Quickstart

This is the shortest path from a fresh account to a running application with a public URL, starting from your source folder. It uses the command line; the same steps are available in the dashboard and through an AI agent.

Before you start

You need a Guidal account and an application in a folder on your machine. You do not need Docker: Guidal builds the image for you. If the folder has a Dockerfile at its root, Guidal uses it; otherwise it detects the language and builds anyway. Know which port your application listens on.

1. Install the CLI

pip install guidal

Verify it is on your path:

guidal version

2. Sign in

guidal login

This opens your browser to complete sign-in and stores a token locally. Confirm it worked:

guidal whoami

3. Pick a project

Every service lives inside a project. List what you have:

guidal projects list

Create one if you have none, then make it the active project so later commands do not need --project:

guidal projects create --name my-app
guidal projects switch my-app

4. Build from your folder

From the folder your application lives in:

guidal deploy .

Guidal packs the folder, uploads it and builds the image. When the build finishes, the summary shows the Image reference, and Exposed ports when your image declares one.

5. Create the service

Create a web service from the image the build reported, on the port your application listens on:

guidal services create --name web \
  --image <image-reference> \
  --port 3000

Guidal starts it and assigns a public HTTPS URL. Watch it come up:

guidal services list

The list shows each service's ID, state and URL. Open the URL in a browser. From now on, redeploy after a change with one command:

guidal deploy . --service web

guidal services get <service-id>
guidal logs query --service <service-id>

Already have an image?

If you build images in CI, skip the build and create the service from your image directly. The public nginxdemos/hello image works for a first run:

guidal services create --name hello \
  --image nginxdemos/hello \
  --port 80

What next

• Deploy your first app walks through a real application with a database, environment variables and a custom domain.
• Web services covers ports, health checks, scaling and rollbacks.
• Deploy with an AI agent sets up your editor to do all of this for you.