Administrators # Run your own Welley server Our command-line tool installs everything Welley needs on one Linux machine. A cloud server works, and so does your own hardware. [Read: Quick Start: Minimal Welley Deployment](https://welley.com/administrators/docs/quick-start/) [Read: Welley CLI](https://welley.com/administrators/docs/cli/) [Install Docker Engine](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/) We plan to release Welley as open source in the future. No release date or license is announced yet. ## Get the host, DNS and email ready These are the starting requirements from the quick-start. How much capacity you need depends on your users and workload. ### Linux host - Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, or a similar current distribution. - Start with 2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM and 60 GB of disk. - Use a fixed public IPv4 address and a non-root user with sudo. ### Network - Allow inbound TCP 80 and 443 from the internet. Allow TCP 22 from your own network. - Keep port 80 free for the certificate challenge and the weekly certificate renewal. ### Site DNS - Point your domain and storage. at the host's IP address. - Create both records before you install. The CLI checks them and stops if they don't resolve to the host. ### SMTP and administrator email - Have your SMTP host, user, password and from address ready. The default is STARTTLS on port 587. - You'll also need an administrator email for the first login and for password recovery. ### Email DNS - Set up SPF, DMARC and the DKIM your provider generates, for the domain of the from address. - Use the exact SPF value from your provider. Merge it into your existing SPF record instead of adding a second one. - The CLI warns you if SPF or DMARC is missing. It can't check your provider's DKIM selector. ## Install Docker Engine and Compose Follow Docker's official instructions for your Linux distribution. Then give your deployment user access to Docker. [Docker Engine installation](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/) ### Add the user to the Docker group Replace with your non-root deployment user. After you run this command, log out and log back in. ``` sudo usermod -aG docker ``` ### Check Docker and Compose Both commands need to work for that user. ``` docker ps docker compose version ``` ## Download the CLI Pick the binary for the machine you'll run the CLI on. The deployment host itself has to run Linux. ### Linux, x86-64 ``` curl -fL "https://appstore.allroads.social/v1/social.wellesley.wlycli/latest?channel=stable&platform=linux/amd64" -o wlycli chmod +x wlycli ./wlycli -v ``` ### Linux, ARM64 ``` curl -fL "https://appstore.allroads.social/v1/social.wellesley.wlycli/latest?channel=stable&platform=linux/arm64" -o wlycli chmod +x wlycli ./wlycli -v ``` ### macOS, Apple silicon ``` curl -fL "https://appstore.allroads.social/v1/social.wellesley.wlycli/latest?channel=stable&platform=darwin/arm64" -o wlycli chmod +x wlycli ./wlycli -v ``` ### macOS, Intel ``` curl -fL "https://appstore.allroads.social/v1/social.wellesley.wlycli/latest?channel=stable&platform=darwin/amd64" -o wlycli chmod +x wlycli ./wlycli -v ``` - These commands download from the stable channel and show the CLI version. - The version changes with each new release. Use the latest CLI documentation when you install. ## Create the deployment Run this command on the Linux host you prepared. Replace the example domain, email and SMTP values with your own. ``` ./wlycli deploy create \ -d example.com \ -e admin@example.com \ --smtp-host smtp.example.com \ --smtp-user "$MAIL_USER" \ --smtp-password "$MAIL_PASSWORD" \ --smtp-from noreply@example.com ``` | Setting | Default | | --- | --- | | Install directory | ~/.welley/. The example domain produces the project name example\_com. | | Database | Bundled PostgreSQL, with data under the installation directory. | | Stack | Welley platform, RAG pipeline, Nginx, Redis and PostgreSQL, with maintenance containers. | | Certificates | Let’s Encrypt through Certbot, with weekly renewal. | | Media | Uploads and static files at https://storage.. | | Updates | Stable channel, checked daily. The update process avoids downtime where possible. | | Optional services | The minimal setup does not add a managed database, CDN, telemetry or Slack integration. | - Before you run it, set MAIL\_USER and MAIL\_PASSWORD to your SMTP credentials. - The quick-start requires these six flags. - The command checks DNS, writes the deployment files, gets a certificate with Certbot and starts the containers. - The deploy command is an alias for deployment. ## Sign in and check the result The generated administrator password is in the platform log. Keep that output private. ### Find the initial password This container name is for example.com. For your own domain, change the project name. ``` docker logs example_com-platform-blue-1 | grep "Auto-init complete" ``` ### Sign in Open your domain and sign in with the administrator email you gave with -e. Change the generated password right away. ### Check the containers The quick-start expects to see nginx, platform-blue, rag-pipeline-blue, postgres, redis, autoheal and snoopy. ``` docker ps ``` ## Use the CLI for administration The CLI also has commands for the platform API. Your account still needs the permissions for each operation. - Before you run an operation, check its current flags in the command help. - The login command takes the API base URL, email and password. It saves the session token it gets back. - Right now, the login command prints its session token in the success log. Keep that output private. Command groups: `accounts`, `posts`, `apps`, `emojis`, `feeds`, `reports`, `rules`, `settings`. ### Show available commands ``` ./wlycli --help ``` ### Show deployment commands ``` ./wlycli deployment --help ``` ### Show login options ``` ./wlycli login --help ``` ### Show settings options ``` ./wlycli settings --help ``` ## Updates and recovery By default, a deployment checks for stable updates every day. The server administrator can manage releases in the administration interface. - If your deployment files are still valid but some containers fail, the quick-start says to run restart, which recreates the containers. - Create won't run again while the project directory or its containers still exist. - The force-delete option removes the deployment files and the bundled database. It isn't a recovery step, and it doesn't keep your data. - The deploy-server skill still uses the name deployment update. The current CLI has deployment auto-update instead. Check the current CLI help before you do maintenance by hand. ### Recreate containers from the existing deployment ``` ./wlycli deploy restart -d example.com ``` Recreates the containers from your saved configuration. It doesn't delete deployment data. ## Deploy with an AI assistant If your AI assistant supports SKILL.md packages, download our official deploy-server skill. It guides a DigitalOcean deployment. For now, the skill only covers DigitalOcean. The CLI quick-start also works with other clouds and your own Linux host. ### How to use it - Extract the package and load the deploy-server directory the way your assistant installs skills. - Ask the assistant to use $deploy-server. - The skill asks you for the domain, DNS access, SSH setup, SMTP details and administrator email. - It can set up a DigitalOcean VM and, if you want one, a managed PostgreSQL database. It confirms the deployment inputs and the managed database price with you. ### Before you download - The package is an unchanged copy of the original skill. - Its download and update examples are out of date. Get the current stable download URL from the quick-start on this website. Check the CLI help before maintenance. - The skill doesn't come with cloud credentials or a running server, and we can't guarantee it works with every assistant. The package has `SKILL.md`, `agents/openai.yaml` and `references/digitalocean.md`. Both downloads have the same files. [Download deploy-server.zip (10.7 KB)](https://welley.com/downloads/deploy-server.zip) [Download deploy-server.skill (10.7 KB)](https://welley.com/downloads/deploy-server.skill) ## Reference docs The full CLI docs and the deployment skill files. You can read them here without an account. - [**Welley CLI** docs/index.md](https://welley.com/administrators/docs/cli/) - [**Quick Start: Minimal Welley Deployment** docs/quick-start.md](https://welley.com/administrators/docs/quick-start/) - [**Deploy Server** skills/deploy-server/SKILL.md](https://welley.com/administrators/docs/deploy-server-skill/) - [**openai.yaml** skills/deploy-server/agents/openai.yaml](https://welley.com/administrators/docs/deploy-server-openai-yaml/) - [**DigitalOcean Reference** skills/deploy-server/references/digitalocean.md](https://welley.com/administrators/docs/deploy-server-digitalocean/)