Deploy an App in 60 Seconds

Let's go from nothing to a live app on a cloud server. All you need is a project with a Dockerfile and a cloud provider token.

Step 1: Install Ship

bash

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/basilysf1709/ship/main/install.sh | sh

Step 2: Export Your Token

Pick your provider and export the API token. Here we'll use DigitalOcean:

bash

export DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN=dop_v1_your_token_here

Step 3: Create a Server

This provisions an Ubuntu 22.04 droplet with Docker installed, your SSH key registered, and all state saved locally.

bash

$ ship server create --provider digitalocean
STATUS=SERVER_CREATED
SERVER_ID=412847592
SERVER_IP=143.198.42.17

Step 4: Deploy

Ship builds your Docker image, uploads it over SSH, and starts the container.

bash

$ ship deploy
STATUS=DEPLOY_SUCCESS
CONTAINER_ID=a3f8b2c1d4e5

Step 5: Verify

Check that everything is running:

bash

$ ship status
SSH_REACHABLE=true
APP_STATUS=running
HEALTHCHECK=ok
LAST_RELEASE=2026-03-14T10:30:00Z

That's It

Five commands, under 60 seconds of active work. Your app is live on a real server with a real IP. From here you can set up a domain with ship domain setup, manage secrets with ship secrets, and check logs with ship logs.

When you're done, ship server destroy tears it all down cleanly.