The manual

Everything the platform can do, in the order you will need it. Seventeen short chapters, each with the exact labels you will see in the console, the REST and MCP equivalents, and the limits that apply.

Start where you are#

I want to deploy something

Go straight to the quick start: a live HTTPS site in about five minutes, then read Deploying and platform.yaml.

I use an AI agent or CI

Create a token, connect Claude Code to the MCP server, or script the REST API with curl.

I administer the platform

Users, dedicated database daemons, TLS and ACME, retention and resource limits.

I run the host

Install with three commands, upgrade, back up data/, front it with your reverse proxy.

All chapters#

Core concepts

Users, aliases, projects, apps and the nested daemons — the vocabulary the rest of the manual uses.

Quick start

From a login to a live HTTPS site in about five minutes — console path and agent path.

Projects & sites

What a project is, how site names are built and how to create and delete one.

Deploying

Git or archive, runtime detection, the build pipeline, logs, statuses and failure behaviour.

platform.yaml reference

Every manifest key, the four runtimes and how a version is chosen.

Running your app

Start, stop, restart and recreate; ports, resources, volumes and health.

Environment & secrets

Project variables, write-only secrets and the three-layer precedence.

Databases

PostgreSQL and MySQL per project, credentials, the SQL console and dumps.

File storage (S3)

Your personal bucket on the built-in MinIO and how apps reach it.

Backups & restore

Project and database backups, retention and one-click restore.

Domains & TLS

Automatic and custom domains, the pre-check and the certificate lifecycle.

Metrics & logs

CPU and memory charts, live app logs and the audit trail.

API tokens, REST & MCP

Create a token, call the REST API and let an AI agent run the platform.

Administration

Users, per-user database daemons, platform settings, ACME and limits.

Operations

Install, day-2 commands, upgrades, data backups and the host's ingress.

Architecture

How the nested daemons, networks and flows fit together.

Troubleshooting

Symptom → cause → fix, in one table per area.

Conventions used here#

<alias>A placeholder you replace — here, the short name of a user.

Deploy tabBold text is a label exactly as it appears in the console.

platform.yamlMonospace is a file, command, key or value.

Fig. nDiagrams and simplified renderings of the console, drawn for this manual.

Screenshots use demo data

The console screenshots in this manual are real — taken from the actual interface, in English and in Ukrainian — but against a demo dataset, with numbered markers added to match the captions. Your own console shows your data, and spacing may differ slightly between versions.

Every chapter has three voices

Where it matters, a feature is explained for the console, the REST API and the MCP tools — they all call the same service layer, so rules, limits and audit rows are identical.

Scope of this manual#

DinD Hosting is a single-host platform: one privileged Docker-in-Docker container runs everything. The manual describes the platform as documented on 28 October 2026, including runtime versions (ADR-047) and database image pinning (ADR-049). Where something is deliberately not built yet, the chapter says so — see also the “not in v1” list on the overview page.