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Installation

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These instructions are for Manifold v9 and later. If you are installing Manifold v8 or earlier, see the legacy installation instructions.

Overview​

Starting with v9, Manifold is deployed using Docker containers orchestrated by Kamal 2. We provide a deploy template repository that includes everything you need to configure and deploy Manifold to a server. The repository contains a git submodule pointing to the Manifold source code, scripts for generating Kamal configuration, and hooks that handle building Docker images and coordinating deploys.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

  • A server running a supported Linux distribution (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended) with at least 2 vCPUs, 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended), and 40 GB of SSD storage. The server needs SSH access (as root or a user with Docker permissions) and ports 80 and 443 open to the internet.
  • A domain name (optional but recommended) with a DNS A record pointing to your server's IP address. Without a domain, the server is accessible via its IP address with SSL disabled.
  • Ruby (3.0 or newer) and Bundler installed on your local machine.
  • Docker installed on your local machine.

Installation​

Clone the deploy template repository, install dependencies, and run the interactive configuration wizard:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ManifoldScholar/manifold-deploy-example.git
cd manifold-deploy-example
bundle install
bin/deploy configure

The wizard will prompt you for your server IP, domain name, server architecture, and your preferred database and storage options. It generates your deployment configuration and secrets files.

Once configured, deploy Manifold to your server:

kamal setup -d production

This installs Docker on your server (if needed), builds the API and client images, deploys all containers, creates the database, runs migrations, and seeds initial data.

Create an Admin User​

After deploying, create your first admin user:

bin/deploy admin -d production

You'll be prompted for an email, first name, and last name. A temporary password will be assigned automatically. Visit your domain and log in with these credentials.

Next Steps​

For complete documentation — including storage and database options, routine deployments, updating Manifold, importing v8 backups, and troubleshooting — see the README in the deploy template repository.