What is haloy?

Haloy is a lightweight deployment platform for developers and teams who want to run applications on their own servers without the complexity of Kubernetes or heavy PaaS control planes. It consists of a CLI (haloy) that runs locally or in CI/CD, and two server daemons (haloyd for orchestration and haloy-proxy for TLS termination and routing) that you install on a Linux VPS. You define deployments in a haloy.yaml file pointing to a Dockerfile, then run 'haloy deploy' to build, upload, and launch your app with automatic HTTPS certificates, health checks, and zero-downtime rolling updates. It supports multi-target deployments (staging/production), horizontal scaling via replicas, secret management via 1Password or SOPS, deployment hooks, and database/service presets for stateful workloads. The project is in beta (v0.1.0-beta.x) with MIT license, no paid tiers, and no vendor lock-in — your servers, containers, and data stay yours.

Should you self-host haloy?

haloy scores 48/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #7 of 11 in Deployment. It has 398 GitHub stars.

There was no stable release in the past 12 months, so check the repository's recent activity before you rely on it.

Setup is moderate: expect some configuration beyond a single command. It is MIT-licensed and written mostly in Go.

Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is dokploy (80/100, 38 090 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See haloy vs dokploy side by side.

Features

Automatic HTTPS
CLI-first workflow
Database/Service presets
Deployment hooks
Health checks & auto-recovery
Horizontal Scaling
Instant Rollbacks
Multi-server deployments
No vendor lock-in
Preview environments
Protected targets
Secret Management
Zero-Downtime Deployments

How to configure haloy

api_tokenAPI token value source using value, from.env, or from.secret
API token value source using value, from.env, or from.secret
deployment_strategyrolling when domains are set, replace otherwiseDeployment strategy: rolling or replace
Deployment strategy: rolling or replace
values: rolling, replace
domainsDomain routing configuration
Domain routing configuration
envEnvironment variables with value source support
Environment variables with value source support
global_post_deployCommands to run once after all deployments finish
Commands to run once after all deployments finish
global_pre_deployCommands to run once before any deployment starts
Commands to run once before any deployment starts
health_check_path/Health check endpoint
Health check endpoint
imageDocker image configuration (repository, tag, pull policy, etc.)
Docker image configuration (repository, tag, pull policy, etc.)
min_ready_seconds0Minimum stabilization time after a container becomes healthy before it is considered ready
Minimum stabilization time after a container becomes healthy before it is considered ready
values: 0 to 600
nameApplication name (required for single-target configs)
Application name (required for single-target configs)
naming_strategydynamicContainer naming strategy
Container naming strategy
values: dynamic, static
networkhaloyDocker network for the container
Docker network for the container
port8080Container port to expose
Container port to expose
post_deployCommands to run after deploy (per target)
Commands to run after deploy (per target)
pre_deployCommands to run before deploy (per target)
Commands to run before deploy (per target)
presetApply preset configuration
Apply preset configuration
values: database, service
protectedfalseExclude from --all deployments
Exclude from --all deployments
values: true, false
replicas1Number of container instances
Number of container instances
secret_providersConfigure secret providers (1Password, SOPS)
Configure secret providers (1Password, SOPS)
serverHaloy server API URL
Haloy server API URL
targetsDefine multiple deployment targets
Define multiple deployment targets
volumesVolume mounts
Volume mounts