Frequently asked questions

Can’t find your question? Troubleshooting covers things that go wrong, and What Cloudgate can and cannot do lists every limit.

Getting started

What is Cloudgate?

A deployment platform you point at your own Servers and your own AWS or Google Cloud account. It builds and runs Applications, databases, Compose stacks and AI models there, with domains, certificates, backups, monitoring and access control. Start with the Quickstart.

Do I need my own server?

You need a Server or a Cloud account before anything deploys. Any Ubuntu machine you can reach over SSH as root, or as a user with passwordless sudo, works. On the Hosted instance you can also buy one from Cloudgate in the console. See Servers and Bought Servers.

Do I need a domain name?

No. A free sslip.io address that points at your Server works straight away, over plain HTTP. Add your own domain when you want HTTPS. See Domains.

Can I deploy without a Dockerfile?

Yes. Nixpacks, the default builder, works out how to build your code from its files. Railpack, Heroku and Paketo buildpacks, static files, a Dockerfile or a ready-made Docker image are the other options. See Applications.

Plans and pricing

How much does the Hosted instance cost?

Starter is 15 USD a month and Business 35 USD a month. Each includes 3 Servers and 3 Cloud Environments; an Add-on adds one more of each for 5 USD. Members, Projects and Environments on Servers are not counted. See pricing.

Is there a free trial?

Yes, 30 days on either plan. A card is needed to start it, and there is one trial per Organization, person and card. Buying a Server is charged at once, even during the trial. See Billing.

What happens if I go over my plan’s count?

Only the next addition is refused. Nothing that already runs is switched off. Buy an Add-on, or upgrade, to add more.

What does Business add over Starter?

Single sign-on, SCIM, custom roles, forward auth in front of your apps, and paying for other Organizations on the same plan. The counts are the same.

Self-hosting

Is Cloudgate open source?

No. It is source-available under the Elastic License 2.0. You may use, self-host and change it, but you may not offer it to others as a hosted service, or get around its license checks. See Self-hosting Cloudgate.

Is self-hosting free?

Yes. The free version deploys everything Cloudgate can deploy, with one Organization and one build at a time per Server. An Enterprise license unlocks the rest. You pay only for the servers you run.

How do I get the source?

Clone it from the public repository, github.com/octabyte-io/cloudgate. No account or access request is needed. Install Cloudgate takes you from the clone to a signed-in console.

Deploying

Can I deploy from my terminal or CI?

Yes. The CLI, cloudgate deploy, uploads a folder to an Application and follows its Deployment. In CI, set CLOUDGATE_KEY to a Personal key. See the CLI guide and CI use.

Can I deploy a monorepo with several apps in one command?

Yes. Link its root with cloudgate link --whole-project, which makes it a Project folder holding the Project config as cloudgate.yaml. Give each app source: { folder: apps/web }, then one cloudgate deploy there applies the config’s Plan and builds every app from its subfolder. See deploy a whole Project.

Can I roll back a bad deploy?

Yes, for an Application with Keep rollback points turned on: open its Rollbacks tab and press Roll back on an earlier point. Databases and Compose stacks have no rollback. See Deployments and rollbacks.

Can I move a Service to another Server?

No. A Service’s Server or Cloud account is fixed when it is made. To run it somewhere else, create a new Service in the new place.

Do Services inherit Project variables?

No. A Service gets only its own variables and reads a Project or Environment value by naming it, such as ${{project.KEY}}. See Environment variables.

Security and access

Are my secrets safe?

Secrets are encrypted at rest, API answers say only whether a secret is set, and every Agent result passes a mask that replaces stored secrets with dots. See Security.

How do I report a bug or a security problem?

Open an issue on the cloudgate repository for a bug or a feature idea. Never report a security problem in a public issue: on the repository’s Security tab, choose Report a vulnerability, which only the maintainers can see. Questions about your account go to support@octabyte.io.

Can I limit a member to one Project?

Yes. A member reaches only the Projects, Environments and Services an owner or admin grants under Manage access. Owners and admins reach everything. See Members and roles.

Is there single sign-on?

Yes, with OIDC providers, on the Business plan or with an Enterprise license on a self-hosted instance. SCIM provisioning comes with it. See SSO and SCIM.

AI agents

Can an AI agent deploy for me?

Yes. Create an Agent with the Operator role and connect your AI tool to the MCP endpoint with its key. It can deploy, start, stop, cancel, and ask for previews and Plans within its grant. See Agents and Connect an AI tool.

What can an Agent never do?

Apply a Plan, change variables, settings or access, configure health checks, or create an AI model. It never becomes an owner or admin, and every call it makes is in the audit log. See MCP guard rails.

Can I run my own AI models?

Yes. An AI model is an Application that serves one model with Ollama, vLLM or llama.cpp, optionally on whole GPUs, reached through Cloudgate’s OpenAI-compatible Gateway. See AI models and the AI agents overview.