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Getting Started

Create a Raklane account and deploy your first app in a few minutes.

This walks you through creating an account and deploying a real app end to end. It takes about five minutes if you already have a Git repository handy — or use the example repo below if you don't.

1. Create an account

Open your Raklane dashboard and sign up with an email address and password (at least 12 characters — Raklane cares more about length than about mixing in symbols).

Registration sends a verification email. Click the link in it before logging in — an unverified account can't sign in yet. If the email doesn't arrive, look for a "Resend verification email" option on the login page.

Signing up automatically creates a personal Organization for you — everything you build in Raklane (projects, apps) lives inside an Organization. You can invite teammates into it later; see Teams & Organizations.

2. Create a project

A Project is a folder for related apps — a backend/frontend pair, or all the services for one product. From the dashboard, click New Project and give it a name.

3. Create an app

Inside your project, click New App and give it a name. This name becomes part of your app's default URL (<name>.<your-raklane-domain>), so pick something URL-friendly — lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.

You'll also choose a type:

  • Deployment (the default) — a normal web app or API. Raklane detects your language/framework and builds a container image for you automatically.
  • Static — a plain HTML/CSS/JS site with no server-side process. Raklane serves your files directly with no build step.

Most apps are Deployment. Use Static for something like a pre-built React/Vue app or a plain HTML site.

4. Point it at your code

Tell Raklane where your source lives. You have two options:

  • A Git repository — paste your repo's URL and the branch/ref to deploy (e.g. main). Public repos need nothing else; a private repo needs an access token — see Secrets for how to add one.
  • An uploaded archive — no Git repo? Zip or tar up your project and upload it directly.

Don't have a repo handy and just want to see Raklane work end to end? Use a small public example: https://github.com/heroku/node-js-getting-started, branch main.

5. Choose where it runs

The wizard's next steps let you add environment variables and set resources (the defaults are fine for a first app). On the final Review step, choose the app's deployment location:

  • PAYG cluster (the default) — Raklane's managed servers, billed per resource from your wallet. Pick this for your first app.
  • Dedicated cluster — Raklane's managed servers at a flat price, if you have a dedicated hosting subscription.
  • BYOC — a server you own and have registered. See Bring Your Own Compute.

You can move the app later from Settings → Deployment location. See Where Your App Runs.

Because PAYG usage is paid from your wallet, make sure it has some credit first.

6. Deploy

Click Deploy. Raklane builds a container image from your source (using Cloud Native Buildpacks — no Dockerfile required for most languages), starts it, and waits for it to pass a health check before sending it any traffic.

This is asynchronous — the dashboard shows the deploy moving through states: building → rolling_out → active (success) or failed. A first deploy typically takes anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on how much there is to build. If you see waiting_for_server, Raklane is starting a server for your app — it continues by itself in a few minutes. See Logs & Status for how to watch this happen and read your app's logs if something goes wrong.

7. Visit your app

Once the deploy is active, your app's dashboard page shows its URL — a subdomain that's live immediately, no DNS setup required. Open it in a browser.

Want your own domain instead (app.yourcompany.com)? See Custom Domains.

What's next