Core Concepts

A handful of terms show up throughout this documentation and the dashboard. None of them are complicated, but a couple (Release vs. Build vs. Workload, especially) mean something specific enough in Raklane that it's worth reading once.

Organization

The account-level container everything else lives in. You get a personal Organization automatically when you sign up. Every Project belongs to exactly one Organization, and every person you invite to collaborate is invited into an Organization, with a role (owner, admin, developer, or viewer) that controls what they can do. See Teams & Organizations.

Project

A folder for related apps — e.g., the frontend and backend for one product. Projects belong to an Organization.

App

Your application. An App is a stable identity — a name and a type — that outlives any individual deploy. It's what you think of as "my application," whether or not it currently has anything running.

Every App is one of two types, chosen when you create it and not changeable afterward:

• Deployment — built from your source with Cloud Native Buildpacks and run as a container.
• Static — served as-is, no build step, no server-side process.

App Source

Where your App's code comes from: a Git repository URL and ref (branch/tag/commit), or an uploaded archive. You can change this at any time — the next deploy uses whatever source is currently configured.

Build

One attempt to turn your App's source into a runnable container image. Every deploy starts a new Build. A Build can succeed or fail independently of whether it's ever actually deployed.

Release

One deployed version of your App. A Release points at a specific Build and has its own status: deploying → active (or failed/canceled). Only one Release is ever active at a time — that's the one receiving traffic. When you deploy again, a new Release is created; once it's healthy, traffic cuts over to it and the old one is retired.

Workload

One running container instance behind a Release. If you run multiple replicas, your Release has multiple Workloads, all serving the same traffic. This is what Raklane watches to know your app is actually alive, and what it restarts if a container crashes.

Domain

A hostname routed to your App. Every App gets a free subdomain automatically the moment it's deployed. You can also add your own custom domain (app.yourcompany.com) — see Custom Domains.

Environment Variable

A key/value pair injected into your App's container at deploy time. Changing one takes effect on the next deploy — a running container doesn't pick up changes live. See Environment Variables.

Secret

A sensitive value Raklane stores on your behalf and references by ID rather than exposing in plain text — most commonly a private repository access token or a webhook signing key.

Database

A managed Postgres or MySQL instance belonging to a Project rather than any single App — any App in the project can connect to it, and it keeps running independently of app deploys. See Databases.

Deployment location

Where an App runs: a PAYG cluster (Raklane's managed compute, billed per resource), a Dedicated cluster (Raklane's managed compute, from a flat-price subscription), or BYOC (a server you own). Chosen when you create an App, and changeable later. See Where Your App Runs.

Cluster & Node

A Cluster is a place Raklane can run your Apps and Databases. A Node is an individual machine inside a cluster that actually runs your containers.

• Raklane's managed clusters can have many nodes, which Raklane adds and removes as needed — you never manage them.
• Each server you register under Bring Your Own Compute becomes its own BYOC cluster with exactly one node: that server.

Node Agent

A small background service Raklane installs on a BYOC server. It opens one encrypted, outbound connection to Raklane and carries out instructions on the server — pulling images, starting and stopping containers, updating routes, and reporting health. See BYOC: Overview & How It Works.

Wallet

Your prepaid balance. Every charge — PAYG usage, subscriptions, database hosting, BYOC management fees — is deducted from it. See Billing & Wallet.

How these fit together

A typical flow: you create a Project and an App inside it, point the App at your source, choose its deployment location, and deploy. That kicks off a Build; once it succeeds, a Release is created and Workloads start running on a Node in the chosen Cluster. Traffic reaches those Workloads through whichever Domain(s) point at the App.

For the full walkthrough, see How Raklane Works.