Coolify — own-the-box PaaS on your VPS

Coolify is an open-source, self-hostable control plane that turns a plain Linux VPS into a Vercel/Heroku replacement: Git-to-deploy, managed databases, automatic SSL, scheduled backups — for a flat VPS bill instead of per-request metering. This skill is operational. It produces the exact install one-liner, the port matrix, env wiring, a lint-clean compose artifact, and a backup-to-S3 cron with a tested restore. Coolify 4.x (stable in 2026); v4.1 added Railpack, structured audit logging, and a read-only MCP server.

Mental model — read this first