GCP

Run the standard Docker deployment on a Compute Engine VM.

There is nothing GCP-specific about running Proliferate: provision a VM and run the standard Docker deployment on it. This page covers only the GCP-side setup.

Steps

Provision a VM

Create a Compute Engine instance running a recent Linux with Docker and Compose v2 installed. An e2-small (2 vCPU, 2 GB) with a 20 GB disk is enough to start; see Sizing & scaling.

Screenshot: GCP Console, Create Compute Engine instance form

The Create Instance form with machine type and boot disk selected.

Open ports

Create a firewall rule allowing inbound TCP 80 and 443 to the instance. Port 80 is needed for the automatic HTTPS certificate issuance, 443 for traffic.

Point DNS

Reserve a static external IP for the instance, then point a DNS name (for example proliferate.company.com) at it. Do this before bootstrapping so Caddy can issue a certificate on first boot.

Deploy

On the VM, fetch the deploy bundle and follow Docker on any server from "Configure" onward:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/proliferate-ai/proliferate/releases/download/server-vX.Y.Z/proliferate-deploy.tar.gz | tar xz && cd proliferate-deploy && cp .env.production.example .env.static

Edit .env.static, then run ./bootstrap.sh. It ends by printing a one-time setup token and a claim URL (https://<your-site>/setup); claim the instance in a browser, then point desktop apps at your server (Connect the desktop app).

AWS one-click

Launch the self-hosted stack on EC2 with CloudFormation.

Azure

Run the standard Docker deployment on an Azure VM.

On this page