Cargo

Quickstart

This guide walks from a fresh install to a running app. The targets Cargo is built against: install to platform reachable in ≤ 10 minutes, first login to a live app in ≤ 5 minutes (plus build time).

1. Register

Open https://<platform-domain> — or http://localhost / http://<server-ip> for a local install — and create an account. The first registered account becomes the instance admin — no CLI user-seeding needed. After the first account, registration is invite-only by default: you’ll need an invite link from an organization admin to create additional accounts.

2. Create an organization

Organizations own apps, domains, databases, and members. Create one from the UI; you become its owner. You can belong to multiple orgs and switch between them later.

3. (Optional) Connect GitHub

To deploy from repositories, go to the admin area → GitHub App and hit Create GitHub App automatically — Cargo posts a prefilled manifest to GitHub and captures the credentials on the way back, so there’s nothing to copy by hand. (You can still paste existing credentials if you’d rather.) Then install the app on your GitHub account or org.

Skip this if you only plan to deploy registry images.

4. Create your first app

From GitHub: New App → GitHub source → pick a repo and branch. The builder is auto-detected: your Dockerfile if the repo has one, then a generated multi-stage Dockerfile for Node, Go, or Java projects, and Nixpacks as the fallback.

From a registry: New App → image source → enter a reference like ghcr.io/org/app:tag. Private registries are supported with stored, encrypted pull credentials.

Set the exposed port, plus any environment variables — values are encrypted at rest and write-only after saving. Leave the healthcheck path blank to go live as soon as the container stays up, or set a path (e.g. /health) to also require an HTTP check before traffic switches.

5. Deploy

Hit Deploy and watch the build and deploy logs stream live. When the deployment goes healthy, your app is live at:

https://<slug>.<apps-suffix>

6. Ship the next change

Push to the tracked branch — if auto-deploy is enabled, the GitHub webhook (HMAC-validated) triggers a new deployment with live logs, and traffic switches once it’s healthy.

If a deploy goes bad: app → Deployments → pick a previous successful deployment → Rollback. Rollback redeploys the retained image without rebuilding, so you’re live again within seconds.

7. Watch it run

Once the app is live, its Metrics tab charts CPU, memory, request rate, error rate, and p50/p95 latency, updating every 15 seconds; the Logs tab streams the running container’s output. You can Stop an app from its overview to free resources without deleting anything, and Start it again later.

Where to next