Administrator guide
Choose a deployment
Choose the shortest supported route to an OpenCircle Server your circle can actually own.
Choose the smallest path that leaves your circle with a Server it can own outright. Railway is the shortest hosted route. Docker Compose gives direct custody on a Linux host you control.
Compare the paths
| You want to… | Choose | OpenCircle owns |
|---|---|---|
| Get a hosted Server running with the least infrastructure work | Official Railway template | Template verification, safe adoption, and the receipt-owned day-two lifecycle |
| Run a persistent Server on infrastructure you control | Docker Compose | The packaged Compose lifecycle and durable local state |
| Try OpenCircle on one machine | Local Compose | The local Compose lifecycle |
| Reach a Server from another computer on one trusted LAN | LAN-only HTTP | A bounded desktop-client path over SSH-managed Compose, without transport encryption |
| Operate a Linux host over SSH | Linux server over SSH | Compose on that host, reached through SSH |
What is not covered here
Connecting to a Server someone else already operates is a client setting, not a deployment choice, so it needs no guide on this page. A public VPS from any provider follows the same SSH-plus-Compose path as the Linux server guide. Native AWS or GCP deployment drivers, automatic multi-region failover, and LAN HTTPS are not currently supported.
Next: deploy on Railway or deploy with Docker Compose.