Architecture Overview

Lift is a lightweight CLI that communicates directly with your server over SSH. There is no central API, no control plane, and no agent running on your server. Everything is standard Docker and SSH.

Deploy Flow

 Local Machine                          Your Server
+------------------+                   +---------------------------+
|                  |   git archive      |                           |
|  lift push       | ---- SSH ----->   |  /home/deploy/my-app/     |
|                  |   (tar stream)     |                           |
|  .lift.json      |                   |  docker build             |
|  Dockerfile      |                   |  docker run               |
|                  |                   |                           |
+------------------+                   |  Traefik (reverse proxy)  |
                                       |  +-- HTTPS termination    |
                                       |  +-- Let's Encrypt        |
       User                            |  +-- Rate limiting        |
        |                              |                           |
        +---- HTTPS -----------------> |  :443 -> container:3000   |
                                       +---------------------------+

Related

• Operation Modes -- Project, Server, and Local modes
• Security -- SSH key management, shell injection protection, and more
• Production Deploy -- Production deploy features
• Compose & Health Checks -- Build detection and health check details