Dashboard

1. Dashboard

Welcome to the Dashboard tab! Here, you'll find important information about your container, like IP addresses, status, hostnames, and controls to stop, reboot, and delete your container.

Stop/Reboot controls are especially helpful if a process gets hung or your container runs out of memory.

Do not click delete container unless you want to permanently wipe your container. This operation cannot be undone and you will have to reapply for a container. If your container is broken, try restoring from a backup first!

2. Domains/Reverse Proxy

The Domains tab allows you to reverse proxy whatever you're hosting in your Nest container, making it accessible to the public internet! To start, make sure your program is listening to all addresses on a certain port (e.g., 3000 or 8080).

Go to your domain's DNS settings page and do the following:

1. Create a CNAME record. If you want it to be a subdomain, add a name, otherwise use @ to leave it as root.
2. Set the target to your Nest address (your-username.hackclub.app).
3. Make sure the proxy setting is off / set to DNS only.
4. Save it! Note that other DNS providers may handle this differently — the Cloudflare screenshot is for illustrative purposes only.

Head back to your Nest dashboard's Domains tab and add the domain — in this example, birdie.mycooldomain.com. Enter the port your project is running on (in this case, 8080) in the target port box, then click Add Domain!

If you get an "unauthorized" error, that's a bug and reloading usually resolves the issue. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate depending on the provider, so please be patient!

Note: You can also get more subdomains of *.username,hackclub.app, just enter that in the domain box and update the DNS record accordingly.

3. SSH Keys

Your SSH key is your only way into your container; you should always have at least one added!

If you ever switch computers, that key does not transfer over. While it is possible to copy an SSH key between machines, it's not recommended. Instead, generate a new SSH key on each device you want to SSH in from, and add it to your dashboard. The quickstart has command-by-command instructions if you need help!

4. Backups

Ever made a change that broke everything? It happens to everyone.

Backups let you revert your container to a previous state without having to delete it and reapply. You can wait for an automatic backup to occur at 9pm UTC daily, which will appear in your backup page, or backup your container manually by downloading it to your PC using a tool like WinSCP, though automatic backups are usually much easier.

For example, clicking restore on the top backup will restore your container to its exact state at 21:43:00 on 5/17. Do note that any work done after that backup was created will be permanently lost, so use caution.