Applications

Application could be any type of web application. It could be a static site, a NodeJS application, a PHP application, etc.

For complex applications, you can use Docker Compose based deployments or the one-click services.

How Deployments Work

Coolify deploys all applications as Docker containers. This means your app runs inside an isolated container on your server.

Key Concepts:

Docker Image: A packaged version of your application with all dependencies included
Container: A running instance of your Docker image
Build Process: Transforms your source code into a Docker image ready for deployment

You have two options for deploying applications:

Build on Coolify: Use build packs to automatically create Docker images from your source code
Use Pre-built Images: Deploy existing images from registries like Docker Hub or GitHub Container Registry

Resource Management

Building Docker images can be resource-intensive. You can use a dedicated build server to handle builds separately from your production server.

Examples

The list is not complete.

You can host almost any application that you want, not just the ones listed here.

General Configuration

Commands

You can overwrite the default commands by setting a custom value on the UI.

Build
Install
Start

If you leave it empty, Nixpacks will detect which commands to run. For example, in Nodejs, it will check the lock files and run npm ci or yarn install or pnpm install accordingly.

Base Directory

It is useful for monorepos. You can set the base directory for all the commands that will be executed by Coolify.

Public Directory

If you are building a static site, it is important to set the public directory, so the builder will know which directory to serve.

Port Exposes

Port exposes are required for Docker Engine to know which ports to expose. The first port will be the default port for health checks.

Examples:

If you have a NodeJS application that listens on port 3000, you can set it like this: 3000. If you have a PHP-FPM application that listens on port 9000, you can set it like this: 9000. If you have a Nginx server that listens on port 80, you can set it like this: 80.

Port Mappings

You will lose some functionality if you map a port to the host system, like Rolling Updates.

If you would like to map a port to the host system (server), you can do it here like this: 8080:80.

This will map the port 8080 on the host system to the port 80 inside the container.

If you would like to get performance boost and you do not need any domain (websocket server with VERY high traffic), you can map its port to the host, so the request will not go through the proxy.

Advanced

Static Site (Is it a static site?)

This feature is only available for Nixpacks buildpacks.

If you need to serve a static site (SPA, HTML, etc), you can set this to true. It will be served by Nginx. Disabled by default.

Force HTTPS

If you would like to force HTTPS, so no HTTP connections allowed, you can set this to true. Enabled by default.

Auto Deploy

This feature is only available for GitHub App based repositories.

If you would like to deploy automatically when a new commit is pushed to the repository, you can set this to true. Enabled by default.

Preview Deployments

Preview deployments are a great way to test your application before merging it into the main branch. Imagine it like a staging environment.

URL Template

You can setup your preview URL with a custom template. Default is {{pr_id}}.{{domain}}.

This means that if you open a Pull Request with the ID 123, and you resource domain is example.com the preview URL will be 123.example.com.

TIP

If you have several domains for your resource, the first will be used as the {{ domain }} part.

Automated Preview Deployments

This feature is only available for GitHub App based repositories.

If you would like to deploy a preview version of your application (based on a Pull Requests), you can set this to true. Disabled by default.

If set to true, all PR's that are opened against the resource's configured branch, will be deployed to a unique URL.

Manually Triggered Preview Deployments

You can manually deploy a Pull Request to a unique URL by clicking on the Deploy button on the Pull Request page.

Git Submodules

If you are using git submodules, you can set this to true. Enabled by default.

Git LFS

If you are using git lfs, you can set this to true. Enabled by default.

Environment Variables

Read here

Persistent Storage

Read here

Health Checks

By default, all containers are checked for liveness.

Traefik Proxy won't work if the container has health check defined, but it is unhealthy. If you do not know how to set up health checks, turn it off.

Rollbacks

You can rollback to a previous version of your resource. At the moment, only local images are supported, so you can only rollback to a locally available docker image.

Resource Limits

By default, the container won't have any resource limits. You can set the limits here. For more details, read the Docker documentation.

Deployment Types

There are several types of application deployments available.

Public Git Repository
Private Git Repository (GitHub App)
Private Git Repository (Deploy Key)
Based on a Dockerfile
Based on a Docker Compose
Based on a Docker Image

Build Packs

Build packs help transform your source code into Docker images. Coolify supports several build pack options to match different deployment needs:

Nixpacks - Automatic detection and building (recommended for most applications)
Static - For static sites and SPAs
Dockerfile - Use your own custom Dockerfile
Docker Compose - For multi-service applications
Docker Image - Deploy pre-built images from registries

For detailed guides on each build pack, see the Build Packs section.

Quick Start

Coolify uses Nixpacks by default, which automatically detects your application type and builds it accordingly. For most applications, you won't need to configure anything.

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