iop: Ship Docker Anywhere ⚡

iop is a zero-downtime Docker deployment tool that lets you deploy any Docker application to your own servers with automatic HTTPS and no configuration complexity.

Core Features

• ✅ Zero-downtime blue-green deployments - Apps deploy with no service interruption
• ✅ Registry-free deployment - Build locally, transfer via SSH (no Docker registry needed)
• ✅ Automatic server setup - Fresh server bootstrap with security hardening
• ✅ Auto-SSL with Let's Encrypt - HTTPS certificates managed automatically
• ✅ Multi-server support - Deploy across multiple servers with load balancing
• ✅ Git-based releases - Easy rollbacks by checking out previous commits
• ✅ Health checks and automatic rollbacks - Built-in reliability

Quick Start

Get started with iop in just a few steps:

Philosophy

No rollback commands needed - just checkout the git commit you want and run iop again.

Why Choose iop?

vs Kamal (37signals)

• TypeScript/Bun instead of Ruby for better performance
• Registry-free deployments - no need for external Docker registries
• Automatic server hardening - security built-in from day one

vs Vercel/Netlify

• Your own servers - full control, no vendor lock-in
• Any Docker app - not limited to specific frameworks
• Cost-effective - pay only for your servers, not per deployment
• No cold starts - your containers are always running

vs Docker Compose

• Zero-downtime deployments - compose restarts cause downtime
• Multi-server support - deploy across multiple machines
• Automatic SSL and reverse proxy included
• Git-based releases and rollback capabilities

Key Concepts

Apps vs Services

iop distinguishes between two types of deployments:

• Apps - User-facing applications that get zero-downtime blue-green deployments
• Services - Infrastructure components (databases, caches) that get direct replacement

Deployment Architecture

graph LR
    A[Local Build] --> B[SSH Transfer]
    B --> C[Blue-Green Deploy]
    C --> D[Health Check]
    D --> E[Traffic Switch]
    E --> F[Cleanup Old]

1. Local Build - Docker images built on your machine
2. SSH Transfer - Images compressed and sent via SSH (no registry)
3. Blue-Green Deploy - New version starts alongside old version
4. Health Check - New version validated before traffic switch
5. Traffic Switch - Atomic switch via network aliases
6. Cleanup - Old version containers removed

Example Deployment

❯ iop
Using Git SHA for release ID: 9d8209a
Starting deployment with release 9d8209a

[✓] Configuration loaded (0ms)
[✓] Git status verified (3ms)
[✓] Infrastructure ready (1.2s)
[✓] Building Images (3.3s)
  └─ web → my-app/web:9d8209a
[✓] Deploying to Servers (4.2s)
  └─ 157.180.25.101
     ├─ [✓] Loading image (2.5s)
     ├─ [✓] Zero-downtime deployment (1.4s)
     └─ [✓] Configuring proxy (319ms)
[✓] Deployment completed successfully in 8.8s

Your app is live at:
  └─ https://test.eliasson.me

Commands Overview

• iop init - Initialize iop.yml config and secrets file
• iop - Deploy apps and services (default command, auto-sets up infrastructure)
• iop status - Check deployment status across all servers
• iop proxy - Manage the reverse proxy (status, update, logs, delete-host)

Get Started

Ready to deploy? Follow our Quick Start guide to deploy your first application with iop.