Quickstart — Deploy Your First App in 5 Minutes

Temps is a self-hosted deployment platform — a Vercel/Netlify alternative you run on your own server. One curl command installs Docker, TimescaleDB (PostgreSQL), SSL certificates, and the Temps binary. Your first app goes live in under 5 minutes. Temps is free to self-host (Apache 2.0) or ~$6/mo on Temps Cloud (Hetzner cost + 30% margin, no per-seat fees, no bandwidth billing). Every deployed app gets automatic HTTPS, built-in web analytics, Sentry-compatible error tracking, rrweb session replay, and 60-second uptime monitoring — no third-party subscriptions required.

You need a Linux VPS with at least 2 CPU cores and 4 GB RAM (Ubuntu, Debian, or RHEL). Any provider works — DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Linode, AWS. See Choosing a Server for sizing guidance.

Step 1: Install Temps

SSH into your server and run the installer:

curl -fsSL https://temps.sh/deploy.sh | bash

Want to inspect it before running? curl -fsSL https://temps.sh/deploy.sh | less

The wizard walks you through each step interactively. You'll be prompted to:

Approve the Docker install — only if Docker isn't already installed and running
Choose how to provision your domain — a free automatic subdomain under temps.sh via a Temps Cloud account, or your own domain with a Let's Encrypt certificate (you add the DNS records)
Set your admin credentials — an admin email and password (the password defaults to a generated value you can accept)
Confirm installing the background service — recommended, so Temps starts on boot

The database password and the verification API key are generated for you automatically — you don't enter those. The wizard prints the API key once at the end, so save it then.

The full step sequence:

Docker — Installs and verifies Docker Engine
Database — Sets up TimescaleDB (PostgreSQL) in a Docker container
Domain & SSL — Provisions your domain and TLS certificates (via Temps Cloud auto-subdomain or your own domain with Let's Encrypt)
Temps binary — Downloads and configures the Temps server, then installs a systemd service so it starts on boot
Verification — Generates an API key and confirms the console is reachable

When it finishes, the installer prints a success block like this:

 SETUP COMPLETE
  Console:         https://yourdomain.com
  Admin email:     you@example.com
  Admin password:  ••••••••••••••••
  API key:         tk_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 ⚠ Save your admin password and API key now — they won't be shown again.

If you don't see this block, the installer is idempotent — re-run the same command to resume. Still stuck? See Troubleshooting.

The wizard supports Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL) and macOS. It is idempotent — you can re-run it safely if something fails.

Once complete, open the console URL shown at the end to continue.

Step 2: Complete the Onboarding

Log in — Use the admin email and password you set during install (Step 1). The installer already created this account, so you go straight to the login screen.
Connect your Git provider — In the sidebar, open Git Providers → Add Git Provider, choose GitHub or GitLab, and authorize access. See Connect a Git Provider for the full GitHub App and access-token walkthrough.
Confirm it's connected — The Git Providers page should show your provider as Active before you continue.

Step 3: Deploy Your First App

There are three ways to ship your app — click through the dashboard, run the CLI yourself, or hand the steps to your coding agent. Pick whichever fits your workflow.

Deploy your first app

Three ways to do this

1
Go to Projects, then click New Project (top-right).
2
On the Browse Repositories tab, select your repository from the list.
3
Choose the branch to deploy (e.g. main).
4
Click Deploy and watch the build logs stream in real time.
Checkpoint: Your app goes live in ~30–60 seconds — open the assigned URL and confirm it serves your app over HTTPS.

Repository list empty? Your Git provider isn't connected yet. Go back to Git Providers (Step 2) and confirm the status shows Active — repositories only appear once a provider is linked.

Every deployment — however you trigger it — automatically gets:

HTTPS — Pingora proxy terminates TLS, certificates provisioned via Let's Encrypt
Web analytics — visitor tracking and page views via first-party _temps_visitor_id cookie (no third-party scripts)
Error tracking — Sentry-compatible DSN; errors grouped by pgvector similarity
Session replay — rrweb-based recording, stored on your own server
Uptime monitoring — health checks every 60 seconds, alerts on failure
Live logs — real-time container log streaming in the dashboard

What Gets Auto-Detected?

Temps automatically detects your framework and configures the build:

Framework	Build Command	Start Command
Next.js	`npm run build`	`npm start`
Vite/React	`npm run build`	Static serve
Node.js	`npm install`	`npm start`
Python	`pip install -r requirements.txt`	`uvicorn main:app`
Go	`go build`	Binary execution
Static HTML	None	Temps serves (zero overhead)

For custom applications, add a Dockerfile to your repository.

What Temps Costs

Option	Cost	What's included
Self-host	Free (you pay your VPS)	Full feature set, Apache 2.0 license, unlimited projects/seats/deployments
Temps Cloud	~$6/mo (Hetzner CAX11)	Managed server, automatic updates, support — same binary, no lock-in

A typical self-hosted setup on Hetzner CAX11 (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) costs ~$4.15/mo. Temps Cloud adds a 30% margin for management overhead, bringing it to ~$6/mo. Both options include all observability features — no separate plans for analytics, error tracking, or session replay.

Next Steps

Add a custom domain — Go to Project Settings → Domains
Set environment variables — Go to Project Settings → Environment Variables
View analytics — Check the Analytics tab in your project
Set up error tracking — Get your DSN from Error Tracking → DSN & Setup
Invite team members — Go to Settings → Team Members

Want a deeper walkthrough of each step? See Your First Deployment.

Already running Temps and need to update it? See Upgrade Temps.