; otherwise pick a paid plan. The tier sets the vCPU / RAM / disk budget every app in this workspace draws from.

Click Create workspace. The first region is activated as part of creation — you don’t pick a region here; Cloady activates the default region for the plan you chose, so you’re immediately ready to deploy.

3. Activate additional regions (optional)

A region is a cluster your apps run in. A workspace is global; you turn on each region you want by subscribing to a plan there. The plan subscription is the activation — one subscription per (workspace, region).

You only need this step if you want apps in more than one region. To add one, open the region selector in the TopBar, pick a region, and the Activate region modal appears:

  1. The region’s city and code are shown at the top.
  2. Plan · resource pool — pick the tier for this region. Each region has its own pool; the plan you chose at workspace creation does not carry over.
  3. Click the Activate button (it’s labelled with the region city, e.g. Activate Frankfurt).

If the region already has a live cluster, activation is instant. If it’s a new available region with no cluster yet, the modal notes that the first deploy provisions this region (~6 min) — your first app there waits while Cloady stands up the cluster, then deploys.

Install gate: you can only deploy into a region the workspace has activated. Attempting to install into an inactive region returns activation_required — activate it first.

4. Deploy an app

Click New application to open the modal. At the top, pick one of three sources:

  • From GitHub — paste a repo URL. Cloady inspects it (detects Node, PHP, or Python and suggests build/start commands, the branch, root dir, and port). Review the detected settings, add any env vars, and continue. Cloady clones, builds, and deploys on every push to your branch when auto-deploy is on.
  • Drop folder — drag and drop a build folder. Cloady analyzes it, uploads it, and serves it as a static site.
  • From catalog — pick a pre-built application (WordPress, Postgres, …) from the grid. Search by name, then configure: a Display name, optional Components (compose profiles you can toggle on/off), and any Settings the app declares.

Then walk the steps:

  1. Configure — set the Display name (shown on the app card). The modal previews the Public URL you’ll get.
  2. Review & launch — confirm type, workspace, environment, region, public URL, and port. The Usage line shows the CPU / RAM / disk this app reserves from the workspace pool.
  3. Click Launch application.

Cloady builds the app, wires TLS automatically (no config — the wildcard cert covers it), and returns a live URL at the dashed cloady.io hostname:

<component>-<svcId>-<workspaceSlug>.cloady.io

So an app named DailyFrog of type WordPress in workspace neptolab is reachable at:

wordpress-dailyfrog-neptolab.cloady.io

The app appears on the workspace grid and starts in seconds. Catalog apps with install-time credentials surface them once in a post-install view — save them before you dismiss the dialog (they’re also under Settings → Credentials).

5. Add a custom domain

To serve the app on your own hostname, open App Settings → Domains for the instance.

  1. Enter your hostname (e.g. app.yourdomain.com) and click Add domain. Optionally tick Redirect to another host (308) to forward this host elsewhere — the cert still issues for it.
  2. Point DNS at Cloady using the DNS configuration panel, which gives you two options:
    • CNAME (default) — add a CNAME record pointing at your app’s built-in cloady.io hostname. Best for subdomains.
    • A / AAAA — for the apex (root) domain, which can’t be a CNAME. Add the A (IPv4) and AAAA (IPv6) records shown — the AAAA target is your app’s own dedicated IPv6 address.
  3. Once DNS resolves, Cloady provisions a Let’s Encrypt certificate per host automatically. The domain row shows live TLS status: issuing → issued.

6. Automate with the API or MCP

Everything in the dashboard is scriptable.

  • REST API — create workspaces, deploy apps, manage domains, stream logs, and more with personal API tokens. See the API Overview and the Endpoint Reference.
  • MCP server — drive Cloady from an AI agent (Claude and other MCP clients) with the same operations exposed as tools. See the MCP Server guide.

Next steps

  • Core Concepts — the full model: catalog vs. runtime, the workspace × region matrix, instances, rules, and domains.
  • Dashboard Guide — every panel and control, in detail.
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