Getting started

From an invitation to a running app with a database, a custom domain, and a coding agent that can deploy safely.

1. Install the CLI

On macOS and Linux. It checks the download’s checksum and installs into ~/.local/bin; no sudo.

curl -fsSL https://console.apprail.io/api/cli/install.sh | sh

On Windows, download apprail-windows-amd64.exe from https://console.apprail.io/api/cli/. Then create a token in the console under Settings → API tokens (Used by: Me, Access: Full access) and sign in:

apprail login
apprail whoami

2. Deploy something

Every project starts with production and staging environments.

apprail projects create "Shop" --slug shop
apprail services create shop web --port 80
apprail deploy shop/web --image nginx:1.27

The deploy waits until the new release passes its health check, then prints its address. The previous release keeps serving until then, and a release that never becomes healthy is rolled back automatically.

To deploy from your repository instead, open the service in the console, Connect GitHub, and pick the repository and branch. It deploys right away and on every push; Rebuild now deploys without a push. No Dockerfile? Common frameworks are detected.

3. Add a database

apprail databases create shop main

When it is ready, every service in the environment receives DATABASE_URL (and APPRAIL_DATABASE_MAIN_*) and restarts with it. If your app needs its schema created first, set a pre-deploy command such as npx prisma migrate deploy.

apprail variables shop --values
apprail databases connect shop main

4. Use your domain

apprail domains add shop/web www.example.com

It prints the DNS records to add at your DNS provider. HTTPS is issued automatically once they resolve. More in Domains & HTTPS.

5. Let your agent deploy

Create a token with Used by: Coding agent and Access: Deploy, give it to the agent as APPRAIL_TOKEN, and turn on Require approval for production. See Agents & MCP.

Next

• Core concepts — how projects, environments, and releases fit together.
• Deploy on every push from GitHub, with previews for pull requests.
• Uptime checks and alerts, so you hear about problems first.