Get Started

Start here for the first app, first deploy, and first dashboard sign-in after install.

1. Get Dashboard Access Details

During deku setup, Deku prints a one-time dashboard token. Save it before continuing.

deku dashboard

This prints:

• The server-reachable dashboard URL
• The local loopback dashboard URL
• Whether dashboard access is configured
• SSH tunnel and firewall guidance for remote access
• The reset command if you need a new token

If your browser is on another machine, either make TCP port 2810 reachable or use the SSH tunnel command printed by deku dashboard. Then open the dashboard URL in your browser and sign in with the one-time token from setup. If you lost it, run deku dashboard reset-token.

2. Create Your First App

Create an app from the CLI:

deku apps create my-app
deku apps info my-app

3. Deploy from the CLI

Deploy a source directory:

deku deploy run my-app --path /absolute/path/to/app

Or deploy a pre-built image:

deku deploy run my-app --image ghcr.io/acme/my-app:latest

After the deploy starts, inspect the result from the CLI:

deku deploy list my-app
deku apps info my-app
deku logs my-app -n 100
deku ps list my-app

4. Manage the App in the Dashboard

After the first deploy, open the app in the dashboard and continue there for day-to-day operations:

• Inspect deployment history and open a deployment detail view
• Manage config vars, domains, ports, routing, and TLS
• Adjust scale and review live logs and events
• Manage networks, storage mounts, and cron entries
• Review host routing, services, object store, SSH keys, and plugins

If you want to use git push deploys later, Deku’s embedded SSH endpoint defaults to port 2222 on new installs.

5. Common Next Commands

deku config set my-app NODE_ENV=production PORT=3000
deku domains add my-app app.example.com
deku ps scale my-app web=2
deku checks run my-app
deku checks routing my-app

Read Dashboard Overview for the web workflows and CLI Reference for the full command surface.