Getting Started

This guide walks you through creating your Shardlyn account and deploying your first application.

Step 1: Create Your Account

1. Visit shardlyn.com and click Sign Up
2. Register with your email or sign in with GitHub
3. Start with Free (new accounts include a 14-day Pro trial) — see Pricing
4. Complete the setup wizard to create your first organization

Step 2: Connect Your First Node

Shardlyn manages workloads on your infrastructure. You can either provision a new cloud node or connect an existing server.

Option A: Provision a Cloud Server

The fastest way to get started:

1. Navigate to Settings > Credentials and add your cloud provider credentials
2. Go to the Nodes page and click Provision Server
3. Select your provider (AWS, GCP, Hetzner, or OCI), region, and instance size
4. Click Apply — Shardlyn handles the rest

See the Provisioning Guide for detailed setup per provider.

Option B: Register an Existing Server

Connect a server you already have:

1. Navigate to the Nodes page
2. Click Add Node
3. Copy the installation command shown
4. Run the command on your server — this installs the Shardlyn agent

The agent connects back to Shardlyn and your node appears in the dashboard.

Step 3: Create a Workload

A workload is a reusable template for deploying containers (games, apps, databases, and tooling).

1. Navigate to the Workloads page
2. Click Create Workload
3. Configure the workload (example: Minecraft):
   • Name: minecraft-vanilla (or any name)
   • Image: itzg/minecraft-server:latest
   • Ports: 25565/tcp
   • Environment: EULA=TRUE
4. Click Save

Shardlyn supports any Docker container — game servers, web apps, databases, and more.

Step 4: Deploy an Instance

1. Go to the Workloads page
2. Click Deploy on your workload
3. Select the target node
4. Configure instance options (optional)
5. Click Deploy

Step 5: Connect to Your Application

1. Find your instance on the Instances page
2. Wait for status to show Running
3. Note the IP address and port mapping
4. Connect using your client (game client, browser, database tool, etc.)

Dashboard Overview

After logging in, the Dashboard shows:

• System Overview: Total nodes and instances
• Quick Actions: Deploy new instances
• Recent Activity: Latest deployments and state changes
• Resource Usage: CPU, memory, and disk across your nodes

Set Up CI/CD (Optional)

Automate application updates with Git-based deployments:

1. Open an instance's detail page
2. Go to the Git Deploy tab
3. Configure the repository URL and branch
4. Set up webhooks in GitHub or GitLab
5. Push changes to automatically update your workload files

See the Git Deploy Guide for details.

Next Steps

Core Features

• Workloads Guide — Container templates in depth
• Instances Guide — Instance lifecycle and management
• File Management — Upload and edit workload files

Infrastructure

• Provisioning Guide — Multi-cloud node provisioning
• DNS Management — Custom domains for your workloads
• Backups Guide — Protect your data

Security & Administration

• Security Guide — MFA, SSH CA, and API tokens
• Organizations Guide — Teams and permissions
• Billing Guide — Manage your subscription

Reference

• Architecture — System design deep-dive
• API Reference — Programmatic access