Move an application from Coolify or Dokploy

Read an application's settings from Coolify or Dokploy, deploy it here with its data, and move its domain without a gap.

Tutorial Updated 29 October 2026 View as Markdown

Goal: one application that runs on Coolify or Dokploy today, running on a Noust server with its variables and its data, and its domain moved over without a gap.

Time: fifteen minutes for one application, plus the time to copy its data.

You need: a new server with Noust installed, a read-only API token of the old platform, and SSH access to the old server to copy the data. Coolify and Dokploy keep running until the very last step.

Kelmoor moves Brumaria's shop, a Next.js application from github.com/kelmoor-labs/brumaria-shop with a PostgreSQL database, from its Coolify at https://coolify.kelmoor.dev to fra-1, at 203.0.113.10.

How it works

Coolify and Dokploy keep an application's settings in their own database, not in the repository. noust import reads them through the platform's API with a token you give it, proposes what Noust would deploy (the type, the commands, the port, the health check, the variables, the databases and the domains) and warns about anything that has no equivalent. It writes nothing to the old platform, and keeps the token nowhere.

Steps

Make a read-only token on the old platform, and save it in a file only you can read. In Coolify, under Keys & Tokens > API tokens, give it the read and read:sensitive permissions, so the variables come too. In Dokploy, under Settings > API Keys. On the new server:
Shell
```
umask 077
cat > /root/coolify.token     # paste the token, press Enter, then Ctrl+D
```

List the applications.

CoolifyShell

noust import --from coolify --url https://coolify.kelmoor.dev --token-file /root/coolify.token

DokployShell

noust import --from dokploy --url https://dokploy.kelmoor.dev --token-file /root/dokploy.key

Read the one you are moving. Add --app with its name:
Shell
```
noust import --from coolify --url https://coolify.kelmoor.dev --token-file /root/coolify.token \
  --app brumaria-shop
```
Read the proposal, and the warnings under it. Each warning says what to do instead. The proposal also prints the commands that copy the data out of the old server.
Put the secrets in a file. A variable whose value looks like a credential, such as a DATABASE_URL with a password, is not carried over: it points at the old platform's database. Write the ones the application needs into /root/shop.env, one NAME=value per line, leaving out DATABASE_URL (step 6 writes it).
Deploy it.
Shell
```
noust import --from coolify --url https://coolify.kelmoor.dev --token-file /root/coolify.token \
  --app brumaria-shop --deploy shop.brumaria.es --env-file /root/shop.env
```
This is an ordinary deploy, behind the health check. The name still points at the old server, so the certificate cannot be issued yet: the deploy says so, and the application serves over HTTP until step 9.
Give it a database, and load the data. An import names the databases but does not create them.
Shell
```
noust db provision shop.brumaria.es -e postgresql
```
On the old server, run the docker exec ... pg_dump command the proposal printed, copy the dump to the new server (scp), and load it:
Shell
```
noust db import shop_brumaria_es_db /root/brumaria-shop.dump -e postgresql
```
Uploaded files and volumes come the same way: the proposal printed the tar command that copies each one out, and the one that puts it in the application's shared/ folder here.

Test it before moving the name. From any machine, ask the new server directly:

Shell

curl --resolve shop.brumaria.es:80:203.0.113.10 http://shop.brumaria.es/
noust diagnose shop.brumaria.es

Move the name. At the DNS provider, point shop.brumaria.es at 203.0.113.10, and check it with noust dns check shop.brumaria.es.
Get the certificate, now that the name points here:
Shell
```
noust cert create -d shop.brumaria.es
```
Turn the old one off, and keep its backups until Noust has made a few of its own:
Shell
```
noust backup schedule create shop.brumaria.es --schedule daily
```
After a few days, check them with noust backup verify and a noust backup drill.

What you should see

The proposal in step 3 lists the type, the build and start commands, the port, the health check, the variables (secret values hidden), the databases and the domains, then the warnings. After step 9, https://shop.brumaria.es answers from the new server, and noust status shop.brumaria.es shows it running with its certificate.

If it fails

The import says the application runs an image, a Dockerfile or a Compose file: an import builds only what Noust builds from a repository. The message gives the noust create command that deploys it instead.
The platform names no repository for it: give the repository with --source.
The token is refused: check its permissions. Coolify needs read:sensitive for the variables.
The application cannot reach its database: step 6 wrote a new DATABASE_URL; check that the file of step 4 did not carry an old one.

To take over the applications of a server Coolify runs, in place and without recreating a container, see Taking over a server Coolify runs. The full maps of concepts and screens are in From Coolify and From Dokploy.

Next steps.