Deploy from GitHub to your own server

1. 01Build. The code is built in a temporary container. A repository with a Dockerfile is built with it. Without one, Railpack works out the build for Node, Python, Go, static sites and more, and Zelie shows the build and start commands it chose.
2. 02Test. The project’s tests run in the new image, in a container of their own, for at most ten minutes. For Node projects Zelie finds the test script itself; any other command can be set. A failing test keeps the old version.
3. 03Health check. The new version starts next to the old one. An app with a domain must answer on its health path within a minute.
4. 04Live. Traffic moves over. The commit on GitHub is marked as building, live or failed.

If any step fails, the old version keeps serving and the log shows why. The images of the last five live versions are kept, so a rollback takes a second or two.

Connecting GitHub creates a GitHub App in your own account or organization, with access only to the repositories you pick. Private repositories work. The App may read code and set commit statuses, nothing else, and its private key is encrypted before it is stored.

• Each push to the app’s branch deploys it, if you leave that on.
• A push only deploys the apps set to that repository and branch, so one GitHub App serves many apps without them getting in each other’s way.
• Every webhook is checked against its secret before anything else, and a delivery that arrives twice is handled once.
• Public repositories deploy without the App, when you start the deployment yourself.

A container image

Any public image, such as nginx:1.27, with a domain and HTTPS of its own. Zelie checks the registry once a day and offers the new image when the tag has moved.

Your own files

Pick Node.js, Python, Bun, Deno or Java and upload the files, or send them over SFTP. This suits a Discord bot or a small site. There is no build step here: the files are the app.

A domain and HTTPS

Installed with a domain, Zelie gets certificates from Let’s Encrypt. Behind a Cloudflare Tunnel, Cloudflare handles HTTPS and no port is open on the server.

Variables and secrets

Plain and secret ones, or a whole .env file pasted in. A secret is sealed as it is saved, and builds get variables as BuildKit secrets, which stay out of the image.

Databases beside it

PostgreSQL, MariaDB or Redis in a click. Linking one gives the app DATABASE_URL or REDIS_URL, and nothing else can reach it.

Live logs and metrics

Build, deploy and app logs as they happen. Requests, server errors, memory, CPU and traffic, a reading a minute, kept for a day.

Crashes handled

An app that stops by itself comes back, waiting longer after each crash. After five crashes in ten minutes it stays down and the panel says why.

Its own container

Its own network and user namespace, with limits on memory and CPU. Root inside the container is nobody on the server.

Zelie is one file of about 50 MB, with its own containerd and its state in SQLite. Its own processes stay under 66 MB of memory when idle, so a small VPS has room for the apps. It runs on Debian or Ubuntu, amd64 or arm64, and the same panel can run game servers next to your apps.

Deploying on every push needs GitHub to reach the panel, which it can with a domain or a Cloudflare Tunnel. Each app is one image, one Dockerfile or one folder of files; Docker Compose files are not read.