1# Gordon Documentation
2
3Gordon is a self-hosted container deployment platform: a private container registry, a declarative app runtime, and a reverse proxy.
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- **Declarative Apps** - One TOML file per app, explicit apply then deploy
11- **HTTP Reverse Proxy** - Routes app hosts to containers
12- **Push, Apply, Deploy** - Push stores images; deploy is always explicit
13- **Zero-Downtime Stateless Deploys** - Stateless services start the new generation, verify readiness, switch traffic, then stop the old one; services with volumes, binds, devices, or UDP interfaces are replaced sequentially
14- **Single Binary** - ~15MB RAM footprint
15
16## How It Works
17
18```
19┌─────────────────┐     push      ┌─────────────────┐
20│  Your Machine   │ ────────────> │  Gordon Server  │
21│  docker build   │               │                 │
22│  docker push    │               │  registry:5000  │
23└─────────────────┘               │  proxy:80       │
24                                  └────────┬────────┘
25                                           │
26                                           v
27                                  ┌─────────────────┐
28                                  │  Your App Live  │
29                                  │  app.domain.com │
30                                  └─────────────────┘
31```
32
331. Build your container locally where you have computing power
342. Push to your Gordon registry
353. Apply the app manifest and deploy to activate it
36
37## Quick Navigation
38
39### Getting Started
40
41- [Getting Started](./getting-started.md) - Deploy your first app in minutes
42- [Installation](./installation.md) - Detailed installation instructions
43- [Upgrading](./upgrading.md) - Migration guide for breaking changes
44- [Concepts](./concepts.md) - Core concepts and architecture
45
46### Configuration
47
48- [Configuration Overview](./config/index.md) - All configuration options
49- [Server Settings](./config/server.md) - Ports, domains, and runtime
50- [App Manifest](./config/apps.md) - Declarative app files (services, hosts, secrets, volumes)
51- [Migrate to Gordon v3](./migrate-to-v3.md) - Breaking upgrade and explicit secret migration
52- [Traffic Plane](./config/traffic.md) - TCP, UDP, and TLS passthrough entrypoints
53- [Authentication](./config/auth.md) - Registry auth plus remote CLI login/token workflows
54- [Secrets](./config/secrets.md) - Installation secrets and app secret values
55- [Network Isolation](./config/network-isolation.md) - Installation network policy
56- [Logging](./config/logging.md) - Log collection and rotation
57
58### CLI Reference
59
60- [CLI Commands](./cli/index.md) - All available commands
61
62### Deployment
63
64- [Deployment Overview](./deployment/index.md) - Deployment strategies and methods
65- [GitHub Actions](./deployment/github-actions.md) - CI/CD with GitHub
66- [GitLab CI](./deployment/gitlab-ci.md) - CI/CD with GitLab
67- [Generic CI](./deployment/generic-ci.md) - Jenkins, CircleCI, Drone, and others
68- [Rollback](./deployment/rollback.md) - Version management and rollback
69
70### Reference
71
72- [Docker Labels](./reference/docker-labels.md) - Container and image labels
73- [Troubleshooting](./reference/troubleshooting.md) - Common issues and solutions
74
75## Requirements
76
77- Linux VPS (Ubuntu/Debian recommended)
78- Docker or Podman runtime
79- Domain pointing to your server
80- Optional Cloudflare account or other reverse proxy for edge TLS
81
82> **Note:** Gordon can run behind Cloudflare/nginx, or terminate TLS directly on a smart TCP edge entrypoint via static certificates, public ACME certificates, or its internal CA.
83
84## Related
85
86- [Wiki Tutorials](/wiki/tutorials/index.md) - Step-by-step guides
87- [Wiki Examples](/wiki/examples/index.md) - Configuration examples