Relight

Deploy Docker containers to your cloud with scale-to-zero. Apps sleep when idle and wake on the next request.

$ relight deploy myapp . --cloud gcp
  Building image...
  Pushing to us-docker.pkg.dev/my-project/relight/myapp:v1...
  Deploying to Cloud Run (us-central1)...

--> Live at https://myapp-abc123.run.app
    Sleeps after 30s idle. $0 when sleeping.

What this is

Relight is a CLI that deploys and manages Docker containers across multiple cloud providers. It talks directly to each cloud's API using your own credentials. No vendor infrastructure gets installed in your account.

Supported backends:

Cloud	Backend	Scale to zero	Database	DNS
GCP	Cloud Run	Yes	Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL)	Cloud DNS
AWS	App Runner	Yes	RDS (PostgreSQL)	Route 53
Cloudflare	Containers (Workers + Durable Objects)	Yes	D1 (SQLite)	Cloudflare DNS
SlicerVM	Self-hosted	Yes	-	-

Install

npm install -g relight

Requires Node.js 20+ and Docker.

Quick start

# Authenticate with a cloud provider
relight auth --cloud gcp

# Deploy from a Dockerfile
relight deploy myapp .

# Check your apps
relight apps

# Stream logs
relight logs myapp

# Open in browser
relight open myapp

# Create a database
relight db create myapp

The first deploy links the current directory to the app name. After that, relight deploy is enough.

Commands

relight auth                         Authenticate with a cloud provider
relight deploy [name] [path]         Deploy an app from a Dockerfile
relight apps                         List all deployed apps across all clouds
relight apps info [name]             Show detailed app info
relight apps destroy [name]          Destroy an app and its cloud resources
relight ps [name]                    Show running containers and resource usage
relight logs [name]                  Stream live logs
relight open [name]                  Open app URL in browser
relight config show [name]           Show environment variables
relight config set KEY=VALUE         Set env vars (applied live, no redeploy)
relight config unset KEY             Remove an env var
relight config import -f .env        Import from .env file
relight scale [name]                 Show or adjust instance count and resources
relight domains list [name]          List custom domains
relight domains add [domain]         Add a custom domain with DNS setup
relight domains remove [domain]      Remove a custom domain
relight db create [name]             Create a managed database
relight db destroy [name]            Destroy a database
relight db info [name]               Show database details
relight db shell [name]              Interactive SQL shell
relight db query [name] <sql>        Run a SQL query
relight db import [name] <file>      Import a SQL file
relight db export [name]             Export database as SQL
relight db token [name]              Show or rotate DB token
relight db reset [name]              Drop all tables
relight regions [--cloud <cloud>]    List available regions for a cloud
relight cost [name]                  Show estimated costs
relight doctor                       Check local setup and cloud connectivity

Config changes (config set, config unset, scale, domains) are applied live without redeploying the container image.

How it works

1. relight auth stores credentials locally at ~/.relight/config.json. One set of credentials per cloud provider. No cross-account IAM roles, no OAuth flows, no vendor access to your account.

2. relight deploy builds a Docker image locally, pushes it to the cloud's container registry (Artifact Registry, ECR, or Cloudflare Registry), and deploys it using the cloud's native container service.

3. The deployed app sleeps after a configurable idle period (default 30s). The next incoming request wakes it. Cold starts are typically 1-5 seconds depending on the cloud and image size.

4. All app state (config, scaling, domains, database bindings) lives in the cloud provider's API. The only local files are your auth credentials and a .relight.yaml link file in your project directory. You can manage your apps from any machine.

Fleet view

When you authenticate with multiple clouds, relight apps shows everything in one table:

$ relight apps

NAME         CLOUD    STATUS     INSTANCES  COST/MTD   LAST ACTIVE
myapi        gcp      sleeping   0/3        $0.12      2h ago
frontend     cf       active     2/5        $1.84      now
worker       aws      sleeping   0/1        $0.05      1h ago
dashboard    gcp      sleeping   0/1        $0.00      3d ago
-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                 TOTAL      $2.01

Databases

Relight manages databases alongside your apps. Each cloud uses its native database service:

# Create a database for your app
relight db create myapp

# Interactive SQL shell
relight db shell myapp

# Run a query
relight db query myapp "SELECT * FROM users"

GCP and AWS use PostgreSQL (Cloud SQL and RDS). Cloudflare uses D1 (SQLite). The connection URL and credentials are automatically injected into your app's environment as DATABASE_URL and DB_TOKEN.

Cross-cloud databases are supported - you can attach an AWS RDS database to a GCP Cloud Run app by specifying --db aws.

BYOC model

Relight deploys to cloud accounts you own. You pay the cloud provider directly at their published rates. Relight itself is free for individual use.

What this means in practice:

• Your credentials stay local. Credentials are stored on your machine. Relight has no backend service that holds your cloud credentials.
• Nothing is installed in your account. No Kubernetes clusters, no CloudFormation stacks, no VPCs, no agent processes. Relight uses the cloud's existing container services.
• You can stop using Relight anytime. Your apps are standard Cloud Run services / App Runner services / CF Workers. They continue running without Relight. There's nothing to uninstall.

Scaling

# Set instance count
relight scale myapp -i 4

# Set resources
relight scale myapp --vcpu 1 --memory 512

# Set idle timeout
relight deploy myapp . --sleep-after 60

# Multi-region (cloud support varies)
relight deploy myapp . --regions us-east1,europe-west1

Relight does not autoscale. You set the maximum instance count and the cloud provider handles scaling between 0 and that limit based on traffic.

Custom domains

relight domains add myapp.example.com

# Relight creates the DNS record if your domain's DNS is on a supported provider
# (Cloud DNS, Route 53, or Cloudflare DNS)
# Otherwise it prints the record for you to create manually

What Relight doesn't do

• No autoscaling. You set max instances. The cloud scales between 0 and your max based on traffic. There's no custom autoscaling logic.
• No CI/CD. Relight is a deployment tool, not a build pipeline. Integrate it into your CI by running relight deploy in your workflow.
• Cold starts. Sleeping apps take 1-5 seconds to respond to the first request. This is inherent to scale-to-zero and varies by cloud and image size.

Cloud-specific notes

GCP (Cloud Run)

• Requires a GCP project with Cloud Run, Artifact Registry, Cloud SQL Admin, Cloud DNS, Logging, and Monitoring APIs enabled.
• Credentials: service account key JSON file.
• Regions: any Cloud Run region. Run relight regions --cloud gcp to list.
• Scale-to-zero is native. Minimum instances can be set to 0.
• Database: Cloud SQL PostgreSQL 15 (db-f1-micro by default).

AWS (App Runner)

• Requires an AWS account with IAM user credentials.
• Required IAM policies: AWSAppRunnerFullAccess, AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryFullAccess, AmazonRDSFullAccess, AmazonRoute53FullAccess, AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess, CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess, IAMFullAccess.
• Credentials: IAM access key ID and secret access key.
• Regions: 9 App Runner regions. Run relight regions --cloud aws to list.
• Scale-to-zero: App Runner pauses services when idle. Minimum 1 provisioned instance ($0.007/vCPU-hr when idle).
• Database: RDS PostgreSQL 15 (db.t4g.micro by default). Provisioning takes 5-15 minutes.
• Registry: ECR. Repositories and IAM access roles are created automatically.

Cloudflare (Containers)

• Requires a Cloudflare account with Containers access (paid Workers plan).
• Credentials: Cloudflare API token with Workers and Containers permissions.
• Each app is a Worker backed by Durable Objects running your container. The CLI bundles and uploads the Worker template automatically.
• Regions use Durable Object locationHints - placement is best-effort, not guaranteed.
• Database: D1 (SQLite).

SlicerVM (Self-hosted)

• Requires a running SlicerVM host.
• Credentials: API URL + token, or a Unix socket for local development.
• Images are uploaded directly to the host (no external registry needed).

Configuration

Auth config is stored at ~/.relight/config.json:

{
  "clouds": {
    "gcp": { "clientEmail": "...", "privateKey": "...", "project": "my-project" },
    "aws": { "accessKeyId": "...", "secretAccessKey": "...", "region": "us-east-1" },
    "cf": { "token": "...", "accountId": "..." }
  },
  "default_cloud": "gcp"
}

Per-project app linking is stored in a .relight.yaml file in your project directory:

app: myapp
cloud: gcp

License

MIT