1# Gordon Documentation
2
3Gordon is a self-hosted container deployment platform that combines a private Docker registry with automatic container deployment.
4
5## What is Gordon?
6
7Gordon runs on your VPS and provides:
8
9- **Private Container Registry** - Push images from your local machine or CI
10- **HTTP Reverse Proxy** - Routes domains to containers automatically
11- **Push-to-Deploy** - Containers deploy when you push new images
12- **Zero-Downtime Updates** - New containers start before old ones stop
13- **Single Binary** - ~15MB RAM footprint
14
15## How It Works
16
17```
18┌─────────────────┐     push      ┌─────────────────┐
19│  Your Machine   │ ────────────> │  Gordon Server  │
20│  docker build   │               │                 │
21│  docker push    │               │  registry:5000  │
22└─────────────────┘               │  proxy:80       │
23                                  └────────┬────────┘
24                                           │
25                                           v
26                                  ┌─────────────────┐
27                                  │  Your App Live  │
28                                  │  app.domain.com │
29                                  └─────────────────┘
30```
31
321. Build your container locally where you have computing power
332. Push to your Gordon registry
343. Gordon automatically deploys and routes traffic to your container
35
36## Quick Navigation
37
38### Getting Started
39
40- [Getting Started](./getting-started.md) - Deploy your first app in minutes
41- [Installation](./installation.md) - Detailed installation instructions
42- [Concepts](./concepts.md) - Core concepts and architecture
43
44### Configuration
45
46- [Configuration Overview](./config/index.md) - All configuration options
47- [Server Settings](./config/server.md) - Ports, domains, and runtime
48- [Routes](./config/routes.md) - Domain to container mapping
49- [Registry Auth](./config/registry-auth.md) - Password and token authentication
50- [Secrets](./config/secrets.md) - Secure credential storage
51- [Network Isolation](./config/network-isolation.md) - Per-app network isolation
52- [Attachments](./config/attachments.md) - Service dependencies
53- [Logging](./config/logging.md) - Log collection and rotation
54- [Environment Variables](./config/env.md) - Per-route environment configuration
55
56### CLI Reference
57
58- [CLI Commands](./cli/commands.md) - All available commands
59
60### Deployment
61
62- [Deployment Overview](./deployment/index.md) - Deployment strategies
63- [GitHub Actions](./deployment/github-actions.md) - CI/CD with GitHub
64- [Rollback](./deployment/rollback.md) - Version management and rollback
65
66### Reference
67
68- [Docker Labels](./reference/docker-labels.md) - Container and image labels
69- [Environment Variables](./reference/env-variables.md) - Environment variable syntax
70- [Troubleshooting](./reference/troubleshooting.md) - Common issues and solutions
71
72## Requirements
73
74- Linux VPS (Ubuntu/Debian recommended)
75- Docker or Podman runtime
76- Domain pointing to your server
77- Cloudflare account for HTTPS (free tier works)
78
79> **Note:** Gordon does not handle TLS certificates directly. HTTPS is terminated by Cloudflare (or similar proxy) which forwards HTTP traffic to Gordon internally.
80
81## Related
82
83- [Wiki Tutorials](/wiki/tutorials/index.md) - Step-by-step guides
84- [Wiki Examples](/wiki/examples/index.md) - Configuration examples