Quickstart

This guide walks you from a fresh account to a live HTTPS URL.

Before you start

You'll need:

• An Inhank Cloud account — create one in 30 seconds.
• A GitHub repository for the app you want to deploy. If you don't have one yet, fork our hello-world example to follow along.

1. Connect GitHub

The first time you create a service, Inhank Cloud asks you to install the Inhank Cloud GitHub App on the account or organization that owns your repository.

You can grant access to:

• All repositories — simplest; everything is reachable.
• Selected repositories — recommended for organizations; you control the list of accessible repos.

Inhank Cloud only requests read access. It never pushes commits to your repository.

2. Create a service

1. Click New service in the top-right of the dashboard.
2. Pick your repository from the list.
3. Choose the branch you want to deploy (defaults to your repo's default branch).
4. Give your service a name. This becomes part of your default URL.
5. Click Create service.

Inhank Cloud immediately kicks off your first build.

3. Watch the build

You're taken to the service's Deployments tab. A new deployment appears in the Queued state and moves through Building, Releasing, and finally Live.

Click the deployment row to follow the live build log. You'll see Inhank Cloud detect your runtime (Detected Node.js, Detected Python, …), install dependencies, and package your app.

A typical first build takes 2–4 minutes. Subsequent builds are usually under a minute thanks to caching.

4. Visit your URL

Once the deployment turns Live, your service is reachable at its default URL, shown at the top of the service overview:

https://<your-service-name>.inhank.app

Open it in your browser — your application is live.

5. Add environment variables (optional)

Most real applications need configuration. To add it:

1. Open your service.
2. Go to the Environment Variables tab.
3. Click + Add variable and enter your key/value pairs.
4. Click Deploy on the service overview to apply the new values.

See Environment Variables for the full guide.

6. Add a custom domain (optional)

To replace the default URL with your own domain:

1. Go to the Custom Domains tab.
2. Click + Add domain and enter your hostname (e.g. app.example.com).
3. Create the DNS records Inhank Cloud shows you, at your DNS provider.
4. Wait for verification (usually under 5 minutes).
5. Once verified, an HTTPS certificate is issued automatically.

See Custom Domains for the full guide.

Troubleshooting your first deployment

If your first deployment fails, the most common causes are:

• App doesn't listen on PORT. Make sure your code reads process.env.PORT (or your language's equivalent) and binds to it.
• Missing build command. Inhank Cloud auto-detects most stacks, but if detection fails you can set a custom build/start command in service settings.
• Missing environment variables. If your app crashes on startup because a required variable isn't set, add it under Environment Variables and redeploy.

For more detail, see Deployments: troubleshooting.

What's next