Coolify on Debian

Coolify is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Heroku and Render. It manages Docker containers, handles SSL via Let's Encrypt, and gives you a clean UI for deployments.

Prerequisites

• A Debian 12 (Bookworm) VPS with at least 2 GB RAM
• A domain pointed at your server's IP
• SSH access as a non-root user with sudo

Installation

# One-liner from the official docs
curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash

Coolify installs Docker, docker-compose, and a Traefik reverse proxy automatically.

Configuring Your First App

1. Navigate to https://your-server:8000
2. Create a new Project and Environment
3. Add a New Resource → Application → GitHub
4. Point it at your repo and set the build pack to Dockerfile

Coolify will detect your Dockerfile, build it, and expose the app via Traefik with a free SSL cert.

Environment Variables

Set secrets in the Coolify UI under Environment Variables, not in your repo. Coolify injects them as Docker --env flags at runtime.

SITE_URL=https://blog.justbrain.org
NUXT_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-here

Health Checks

Add a /health route to your Nitro server and configure it in Coolify:

Health check path: /health
Interval: 30s
Timeout: 5s
Retries: 3

Coolify will automatically restart unhealthy containers.