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levelrail

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v0.8.6 Latest Latest Go to latest Published: Oct 27, 2026 License: Apache-2.0

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README ¶

Levelrail

The lightweight, self-hosted alternative to Vercel, Netlify, Heroku, Railway, Coolify and Dokku.
Deploy on git push, with logs, metrics, HTTPS and one-click rollback, on your own servers. HTTPS is self-signed until you enable Let's Encrypt.
One Go binary · Docker runtime · agents instead of SSH · observability built in · no Kubernetes

Website · Docs · Install · Production ready · Compare · Guides · Roadmap · Changelog · Discussions · Discord

Levelrail is an open source (Apache 2.0) self-hosted PaaS: a Vercel and Heroku alternative that runs on any Linux server you own, from a small VPS to a rack (the one measured host is a 2 vCPU, 8 GB box). It turns plain servers into a private cloud with Git deploys (forge webhooks), HTTPS (self-signed by default, Let's Encrypt when enabled), databases with verified backups, metrics, logs and alerts, without Kubernetes and without the monitoring stack you would otherwise bolt on.

Quickstart

You need a Linux server (amd64 or arm64) with systemd and root. The installer adds Docker if it is missing.

1. Install the server

curl -fsSL https://levelrail.com/install.sh | sudo sh

The last lines of output include the dashboard address and a one-time setup link:

Levelrail vX.Y.Z installed and running.

Open the dashboard:
  http://203.0.113.10:8080/login?setup=<token>

2. Create the admin account

Open the setup link and choose a password. The first sign-in opens one screen that turns on a free certificate for <dashed-ip>.sslip.io with one click (no DNS needed) and deploys your first app.

3. Deploy an app

On the server, the installer already put levelrail-cli in /usr/local/bin. Sign in once, then import a repository (levelrail-cli apps create --interactive asks for everything step by step):

levelrail-cli login --api-url http://<server-ip>:8080 --code ABCD-EF23
levelrail-cli import https://github.com/your-org/your-app --deploy

Prefer containers, a pinned version or a source build? See Installing. Want it as light as Dokku, or everything on? install.sh --profile minimal|standard|suite, see Server profiles. Coming from another platform? See Migrate to Levelrail: Coolify, Dokploy, CapRover, Dokku and compose files each get a dry run first, and the old server keeps serving.

After setup, the dashboard home shows a Connect your CLI card. Press Show my command, paste the line into your terminal, and the CLI signs in with a single-use code that expires in minutes (no password, no approval step):

logged in as "you@example.com"
token tk_9fQ2x saved to ~/.config/levelrail-cli/credentials under profile "default", expires 2027-01-18

Signing in with your password from a new device needs approval: the CLI prints the dashboard page to approve it on and the number to type. login --device also still works.

Without --deploy, import only prints the deployment plan. To see the app's address, run levelrail-cli open your-app. It prints the custom domain first, then the automatic URL.

Or let your coding agent do it

Install the skill once, then ask your agent in plain words. It deploys, waits for the rollout to actually converge, reads the failure if there is one, and rolls back safely:

npx skills add https://github.com/glincker/levelrail --skill levelrail

Deploy this repo to my Levelrail and tell me when it is live.

The skill is also listed at skills.sh. Details: Agents.

If something fails

Step	Error you see	Fix
Install	`control plane did not become healthy within 60s`	`systemctl status levelrail` and `journalctl -u levelrail -n 100 --no-pager`. A port already in use is a common cause.
Install	`could not list releases from GitHub. Set LEVELRAIL_VERSION=vX.Y.Z to pin one.`	The server cannot reach GitHub. Check outbound HTTPS, or pin a release.
Install	`checksum mismatch for ...`	Do not continue. Run the installer again. Do not set `LEVELRAIL_SKIP_CHECKSUM=1` to get past it.
Login	`start device login: ... connection refused`	The CLI points at the wrong address. Run `export APP_API_URL=http://127.0.0.1:<dashboard port>` and try again.
Import	`plan import: ... connection refused`	The control plane is not running. Start it with `systemctl start levelrail`.

More fixes: Troubleshooting. Full install options (Docker image, pinned version, source build): Installing. Deploy from a local project with levelrail-cli up: One command quickstart. Server profiles (install.sh --profile minimal|standard|suite): Server profiles. Migrating from another platform? levelrail-cli import platform coolify|dokploy|caprover --dry-run shows what would be created first, and the old server keeps serving. Full guide: Migrate to Levelrail. Publishing an open-source project? Add a one-click button to its README: Deploy to Levelrail button.

_{Install, then deploy}

_{Gated deploy, one-step rollback}

Why people pick Levelrail

Lightweight. About 200 MB of RAM and roughly 1.5% of one CPU idle, measured on a 2 vCPU, 8 GB Linux test box with no apps under load and the default feature set (one run, 2026-10-19). Numbers and method.
Agents, not SSH. Each node runs a small agent that dials out over mTLS and talks to Docker's Engine API directly. No inbound ports, no shelling out to the docker CLI, no polling loops.
Observability included. Per-node metrics at 15 second resolution, searchable logs, deploy markers, traces, SLO burn, alert inbox and an idle-footprint health page. No Grafana stack to install.
Deploys that protect you. Readiness-gated rollouts, pinned images for rollback, canary releases that roll back on errors, deploy diffs, approvals and freezes.
Secure by default. Hash-chained audit log you can verify, SSRF-guarded outbound calls, envelope-encrypted secrets with key rotation, scoped tokens, passkeys and TOTP 2FA, OAuth and OIDC sign-in, IAM policies, signed releases. SAML single sign-on and SCIM provisioning are available as a beta feature, off by default.
Built for AI agents. An MCP server with over 240 tools in on-demand toolsets (small default list, about 2.4k tokens; see tool surface), a scoped-token permission model and an agent skill.

Production ready, with receipts

Single-server deployments are production ready today. Multi-node and a handful of newer features are labelled beta, and every label links to its evidence.

Claim	Evidence
Every feature is labelled stable or beta	Feature status: the tests, live e2e runs and docs behind each label
Survives failures	Resilience: disk full, agent link loss, database damage with guided restore, safe-mode boot, reconcile storm protection
Safe upgrades and rollback	Tested upgrade matrix, downgrade refusal, one-click rollback and clean shutdown
Measured, not promised	Benchmarks: idle footprint, ingress throughput, limits, with the method next to every number
Verified backups	Every backup is re-downloaded and checksummed, with scheduled restore drills
Tamper-evident security	Verifiable audit chain, security policy, signed releases and SBOM scanning

Levelrail vs Coolify, Dokploy, CapRover and Dokku

Most self-hosted platforms in this category manage servers by SSHing in and shelling out to the docker CLI, then parsing text, which tends to force polling loops. Levelrail uses a reverse-dialed agent and a level-triggered reconciler instead.

	Levelrail	Coolify	Dokploy	CapRover	Dokku
Node control	Reverse-dialed agent	SSH + CLI	SSH + Engine API	Swarm API	Local bash
Orchestration	Level-triggered reconciler	Compose	Swarm	Swarm	Bash scheduler
Built-in metrics and logs	Yes	Opt-in add-on	Separate binary	No	No
Rollback	Pinned images, readiness-gated	Health check off by default	Swarm rollback	Manual	Default scheduler: none
Backup verification	Automatic, all 8 engines	Non-empty check	None	None	No backups
SSO and provisioning	OAuth (20 providers) and generic OIDC; SAML and SCIM (beta, off by default)	See their docs	See their docs	See their docs	See their docs
Audit log	Hash-chained, verifiable, CSV export, forwarding to syslog, webhook or bucket	See their docs	See their docs	See their docs	See their docs
IAM	Allow and Deny policies per app or database, scoped tokens	See their docs	See their docs	See their docs	See their docs

This is positioning, not a ranking, and every project here is worth using. Where Levelrail trails: it is the youngest project here, with fewer users and less production mileage, and its SAML single sign-on and SCIM provisioning are beta (details). Its template catalog (about 360 entries) is in the same range as Coolify's, but only a sample is deployed end to end (ADR 015). The full, sourced comparison is in Comparison.

What you get

Deploys: Push to your git host (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea webhooks), deploys start from a forge webhook (a native git push remote is beta and off by default), preview environments per pull request (stable on GitHub, beta on GitLab and Bitbucket), framework presets (Next.js, Go, React, Spring Boot and more), Dockerfile, Compose or image deploys, canary and blue-green rollouts. Readiness-gated cutover is live-tested with zero failed requests on a single node; multi-node is beta. Deploying apps
Domains and TLS: Embedded Caddy ingress. The default certificate is internal (self-signed). Public Let's Encrypt is one toggle and was verified in one live run; renewal and DNS-01 wildcards are unverified. Custom certificates can be uploaded. Per-app abuse protection. Domains
Databases: Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, KeyDB, Dragonfly and ClickHouse with scheduled backups, Postgres point-in-time recovery, restore, and password rotation. Databases
One search for everything: Cmd+K across apps, databases, nodes, templates and actions, filtered by what you may do. Search
Servers: Add nodes with a one-time token, WireGuard mesh, zones and failure-domain spreading, placement what-if. Multi-node
Templates: about 360 one-click services, with a smoke test that brings up the top 50 (48 pass today, status). Catalog
Identity and access: Password, passkeys, TOTP, OAuth with 20 providers plus generic OIDC, IAM policies, teams, a hash-chained audit log with CSV export. SAML single sign-on and SCIM provisioning are beta and off by default. Identity and access, SAML and SCIM
Plugins: A signed plugin marketplace with one-click install, dashboard panels and first-party alert channels. Plugins
Automation: One HTTP API behind the dashboard, a CLI and an MCP server. AI never sits in the reconciliation path. CLI, AI control
Pipelines, previews, cost budgets, sleep when idle, status pages and more. See Product tour.

_{The control plane at a glance}

Levelrail new app page with the framework preset picker

_{Pick a framework preset and the build settings fill in}

_{Install a known service from the template catalog}

_{Live deploys}

Levelrail load balancer upstreams and health checks

_{Load balance across replicas with health checks}

Levelrail apps list with status and last deploy

_{Every app, its health, and its last deploy}

More screenshots (41 screens, shown in your GitHub theme, dark or light)

_{Per-app metrics, with deploy markers on every chart.}

_{Search and tail container logs without installing anything.}

_{Deploy history, with promote and logs for each release.}

_{Deployments across the whole control plane.}

_{Nodes the control plane places apps and databases on.}

_{Health and footprint}

_{A public status page for your apps.}

_{A pipeline run with its stages, jobs, and live log.}

_{Report deploys back to GitHub Actions.}

_{Build speed: how long builds take and what they cost.}

_{Build cache: rebuilds reuse unchanged layers.}

_{Deploy strategy, health checks, and rollout behavior.}

_{Where an app's code comes from.}

_{Environment variables, with secrets masked.}

_{Resource limits per app.}

_{A guided checklist from install to your first deploy.}

_{First-run setup, step by step.}

_{One database, its connection details, and its state.}

_{Connection details and password rotation for a database.}

_{Verified backups}

_{Backups with a history you can restore from.}

_{Connect an S3-compatible bucket for backups and archives.}

_{Archive logs to a bucket on a schedule.}

_{Domains, certificates, and where each one routes.}

_{Private networks decide which apps can reach each other.}

_{Add a server from a cloud provider.}

_{Each app's overview in one place.}

_{Security center}

_{Master and per-app encryption key status and rotation.}

_{Add, test and remove passkeys, synced or device-bound.}

_{Sign in the CLI from your own machine, with tokens you can revoke.}

_{Automatic cleanup of old images, containers, and logs.}

_{Opt in to beta features one at a time.}

_{Plugin marketplace}

_{Manage the plugins you have installed and their permissions.}

_{Spot misconfigured settings and fix them with one click.}

_{Instance name, dashboard URL and defaults.}

_{Your account, your password, your sessions.}

_{See every sign-in and change made to your account.}

_{One search across apps, databases, nodes and actions.}

_{One search for everything}

All captured from a real running control plane. Walk through them in the Product tour.

Guides

Step by step walkthroughs, each tested against a real install:

Guide	What you learn
Deploy a Next.js app with Postgres	Repo to HTTPS in about ten minutes
Deploy a Django app with Postgres	Plus the four errors everyone hits
Push to deploy with GitHub	Webhooks, previews and the delivery log
How deploys stay safe	Health gates, blue-green cutover, rollback
Logs, traces and errors without a stack	Observability and Grafana
Scale to zero on a small VPS	Run many projects on one box
Levelrail vs Coolify, Dokploy, CapRover, Dokku and Kamal	Where each one fits

Add a Deploy button to your project

Maintain an open-source app? Let people run it on their own server in a few clicks.

Copy-paste snippets and the four badge styles: Deploy button and the Brand kit.

For AI agents and crawlers

Agent skill: skills/levelrail/SKILL.md teaches a coding agent to deploy, wait, diagnose and roll back safely.
MCP server: levelrail-mcp exposes the same API and permission model. Start in read-only mode. See MCP and AI control.
Repo guide: AGENTS.md for working in this codebase, and llms.txt as the index. Docs for LLMs: llms.txt and llms-full.txt.

Community and support

GitHub Discussions for questions, ideas and show and tell, and Issues for bugs.
GLINR Discord: live chat with the maintainers, in the #levelrail forum channel.
support@levelrail.com for direct help, and the Security policy to report a vulnerability privately.
Contributing: dev loop, tests and commit conventions. Build from source needs Go 1.26 or newer and Docker: see Installing.

Star the repo

If Levelrail saves you a weekend, a star on GitHub helps other self-hosters find it. Bug reports and honest feedback help even more.

License

Apache 2.0, see LICENSE.

Built by

Levelrail is built by Gagan Deep Singh, founder of GLINR STUDIOS and theSVG. Sister projects: theSVG (brand icon library), theauth (open-source auth for AI agents and humans) and AskVerdict AI. Say hello at thegdsks.com.

_{Powered by GLINR STUDIOS · icon from theSVG}

Directories ¶

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Path	Synopsis
cmd
levelrail command Command levelrail is the control plane binary.	Command levelrail is the control plane binary.
levelrail-agent command Thin main: every behavior (enrollment, Session loop, Docker dispatch) lives in internal/agent.	Thin main: every behavior (enrollment, Session loop, Docker dispatch) lives in internal/agent.
levelrail-cli command Command levelrail-cli is a scriptable HTTP client for the control plane's /api/v1 API.	Command levelrail-cli is a scriptable HTTP client for the control plane's /api/v1 API.
levelrail-mcp command Command levelrail-mcp is an MCP server that lets an AI agent manage a control plane through its /api/v1 REST API.	Command levelrail-mcp is an MCP server that lets an AI agent manage a control plane through its /api/v1 REST API.
levelrail-migrate command Read-only migration agent for the server being migrated away from.	Read-only migration agent for the server being migrated away from.
internal
abuse Package abuse is the per-app ingress abuse defense: a policy, a sharded per-client token bucket, deny lists and a replay of past traffic.	Package abuse is the per-app ingress abuse defense: a policy, a sharded per-client token bucket, deny lists and a replay of past traffic.
accesspolicy Package accesspolicy merges per-team session rules into one effective set and answers the questions the API middleware asks on every request.	Package accesspolicy merges per-team session rules into one effective set and answers the questions the API middleware asks on every request.
agent Package agent is the transport boundary between reconcile controllers and the node they run on.	Package agent is the transport boundary between reconcile controllers and the node they run on.
agent/agentpb
agent/migrationmode Package migrationmode is the read-only agent that runs on a source host being migrated away from.	Package migrationmode is the read-only agent that runs on a source host being migrated away from.
agent/migrationpb
agent/pinned Package pinned holds the small trust primitives shared by every reverse-dialed client: CA fingerprint pinning and key plus CSR generation.	Package pinned holds the small trust primitives shared by every reverse-dialed client: CA fingerprint pinning and key plus CSR generation.
agentinit Package agentinit renders the files "init" writes into a project: app.yaml, AGENTS.md and .mcp.json.	Package agentinit renders the files "init" writes into a project: app.yaml, AGENTS.md and .mcp.json.
ai Package ai implements the BYOK assistant chat: a provider-agnostic turn engine.	Package ai implements the BYOK assistant chat: a provider-agnostic turn engine.
alerting Package alerting implements threshold rules over internal/telemetry's metrics and logs, and crashloop detection as a built-in rule kind sharing the same evaluate/notify path rather than a separate mechanism.	Package alerting implements threshold rules over internal/telemetry's metrics and logs, and crashloop detection as a built-in rule kind sharing the same evaluate/notify path rather than a separate mechanism.
api Package api implements the HTTP API the web frontend (1.10) and, later, the MCP layer both build on.	Package api implements the HTTP API the web frontend (1.10) and, later, the MCP layer both build on.
apiclient Package apiclient is the one HTTP client implementation for the control plane's versioned API (internal/api, mounted at /api/v1).	Package apiclient is the one HTTP client implementation for the control plane's versioned API (internal/api, mounted at /api/v1).
appimport Package appimport turns a source platform's application inventory into a reviewed, staged import: per-app verdicts, a hostname mapping with a visible diff, preflight checks and a secret-free receipt.	Package appimport turns a source platform's application inventory into a reviewed, staged import: per-app verdicts, a hostname mapping with a visible diff, preflight checks and a secret-free receipt.
appsleep Package appsleep stops opted-in apps that have had no requests for a while and wakes them on the next request, so idle apps cost no memory or CPU.	Package appsleep stops opted-in apps that have had no requests for a while and wakes them on the next request, so idle apps cost no memory or CPU.
appwizard Package appwizard analyses a git repository through a provider file-tree API and returns pre-filled, evidence-backed suggestions for creating an app.	Package appwizard analyses a git repository through a provider file-tree API and returns pre-filled, evidence-backed suggestions for creating an app.
archive Package archive moves cold rows out of the live database into zstd compressed NDJSON bundles in a local directory, and can list, browse, restore and verify them.	Package archive moves cold rows out of the live database into zstd compressed NDJSON bundles in a local directory, and can list, browse, restore and verify them.
attention Package attention builds the list of things an operator should look at right now, shared by the CLI and the MCP server.	Package attention builds the list of things an operator should look at right now, shared by the CLI and the MCP server.
authengine Package authengine hosts the theauth-go library behind a flag.	Package authengine hosts the theauth-go library behind a flag.
autoscale Package autoscale is the deterministic replica autoscaler: a level-triggered controller that turns observed load into a desired replica count.	Package autoscale is the deterministic replica autoscaler: a level-triggered controller that turns observed load into a desired replica count.
backup Package backup drives a database backup end to end: dump a managed database container's data, stream it straight to an S3-compatible bucket, and record the attempt in store.BackupHistory.	Package backup drives a database backup end to end: dump a managed database container's data, stream it straight to an S3-compatible bucket, and record the attempt in store.BackupHistory.
bench Package bench is an open-loop HTTP load driver with failure-window analysis.	Package bench is an open-loop HTTP load driver with failure-window analysis.
benchreport Package benchreport turns benchmark runs into a results file that records the host, build and method next to the numbers.	Package benchreport turns benchmark runs into a results file that records the host, build and method next to the numbers.
bindaddr Package bindaddr resolves the small bind-address vocabulary app services and managed databases use to choose which network interface a published port binds to.	Package bindaddr resolves the small bind-address vocabulary app services and managed databases use to choose which network interface a published port binds to.
bindmount Package bindmount validates a service's bind-mount host path, shared by internal/compose and internal/spec: internal/compose imports internal/spec (a compose service expands into a spec.Service), so neither of those two packages can hold this logic without the other importing it back and cycling.	Package bindmount validates a service's bind-mount host path, shared by internal/compose and internal/spec: internal/compose imports internal/spec (a compose service expands into a spec.Service), so neither of those two packages can hold this logic without the other importing it back and cycling.
bitbucketapp Package bitbucketapp implements OAuth2 and the small slice of Bitbucket Cloud's REST API this control plane needs once connected.	Package bitbucketapp implements OAuth2 and the small slice of Bitbucket Cloud's REST API this control plane needs once connected.
bitbucketserver Package bitbucketserver is a small client for Bitbucket Server and Data Center (REST /rest/api/1.0), authenticated with a personal access token.	Package bitbucketserver is a small client for Bitbucket Server and Data Center (REST /rest/api/1.0), authenticated with a personal access token.
branchdeploy Package branchdeploy holds the pure rules for branch deploys: which branches qualify and what stable name a branch gets.	Package branchdeploy holds the pure rules for branch deploys: which branches qualify and what stable name a branch gets.
brand Package brand provides the branding indirection layer this project requires: no product name is ever hardcoded in source.	Package brand provides the branding indirection layer this project requires: no product name is ever hardcoded in source.
build Package build drives container image builds through BuildKit's Go client (github.com/moby/buildkit/client), never by shelling out to `docker build` or the `docker` CLI, matching the same "no CLI shelling" rule the node communication layer follows.	Package build drives container image builds through BuildKit's Go client (github.com/moby/buildkit/client), never by shelling out to `docker build` or the `docker` CLI, matching the same "no CLI shelling" rule the node communication layer follows.
build/buildkitd Package buildkitd supervises the managed rootless buildkitd container that serves source builds on engines without an embedded BuildKit (ADR 046).	Package buildkitd supervises the managed rootless buildkitd container that serves source builds on engines without an embedded BuildKit (ADR 046).
canary Package canary decides when a staged canary release advances, promotes or rolls back, and runs the level-triggered reconciler that applies it.	Package canary decides when a staged canary release advances, promotes or rolls back, and runs the level-triggered reconciler that applies it.
canarypolicy Package canarypolicy holds the stage schedule, thresholds and env defaults of staged canary releases.	Package canarypolicy holds the stage schedule, thresholds and env defaults of staged canary releases.
catalog Package catalog holds Levelrail's own curated set of one-click service templates (ADR 015).	Package catalog holds Levelrail's own curated set of one-click service templates (ADR 015).