Introduction

Start here to learn what piqueld does, and the concepts the rest of this documentation uses.

piqueld runs your applications on one Linux server with Docker. You describe each application in a manifest: its services, how to get their images, and how to reach them. piqueld builds and deploys it, serves it over HTTPS, and keeps it running.

You manage it from:

• the dashboard, in your browser;
• piquelctl, its command-line tool, which also suits scripts and AI agents;
• its HTTP API, which both of them use.

Concepts

• Application: a set of services that work together, such as a website and its database.
• Manifest: the TOML file that describes an application. You can apply a manifest file, or edit its settings in the dashboard or with piquelctl: either way, you change the application’s saved manifest.
• Service: one container image, run as one or more replicas. Its image is pulled from a registry, or built from a Git repository.
• Environment: a running copy of an application, with its own deployments, secrets, volumes and routes. By default, an application starts with a production environment, and you can add others, such as staging.
• Deployment: one version of an application, deployed to an environment. Saving a change never touches what’s running; deploying does. piqueld keeps the history of every deployment.
• Release: what a deployment ran, down to the exact images. You can promote a release to another environment, which then runs the same images without building them again.
• Preview: a short-lived environment for a Git branch or your local changes, which you delete when you’re done.
• Route: an HTTPS address that sends requests to a service, either public or only reachable on your tailnet, your private Tailscale network.
• Link: a private connection that lets one application’s service reach a service of another application. Both applications have to agree to it.

Limits

• piqueld manages a single host. It doesn’t run clusters of several machines.
• Routes serve applications over HTTPS, and redirect plain HTTP to it. piqueld doesn’t publish other TCP or UDP ports, though an application’s services reach each other on any port.
• It doesn’t manage registry credentials.

Get started

1. Install piqueld.
2. Create your account.
3. Deploy your first application.