# MightyMoud/sidekick

Bare metal to production ready in mins; your own fly server on your VPS.

Repository: https://github.com/MightyMoud/sidekick
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/sidekick
Homepage: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com
Language: Go
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: deployment, heroku, self-hosted, selfhosting, vps-admin, vps-server, vps-setup, vps-ubuntu, self-host, self-hostable, self-hosting
Last push: 2026-02-03T10:59:11+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 54/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 65, release rhythm 40, longevity 56
- inputs: {"age_days": 792, "days_push": 211, "days_rel": 678, "gap_med": 2.5, "n_releases_24m": 11}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7597, forks 170 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:01.921020+00:00)

## What it is
Sidekick is a Go CLI tool that turns a bare Ubuntu VPS into a production-ready application hosting platform, similar to fly.io or Heroku but on your own server. It handles one-command VPS setup (Docker, Traefik, SOPS, Age), zero-downtime deploys from a Dockerfile, automatic SSL, and encrypted secrets management.

## Use cases
- deploy my side project to my own VPS
- self-hosted Heroku or fly.io alternative
- set up a VPS for hosting apps with one command
- zero downtime deployments on a cheap VPS
- host multiple apps on a single server with SSL
- deploy a Dockerfile app to DigitalOcean or Hetzner
- manage secrets securely when self-hosting

## When to choose
- you want PaaS-like simplicity on your own VPS without vendor lock-in
- you host side projects on a budget and want production-ready setup in minutes
- you want zero-config SSL, reverse proxy, and encrypted env secrets handled for you

## When to avoid
- you need multi-server orchestration, autoscaling, or Kubernetes-grade infrastructure
- your VPS is not Ubuntu or you cannot use SSH keys or brew/sops/age locally
- you need managed databases, logs, or monitoring out of the box

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: deployment, configuration-management, secrets-management, container-runtime, cli
- domain: self-hosted, cloud-computing, backend, developer-tools
- platform: cli, self-hosted
- tags: vps, heroku-alternative, fly-io-alternative, traefik, zero-downtime-deploys, ssl, sops, paas, devops, linux, macos, docker

## Member repositories
- MightyMoud/sidekick (main) score 54

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:01.921020+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:36:51.718647+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/MightyMoud/sidekick (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:01.921020+00:00, sha b16583cf2bf6)
  - homepage: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com (fetched 2026-08-29T08:32:15.577980+00:00, sha 5c01db5f7b32)
  - site_page: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com/docs/introduction (fetched 2026-08-29T08:32:15.587440+00:00, sha 221727015cc4)
  - site_page: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:32:15.589553+00:00, sha dca6cadc072f)
  - site_page: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:32:15.591243+00:00, sha e931215cd2aa)
  - site_page: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com/docs/introduction/get-started (fetched 2026-08-29T08:32:15.592994+00:00, sha 2b813132e368)
  - site_page: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com/docs/command (fetched 2026-08-29T08:32:15.594681+00:00, sha 66163d24ebe1)
  - site_page: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com/docs/command/init (fetched 2026-08-29T08:32:15.596703+00:00, sha da948aed30b0)
  - site_page: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com/docs/command/launch (fetched 2026-08-29T08:32:15.598691+00:00, sha cd03ffc1061e)
  - site_page: https://www.sidekickdeploy.com/docs/command/deploy (fetched 2026-08-29T08:32:15.600415+00:00, sha 6a9621e4e791)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.