yarder

Run your Node stack as native processes from one yarder.yaml. Local GUI. Deploy to a VPS you own. No Docker.

This is an early 0.1.1. The CLI and yaml model work; polish and extras will move.

Source: github.com/yarderhq/yarder.

Requirements

• Node.js 22 or newer
• nginx, Postgres, and Redis via yarder setup (Homebrew or apt on macOS/Linux; WSL2 + Ubuntu on Windows)

yarder will not use Docker. Managed Postgres and Redis need those binaries on PATH.

Install

npm i -g yarder

Or run without installing:

npx yarder

Quick start

yarder setup          # WSL2 on Windows; nginx, Postgres, Redis on WSL/Linux/macOS
yarder setup --check
yarder init
yarder dev            # from a project with yarder.yaml

yarder dev starts native processes via PM2 in depends_on order, waits until each service is healthy, injects .env and discovery URLs, fails clearly on port clashes, and serves a thin GUI.

On Windows, hostname routing (nginx + /etc/hosts) needs WSL2. After yarder setup, run yarder from Ubuntu, not PowerShell. Prefer a clone under the Linux home; /mnt/c/... works but is slow.

yarder.yaml

name: myapp

services:
  web:
    command: npm run dev
    dir: .
    port: 3000
    depends_on:
      - api

  api:
    command: npm start
    dir: ./api
    port: 4000
    health: /health
    depends_on:
      - postgres

  postgres:
    type: postgres

  redis:
    type: redis

Optional per-service fields: install and build (deploy only), dev (yarder dev only), env.

Commands

yarder init
yarder setup [--check]
yarder dev
yarder status
yarder logs [service]
yarder env
yarder restart [service]
yarder stop [service]
yarder remote add production user@your-vps --domain example.com
yarder deploy
yarder status --env production
yarder --help

Deploy to a VPS

Target: Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 you can SSH into with key-based auth. OpenSSH on the laptop is enough (including Windows); WSL is not required for yarder deploy.

yarder remote add production [email protected] --domain example.com
yarder deploy
yarder status --env production
yarder logs api --env production

What that does:

1. Installs Node 22, nginx, PM2, Postgres, Redis, and certbot on the server if missing
2. Copies the yarder CLI to the server and starts yarder-agent on 127.0.0.1:3847 (token-authenticated; reached from your laptop via SSH tunnel)
3. Syncs the project (not node_modules) to /var/yarder/apps/{name} (or ~/yarder/apps/{name})
4. Runs per-service install (default npm ci / npm install) and optional build, then health-gated PM2 start
5. Writes nginx server blocks for {service}.{domain}. If DNS for those names points at the VPS, Certbot issues TLS; otherwise HTTP still works

Open ports 80 and 443 on the VPS. .env is copied with the project (not encrypted at rest). Production processes use PM2 autorestart.

License

yarder is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 only.

Apps you run or deploy with yarder stay yours. Using this CLI does not place your application under the AGPL. Contributions require signing the CLA; see CONTRIBUTING.md.