# Russel

> Self-hosted Nix deployment platform — rootless containers, with experimental microVMs.

- [Russel documentation](https://russel.mintlify.app/index.md): Self-hosted platform that builds your services with Nix and runs them as rootless containers, with experimental microVMs.
- [Quickstart](https://russel.mintlify.app/quickstart.md): Deploy an example app, update it, roll it back, and remove it, in about five minutes.
- [Installation](https://russel.mintlify.app/getting-started/installation.md): Install the russel CLI and the russel-ctrl control plane on Linux, then connect to it from the same host or from your laptop.
- [First deploy](https://russel.mintlify.app/getting-started/first-deploy.md): Add a Russelfile to your own app, deploy it from git, and give it env vars, secrets, and extra Podman flags.
- [Dashboard](https://russel.mintlify.app/getting-started/dashboard.md): Open the Russel dashboard, sign in with your API token, and tell an expired token from a lost connection.
- [Architecture](https://russel.mintlify.app/concepts/architecture.md): How the control plane turns a git repo into a running service, where it keeps state, and what survives a restart.
- [Runtimes](https://russel.mintlify.app/concepts/runtimes.md): Rootless containers and experimental microVMs, what each needs, and what the app sees inside.
- [Networking](https://russel.mintlify.app/concepts/networking.md): How apps get a host port, how Traefik routes host names to them, and what changes during an update.
- [Lifecycle](https://russel.mintlify.app/concepts/lifecycle.md): What happens on deploy, update, rollback, crash, restart, and control-plane restart.
- [Builds](https://russel.mintlify.app/concepts/builds.md): How Russel builds your repo with Nix, the flakes it writes when you have none, and how builds are kept safe from garbage collection.
- [Single-VPS checklist](https://russel.mintlify.app/guides/vps-one-dev.md): Run Russel on one VPS as its only operator, deploy apps from your laptop, and put them on the internet.
- [TLS reverse proxy](https://russel.mintlify.app/guides/tls-reverse-proxy.md): Reach the control plane and dashboard over HTTPS by putting Caddy, nginx, or Traefik in front of it.
- [Traefik ingress](https://russel.mintlify.app/guides/traefik-ingress.md): Give each app its own host name, with HTTPS from Let's Encrypt, using Traefik and the route files Russel writes.
- [Env and secrets](https://russel.mintlify.app/guides/env-secrets.md): Set environment variables in the Russelfile and keep secrets on the server, out of your repo.
- [Update and rollback](https://russel.mintlify.app/guides/update-rollback.md): Ship new commits with russel update, see past deployments, and go back to an earlier one.
- [Troubleshooting](https://russel.mintlify.app/guides/troubleshooting.md): Find the cause of connection, login, deploy, and runtime errors, matched by the message you see.
- [Benchmarks](https://russel.mintlify.app/guides/benchmarks.md): How long a Russel deploy takes compared with building and running the same app with plain Podman, and how to measure it yourself.
- [CLI reference](https://russel.mintlify.app/reference/cli.md): Every russel command and flag, how the CLI finds the control plane, and what it exits with.
- [API reference](https://russel.mintlify.app/reference/api.md): The control plane's HTTP endpoints, authentication, request bodies, and the progress stream deploys return.
- [Russelfile reference](https://russel.mintlify.app/reference/russelfile.md): Every field in Russelfile.toml, with its default and the rules Russel checks when it loads the file.
- [Environment reference](https://russel.mintlify.app/reference/environment.md): Every RUSSEL_* setting for the control plane and the CLI, where to put it, and what it does.
- [Examples](https://russel.mintlify.app/reference/examples.md): Thirteen ready-to-deploy example services, from a minimal web server to Postgres and Vaultwarden, and what each one shows.
- [Security overview](https://russel.mintlify.app/security/overview.md): Who Russel trusts, what protects the server and the apps, what's still open, and the rules for running it safely.
- [Nix build security](https://russel.mintlify.app/security/nix-builds.md): What a malicious repo can do during a build, and how to limit it with restricted mode and nix.conf settings.
- [systemd and NixOS](https://russel.mintlify.app/operations/systemd-nixos.md): Run russel-ctrl as a dedicated russel account, with the installer on Debian or Ubuntu, or with the NixOS module.
- [Upgrades and backups](https://russel.mintlify.app/operations/upgrades-backup.md): Upgrade Russel without losing your token, secrets, or history, and back up the files that matter.
- [Contributing](https://russel.mintlify.app/project/development.md): Set up a development environment, run the checks every PR needs, work on the dashboard, and edit these docs.
- [Changelog](https://russel.mintlify.app/project/releases.md): What changed in each Russel release that affects people running it.
- [v0.1 status](https://russel.mintlify.app/project/features/v0.1.md): What v0.1 includes, what has been tested, what's left, and what comes next.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.