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Quickstart

Connect your coding agent to an InstaCloud project and deploy something, in about five minutes.

This guide takes you from no account to a coding agent deploying on InstaCloud. You need a coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or any other) and Node.js 18 or newer. No Dockerfile is needed until the last step.

Create an account
Sign up with GitHub, Google, or email. Already have an account? Sign in and go to the next step.
Create a project
In the console, click Create Project. The console opens the project's Quick Start page, which prints the setup command for this project with its project id already filled in.
Prefer to stay in the terminal? Skip the console. This creates a project named after the current directory and links it in the same run:
```
npx -y insta@latest agent setup --create
```
Connect your agent
Copy the prompt or the command from the console, or use either form below with your project id.
Prompt
```
Fetch and execute the appropriate instructions to set me up for InstaCloud from https://instacloud.com/prompt.md. Project id: <project-id>.
```
CLI
```
npx -y insta@latest agent setup --project <project-id>
```
Both do the same work. The insta CLI is installed globally, the insta skill and the remote MCP server are registered for every coding agent on this machine, the console opens in your browser once so you can approve the sign-in, and the current directory is linked to the project. Both are safe to run again.
Note
Setup targets production. Machines without Node, native Windows shells, and the staging deployment are covered in Set up your coding agent.
Verify
Start a new agent session so it picks up the MCP server, then ask it to check the wiring. Or run the check yourself.
Prompt
```
Check my InstaCloud setup: run insta status and call insta_whoami.
```
CLI
```
insta status
```
Either way you should see the environment, the signed-in user, and the linked project and branch:
```
env:     prod
api:     https://api.instacloud.com
user:    you@example.com
project: 7d3c2a10-5b8e-4f61-9a2c-0e4f6b1d8c35 (branch main)
```
If the agent gets answers from both insta status and insta_whoami, the CLI, the skill, and the MCP server are all wired. In Claude Code, claude mcp list also shows insta-cloud as connected.
Deploy something
Hand the work to the agent. Pick the prompt that matches where you are:
I have an app
Run your agent in the app's directory. Source deploys build from a Dockerfile, so the app needs one.
```
Deploy this app on InstaCloud with a Postgres database wired in.
```
Start from scratch
Run your agent in an empty directory.
```
Build a todo app with Postgres for the data, then deploy it on InstaCloud and send me the live URL.
```
The agent adds the services, wires the database credentials into compute, and deploys. When it finishes it reports the service URL. You approve the sign-in, and the agent drives the rest.
CLI: the commands the agent runs
The same commands work by hand:
```
insta services add postgres db
insta services add compute app
insta secrets bind DATABASE_URL postgres/db --to compute/app
insta deploy .
```
services add creates each service on the current branch. secrets bind injects the Postgres connection string as DATABASE_URL when compute deploys. deploy . builds the directory remotely from its Dockerfile and prints the URL. Ports, regions, images, and build troubleshooting are in Build & deploy. On self-hosted InstaCloud OSS, secrets bind answers 501: every compute container already receives each service's credentials under their own names (insta secrets list names them).
No Dockerfile and no agent at hand? In the console, open the project's Services page, click Add Service, and choose Deploy a Template.