Installation

ShipSquares installs onto a fresh Linux server with a single command. The installer sets up the control plane, the Caddy reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS, PostgreSQL, and the container runtime as native services.

Requirements

A 64-bit Linux server (Ubuntu/Debian recommended; 2 vCPU / 2 GB RAM is a comfortable start).
Root or sudo access over SSH.
Inbound ports 80 and 443 open (for automatic TLS certificates and to serve your apps).

One-line install

curl -fsSL https://get.shipsquares.com | bash

Instant, secure access — no DNS required

By default the installer detects your server’s public IP and serves the dashboard at https://<your-ip>.sslip.io with a real, browser-trusted Let’s Encrypt certificate. sslip.io is wildcard DNS that resolves any <ip>.sslip.io host straight to that IP, so you get trusted HTTPS with zero DNS setup and no SSH tunnel — you can sign in immediately and attach your own domain later.

Because a self-hosted PaaS must expose 80/443 to serve apps anyway, opening the web ports is table stakes — not a special dashboard step. On a cloud VM, remember to also allow inbound 80/443 in your provider’s firewall / security group.

Options

Flag	Behaviour
(default)	`https://<detected-ip>.sslip.io` + automatic Let’s Encrypt.
`--domain example.com`	Issue a trusted cert for your own domain. (A bare IP is auto-upgraded to `sslip.io`, since public CAs won’t issue for raw IPs.)
`--local`	Force `localhost` for genuine local/dev installs (internal cert, tunnel only).

For locked-down networks where inbound web ports aren’t possible, reach the dashboard over an SSH tunnel:

ssh -L 8443:127.0.0.1:443 user@your-server   # then open https://localhost:8443

After install

Open the URL the installer prints and create the first owner account.
Add more servers to your fleet, or start deploying on the one you just set up.
Connect a GitHub repository, deploy a Docker image, or install a catalog template.

Bringing your own domain

Point an A record at your server’s IP, add the domain in the dashboard, and a certificate is issued automatically. www↔apex redirects and force-HTTPS are one click.

See Architecture for what’s running under the hood.