# 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. [Sign up](https://console.instacloud.com/signup) with GitHub, Google, or email. Already have an account? [Sign in](https://console.instacloud.com/signin) and go to the next step. 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: ```bash npx -y insta@latest agent setup --create ``` Copy the prompt or the command from the console, or use either form below with your project id. ```text title="Prompt" wrap Fetch and execute the appropriate instructions to set me up for InstaCloud from https://instacloud.com/prompt.md. Project id: . ``` ```bash title="CLI" npx -y insta@latest agent setup --project ``` 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. Setup targets production. Machines without Node, native Windows shells, and the staging deployment are covered in [Set up your coding agent](https://www.instacloud.com/docs/agents/setup). Start a new agent session so it picks up the MCP server, then ask it to check the wiring. Or run the check yourself. ```text title="Prompt" wrap Check my InstaCloud setup: run insta status and call insta_whoami. ``` ```bash title="CLI" insta status ``` Either way you should see the environment, the signed-in user, and the linked project and branch: ```text 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. Hand the work to the agent. Pick the prompt that matches where you are: Run your agent in the app's directory. Source deploys build from a Dockerfile, so the app needs one. ```text wrap Deploy this app on InstaCloud with a Postgres database wired in. ``` Run your agent in an empty directory. ```text wrap 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. The same commands work by hand: ```bash 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](https://www.instacloud.com/docs/deploy/overview). 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**. ## Next steps A real, isolated Postgres server per project that scales to zero and branches in seconds. An S3-compatible bucket per branch, forked with the branch. Run any container in a microVM, always on or scaling to zero. The `insta_*` tools the MCP server exposes, grouped by area.