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What Is Compartment

Compartment is a self-hosted application deployment system for teams that want to ship internal, private, or public web apps without building their own platform stack.

It is designed for the case where application code already exists, often from a normal product team or from AI coding agents, and you need a controlled place to install the runtime, deploy the app, expose it on a stable URL, and manage access.

What it consists of

Section titled “What it consists of”

Compartment has two user-facing parts:

  • the compartment CLI, which you use to install the system, log in, deploy, inspect, and operate it;
  • the system itself, which exposes a browser control plane at console.<baseDomain> and hosts deployed apps under the install base domain.

What it can run

Section titled “What it can run”

Compartment hosts the apps and websites you want to run on your own infrastructure.

If an app can build into a container image and run inside Docker, it can usually fit the Compartment model.

Internal tools are a common use case, but they are not the only one. Public apps can also fit well when the deployment model is convenient for your team. For example, this docs site and the Compartment public website are hosted with Compartment.

Typical examples include:

  • internal tools and back-office apps;
  • admin panels and support tools;
  • private APIs and dashboards;
  • public apps and websites;
  • AI-generated apps that still need a secure runtime and access model.

Working with AI agents

Section titled “Working with AI agents”

One of the core use cases for Compartment is working with AI coding agents.

Because the deployment model is explicit, an agent can be told to make a repository Compartment-deployable, add the required descriptor files, install Compartment on a target server, and wire up a deploy flow that matches the current docs.

That does not limit you to an agent-only workflow. You can still use a standard local CLI deploy flow, CI-driven automation, or a Git and GitHub deployment path.

How teams usually use it

Section titled “How teams usually use it”

The common workflow is:

  1. install one Compartment runtime on a server;
  2. install the CLI on developer or operator machines;
  3. log into the control plane from the CLI or browser;
  4. add compartment.yml to a repository;
  5. choose a deploy path: direct CLI deploy from a local checkout, or connect the repository through Git for a branch-driven flow;
  6. manage URLs, variables, users, and roles as the app grows.

Core terms

Section titled “Core terms”
  • install: one Compartment runtime with one base domain and one control plane.
  • organization: the collaboration boundary for users, roles, and projects.
  • project: the app identity derived from compartment.yml.
  • environment: the target runtime environment, such as production or staging.
  • service: one deployable unit inside the project.
  • deployment: one rollout attempt for one service.

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