1. Deploy your first application

An application from a Git repository, built, running behind a health check and answering over HTTPS.

Tutorial Updated 29 October 2026 View as Markdown

Goal: an application from a Git repository, running on your server and answering over HTTPS.

Time: about five minutes, most of it the build.

You need: Noust installed, and a repository of a stack Noust deploys. To try Noust before you use your own code, examples/ has a minimal application for every type.

The examples on this page are Kelmoor's, a small web agency: its client Wrenfield has a Next.js site in github.com/kelmoor-labs/wrenfield-site, and the server's address is 203.0.113.10. Replace them with your own.

Before you start

Choose the address the application will answer on. It becomes the application's name: its unit, its directory and every command use it, and it cannot be changed later.

Your own domain, such as wrenfield.io. Create an A record (and an AAAA record if the server has IPv6) pointing at the server, at your DNS provider, before you deploy: the certificate is only issued for a name that points here.
A temporary address, if no name points here yet. Noust makes one from the server's address, such as wrenfield-site.203-0-113-10.sslip.io, which resolves at once. You add your own domain to the same application later (Put it on your domain).

A private repository needs a deploy key. noust setup ssh --generate --show prints this server's public key: add it to the repository as a read-only deploy key, and use the SSH address (git@github.com:kelmoor-labs/wrenfield-site.git).

Steps

Check that the server is ready.
Shell
```
noust setup doctor
```
Every line should be green. A line that is not says what is missing and the command that fixes it. In the console, the same list is under Settings > About Noust > Installation check.
Deploy it. On your own domain:
Shell
```
noust create -d wrenfield.io -s https://github.com/kelmoor-labs/wrenfield-site.git
```
Or on a temporary address:
Shell
```
noust create --temporary -s https://github.com/kelmoor-labs/wrenfield-site.git
```
Noust detects the stack (here Next.js with npm), fetches the code into a new release, installs the dependencies and builds it, writes a systemd unit and an nginx site, asks Let's Encrypt for a certificate and starts the application. It keeps the release only if the application answers its health check.

In the console, the same is Applications > New application: paste the repository's address, and the wizard says what it found before anything is created ("Detected: Next.js with npm. Port 3000."). Choose the address, fill in any variable it asks for, and press Deploy. The build log streams until the application answers.
Check that it runs.
Shell
```
noust status wrenfield.io
```
Then open the address in a browser.
Read what it prints.
Shell
```
noust logs wrenfield.io --follow
```
This is the application's own log, the systemd journal of its unit. Press Ctrl+C to stop.

What you should see

noust create ends like this:

Application deployed successfully!

  URL: https://wrenfield.io
  Service: wrenfield-io
  Port: 3000
  App Path: /var/www/apps/wrenfield-io
  Server IP: 203.0.113.10

The application lives in /var/www/apps/wrenfield-io/. Each deploy is a folder under releases/, and current points at the one that serves. Its unit is wrenfield-io.service, and its nginx site is a file named wrenfield.io under /etc/nginx. They are ordinary files you can read.

When the repository has an .env.example, Noust writes the application's .env from it, with random values for the secrets.

If it fails

A deploy that fails changes nothing that was serving. The error names the step that failed, and when the application did not answer its health check, it carries the probes and the last lines of the application's log, verbatim.

Find the cause: noust diagnose wrenfield.io checks the unit, the port, the application's answer, nginx and the certificate, and names the most likely cause first.
The build failed: A build or a deploy failed.
The site answers 502: The site answers 502.
There is no certificate (SSL was requested but could not be obtained.): the name does not point here yet, or port 80 is closed. The application serves over HTTP meanwhile. A certificate was not issued.

Put it on your domain, with HTTPS, or, if it is already there, give it a database.