Deploy Vulpy Commerce to a VPS

Install Vulpy Commerce on Ubuntu 24.04 with the interactive wizard: Docker, Caddy, Fox, and dev. Choose Tailscale, own domain, sslip.io, or both.

Production deploy targets Ubuntu 24.04. The install wizard sets up Docker, creates a dedicated deploy user, and brings up Fox plus the dev shop. Live is added later by a human with pnpm vulpy env add live.

Ask Fox on your dev machine before you SSH in. Fox can walk you through prompts, draft checklists, and explain each flag, then you run the installer on the VPS.

Try prompts like:

• “Walk me through the install wizard prompts.”
• “Explain the IMDS lock and whether I should keep it on.”
• “Draft a checklist for my first VPS install.”

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 24.04 VPS with a sudoer login (ubuntu by default)
• SSH access and, if you plan to use custom domains, DNS you can point

Interactive install

The wizard needs a TTY, so write the remote install script to a file and run it with bash. Do not pipe curl or gh api into bash; that breaks the interactive prompts.

Release (customer default)

gh auth login
gh api -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.raw" \
  "repos/vulpy-io/vulpy-commerce-pro/contents/scripts/vulpy-remote-install.sh?ref=main" \
  > /tmp/vulpy-remote-install.sh
bash /tmp/vulpy-remote-install.sh

The wizard prompts you for a deploy user (default vulpy-commerce, with the checkout at /home/vulpy-commerce/vulpy-commerce), the shared admin credentials, and access mode. Day-2 commands run as sudo -iu vulpy-commerce.

Before setup begins, the wizard asks you to type yes to an agent-risk disclaimer that Fox is an AI operator and that neither Vulpy nor any third party assumes responsibility for its actions. Unattended installs must pass --i-understand-agent-risk.

Access paths

At install you pick how Fox and the shop are reachable.

Path	Behavior
Tailscale (default)	Fox sidecar joins its own Tailscale identity and serves HTTPS on Fox on :443/:80. Shop and Medusa are on :3000 and :9000 inside the tailnet. Host Tailscale for SSH is a separate suggested join.
Own domain	App Caddy serves dev.<domain>, api.dev.<domain>, admin.dev.<domain>, and analytics.dev.<domain> (labels overridable).
No domain	Temporary sslip.io hosts on the server IP with the same four roles.
Both	Fox on Tailscale plus a public HTTPS preview (domain if --domain is set, sslip.io otherwise).

AWS IMDS lock

On EC2 or Lightsail, the wizard blocks instance metadata by default with an nft reject rule, so Fox cannot use the VM IAM role even inadvertently.

Set VULPY_IMDS_LOCK=0 to opt out, or provide an explicit provider API key if you need Bedrock. Check status with pnpm vulpy hermes doctor.

After install

• Open the Fox URL over HTTPS and sign in with your install credentials.
• Confirm the same credentials open the Medusa admin at /app and the Payload admin at /admin.
• Run pnpm vulpy verify from the deploy user for a quick health check.
• When you are ready to sell, follow Go live.

Environments

How dev, staging, and live are isolated on a single host.

Backup and restore

Snapshot environments and migrate data from your laptop.