Deploy with Render and Neon

Use this fork-based quick deployment if you do not have an instance yet. You need GitHub, Neon, and a compute-provider account. These providers are convenience options, not InKCre requirements; Advanced Self-Hosting covers your own infrastructure.

Keep credentials in a password manager. API keys let the workflow act on your hosting accounts; they are different from sign-in passwords.

1. Open InKCre/core-py, choose Fork, and create your repository copy. Open its Actions tab and enable workflows if GitHub asks.
2. Create a project in Neon. Keep the default neondb database and neondb_owner role. Save the project ID and create a Neon API key with access to it.
3. Create a workspace in Render. Save its workspace ID from Settings and create a Render API key. Your fork must be public, or Render must already have permission to read it.
4. In your fork, open Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions. Use New repository secret under Secrets and New repository variable under Variables to add:

Kind	Name	Value
Secret	NEON_API_KEY	Your Neon API key.
Secret	RENDER_API_KEY	Your Render API key.
Secret	JWT_SECRET	A new random secret of at least 32 ASCII characters, saved in your password manager.
Variable	NEON_PROJECT_ID	Your Neon project ID.
Variable	RENDER_OWNER_ID	Your Render workspace ID.
Variable	RENDER_SERVICE_PREFIX	A unique lowercase prefix such as alex-inkcre, between 3 and 40 characters.

5. Open Actions → Deploy self-hosted InKCre → Run workflow, select your fork's main branch, and run it. Wait for completion. If it fails, open the failed step, correct the reported problem, and rerun using the same credentials.
6. Open the completed run's summary. Save the Core URL, PostgREST URL, and Core Peer ID. The workflow deliberately does not print your secret; retain the original value.
7. Open the Core URL with /readyz appended. Continue when it returns HTTP 200. A sleeping service may take time to start.

Checkpoint: deployment succeeded, and you have both service URLs and your JWT_SECRET. Use the Core URL for the CLI and the PostgREST URL for the Web app later.

The workflow selects Render Free services. They sleep when idle, share account usage limits, and cannot guarantee continuous collection. Check Render's current limits and your Neon plan before relying on them. Continuous scheduled collection needs hosting that keeps Core running. The maintained deployment procedure and recovery details live in the Core self-hosting guide.

Keep your instance credentials private. JWT_SECRET grants control of the instance, not a limited personal login. Do not paste it into an online JWT generator, an issue, a chat, or your public fork. This deployment does not isolate different users from one another. Start with your own information and trusted devices.

Next: Connect the CLI, or return to the self-hosted walkthrough.