Administration

Vessl administration covers instance-wide configuration available to instance admins.

CLI Administration

Vessl provides three CLI tools for different environments and use cases:

Server CLI (vessld)

After installation, vessld is available at /usr/local/bin/vessld. This is a shell wrapper that manages the Vessl daemon by executing commands inside the Docker container. Use it for day-to-day server administration:

vessld status           # Show daemon health + running containers
vessld setup            # Interactive admin account wizard
vessld reset-password   # Reset admin password
vessld config           # View current configuration
vessld config <key>=<value>  # Update a setting (site-name, registration, telemetry)
vessld logs -f          # Tail daemon logs
vessld update           # Upgrade to the latest version
vessld downgrade <ver>  # Downgrade to a specific version (with backup + confirmation)
vessld backup           # Create a manual database backup
vessld restart          # Restart the Vessl daemon

# App management
vessld deploy <git-url>           # Deploy an app from a Git URL
vessld deploy --template nextjs   # Deploy a template from vesslhq/vessl-examples
vessld deploy --image nginx:latest --port 80  # Deploy from a Docker image
vessld apps:list                  # List all apps
vessld apps:show <id>             # Show app details
vessld apps:create <name>         # Create an app
vessld apps:destroy <id>         # Delete an app

# Database management
vessld db:list                    # List all databases
vessld db:show <id>              # Show database details
vessld db:create <name> <engine> # Create a database (postgres, mysql, redis, etc.)
vessld db:destroy <id>           # Delete a database

Daemon CLI (vessld)

vessld serve              # Start the daemon (default)
vessld setup              # Setup wizard
vessld reset-password     # Reset admin password
vessld config             # View/update configuration
vessld deploy <url>       # Deploy from Git URL
vessld deploy --template  # Deploy a template
vessld apps:list          # List apps
vessld db:list            # List databases
vessld mcp                # Run MCP stdio server
vessld version            # Show version

Remote CLI (vessl)

For remote management from your local machine, install the vessl client:

curl -fsSL https://get.vessl.dev/cli | sh
vessl login    # Connect to your server

For a full list of remote commands, see the CLI Reference.

Update with vessld update

1. Shows current and latest available version.
2. Creates a pre-upgrade database backup automatically.
3. Pulls the new Docker image and recreates the container.
4. Your apps and databases experience zero downtime.

Downgrade with vessld downgrade

1. Requires you to type downgrade to confirm (safety gate).
2. Creates a pre-downgrade database backup automatically.
3. Pulls the specified version and recreates the container.
4. If something breaks, restore from backup: cp /vessl/data/backups/vessl-pre-downgrade-*.db /vessl/data/vessl.db

Instance Settings

Access from Settings in the dashboard. Only the first registered user (instance admin) can modify these.

Global Configuration

• Wildcard Domain: Set the base domain for all services across all projects.
• SMTP Configuration: Instance-wide SMTP settings for transactional emails.
• DNS Resolvers: Custom DNS resolvers for container networking.
• Port Ranges: Configure the port pool for service allocation.

Traefik Configuration

• SSL Provider: Let’s Encrypt configuration.
• HTTP Redirect: Force HTTPS across all services.
• Dashboard: Enable or disable the Traefik dashboard.

System Updates

Automatic Update Checks

Vessl periodically checks GitHub releases for new versions. The dashboard displays a notification when an update is available.

Manual Check

curl -X POST /api/settings/updates/check \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer vpt_xxx"

Deploying an Update

1. Go to Settings → Updates.
2. Click Check for Updates.
3. If an update is available, click Deploy Update.
4. The system downloads and applies the update.
5. The dashboard displays real-time update progress.

Update Process

1. New binary is downloaded from GitHub releases.
2. Database migrations are applied (backward-compatible).
3. Services are restarted gracefully.
4. Old binary is kept for rollback.

Rollback

sudo vessld rollback

Restores the previous binary and a database backup taken before the upgrade.

License Management

Activating a License

1. Go to Settings → License.
2. Enter your license key.
3. Click Activate.

The license is validated against the licensing server and applied immediately.

License Features

Plans may include:

• Seat limits (number of users)
• Instance limits
• Premium features (audit logs, SSO, advanced RBAC)

Telemetry

By default, Vessl collects anonymized usage data to improve the product. This can be disabled in Settings → Privacy.

What’s Collected

• Instance version and uptime
• Count of projects, services, and users (no names or content)
• Deployment success/failure rates
• Enabled features and integrations

Maintenance

Data Directory

All persistent data is stored in the configured VESSL_DATA_DIR (default: data/):

data/
├── vessl.db          # SQLite database
├── .vault_key        # Encryption key (keep safe)
├── databases/        # Database volumes
├── storage/          # MinIO storage volumes
└── backups/          # Backup archives

Backup

Back up your Vessl instance:

# Stop the daemon
# Copy the data directory
cp -r data/ data-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d)
# Restart the daemon

Restore

1. Stop the daemon.
2. Restore the data directory from your backup.
3. Restart the daemon.
4. Database migrations run automatically on startup.