Quickstart

From a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 VPS to a live, migrated, HTTPS Grit app — two commands.

Prerequisites

  • A fresh Ubuntu 24.04 VPS with a public IP (Hetzner CX22 is plenty).
  • A domain you control. Point A-records at the VPS IP and wait for DNS to resolve.
  • The grit CLI on your laptop, and SSH access.
DNS must resolve first

dig orbita.example.com +short must return your server IP before you start — Let's Encrypt can't issue a certificate until it does. (If it's not ready, the wizard installs on the IP and you add the domain later.)

Command 1 — provision the host

Just run it — the wizard asks a few questions and does everything else:

grit cloud init
▸ Grit Cloud — set up Orbita on your server
? Do you already have a server (a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 VPS)?  [Y/n] y
? Server IP address  203.0.113.10
  ✔ Server is reachable
? How do you log into the server right now?
  › 1) I have a root password (from my hosting provider)
    2) I added an SSH key when I created the VPS
? Root password:  ••••••••
? Create a secure deploy user named  [deploy]
? SSH key for the deploy user:
  › 1) Generate a new key for me (recommended)
    2) Paste an existing public key
? Domain for the Orbita dashboard (blank = use the server IP)  orbita.example.com
  ✔ DNS points here — we'll set up HTTPS at https://orbita.example.com
? Email for Let's Encrypt (TLS certificates)  [admin@orbita.example.com]
? Your email for the Orbita admin login  you@example.com
? Proceed?  [Y/n] y

It updates the server, hardens it (new sudo deploy user, generates an SSH key, disables root + password login, UFW, Fail2ban, security score), installs Docker + Orbita + Traefik on your HTTPS subdomain (or the server IP if DNS isn't pointed yet), creates your admin login + an orb_ deploy token, and registers the host in ~/.grit/hosts.yaml.

Automate it

For CI/scripts, pass flags + --yes to skip the wizard: grit cloud init --server root@IP --domain orbita.example.com --acme-email you@example.com --admin-email admin@example.com --yes

grit cloud status --host prod        # ● ok, version

Command 2 — deploy your Grit app

From your Grit project directory (it has a grit.json):

grit cloud github-auth               # once: store a GitHub token (repo + admin:repo_hook)
grit deploy --host prod

If there's no grit.yaml, a first-run wizard creates one. Then grit deploy ensures the repo, reconciles infrastructure, builds, migrates under an advisory lock, and cuts over:

✔ Live
  App:       https://rental.example.com
  API:       https://api.rental.example.com
  Pulse:     https://api.rental.example.com/pulse/ui
  Sentinel:  https://api.rental.example.com/sentinel/ui
  Auto-deploy is on: future `git push` to main redeploys via webhook.

After that

You're done — it keeps deploying

Every git push to your branch auto-deploys via webhook. The CLI is now optional.

grit deploy --plan --host prod    # preview changes without applying
grit logs -f --host prod          # stream logs
grit rollback --host prod         # revert to the previous deploy
grit cloud dashboard --host prod  # private SSH tunnel to the Orbita panel

Next

ArchitectureInstall on a fresh server