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Getting Started

Get up and running with Miren in minutes.

Installation​

Install Miren with a single command:

curl -fsSL https://miren.cloud/install | sudo bash

This script will:

  • Download the latest Miren release
  • Install the miren CLI binary
  • Set up the Miren server
  • Configure everything you need to start deploying

System Requirements​

  • Operating System: Linux (kernel 5.10+)
  • Architecture: x86_64 or arm64
  • Memory: 4GB minimum, 8GB recommended
  • Storage: 50GB minimum, 100GB recommended

Why these requirements?

Verify Installation​

Check that Miren is installed correctly:

miren version

Start the Miren Server​

(Skip this step if you are using our demo cluster)

Set up and start the Miren server:

sudo miren server install

This will:

  • Download required components
  • Register your cluster with miren.cloud (follow the prompts)
  • Install and start the Miren systemd service
  • Configure your CLI to use the local cluster

To skip cloud registration and run standalone:

sudo miren server install --without-cloud

Using Our Demo Cluster​

Ask for access to our demo cluster in #miren-club on Discord.

# Once you have access, connect to the demo cluster
$ miren login
$ miren cluster add

Select a cluster to bind:
   NAME                ORGANIZATION   ADDRESS
▸  miren-demo          mirendev       1.2.3.4:8443 (+7)

Deploy Your First App​

Miren automatically detects and builds your app. Supported languages include:

  • Python: Detects requirements.txt, Pipfile, pyproject.toml, uv.lock
  • JavaScript/Node: Detects package.json (npm, yarn)
  • Bun: Detects bun.lockb
  • Go: Detects go.mod
  • Ruby: Detects Gemfile
  • Rust: Detects Cargo.toml

Don't see your language? You can always provide a Dockerfile.

Preview before deploying

Use miren deploy --analyze to see what Miren detects without actually building or deploying:

miren deploy --analyze

This shows the detected stack, services, environment variables, and how each service will be started.

Just run:

cd your-project
miren init
miren deploy

That's it! Miren will:

  • Detect your language and framework
  • Build a container image
  • Deploy your app
  • Show you the URL to access it

Note: Your first app gets a default route automatically. For subsequent apps, you'll need to configure routes manually. See Working with Routes.

"How do I configure multiple instances of my application?"​

By default, you don't!

A core philosophy of Miren is that guessing replica/instance/copy counts is the wrong way to manage application scaling by default. For that reason, from day 1, Miren has built around autoscaling application instances. It does this using the same technique that Google Cloud Run uses, namely that as the amount of traffic to the application increases, additional instances are automatically launched.

And as the traffic reduces, the instance counts are automatically reduced.

If an application isn't stateless and needs to only run a certain number of copies, the application can be switched to fixed mode where you set the number of instances. This is commonly used for services that your application also needs, like databases, background workers, etc.

See Application Scaling for full documentation on configuring scaling behavior.

Check Your Application​

View All Applications​

miren app list

View Application Details​

miren app

Or to view a specific app:

miren app --app myapp

View Deployment History​

See past deployments:

miren app history

View Logs​

See what your application is doing:

miren logs

View logs for a specific app:

miren logs --app myapp

Show logs from the last 5 minutes:

miren logs --last 5m

Managing Applications​

Initialize a New Application​

If you want to set up a new project:

miren init

This creates the necessary configuration for your project.

Delete an Application​

Remove an application and all its resources:

miren app delete myapp

Environment Variables​

Manage environment variables for your application:

# View environment variables
miren env list

# Set an environment variable (then redeploy)
miren env set --env KEY=value

Persistent Storage with Disks​

Need to store data that survives restarts? Add a disk to your service in .miren/app.toml:

[[services.db.disks]]
name = "myapp-data"
mount_path = "/data"
size_gb = 10

NOTE: Disks can only be used with fixed instance scheduled services, which the default web service is not.

Your data is automatically backed up to Miren Cloud. See Disks for full documentation.

Working with Routes​

When you deploy your first application, Miren automatically creates a default route for it.

For additional apps, you'll need to either create a custom route:

miren route set myapp.example.com myapp

Or set the app as the new default:

miren route set-default myapp

View HTTP routes for your applications:

miren route

Troubleshooting​

Application Won't Start​

Check the logs:

miren logs

Can't Access Application​

Verify the app is running:

miren app status

Check the routes:

miren route

Need Help?​

  • Check the CLI Reference for command details
  • View the FAQ
  • See Support for bug reports, feature requests, and community help

A Note on System Requirements​

Miren runs several components—containerd, etcd, buildkit, metrics, and logging—that together use around 600MB of memory at idle. During builds, memory usage spikes as buildkit compiles your application. A single Rails app with Postgres can push total usage past 1.3GB during deployment, which is why we recommend 4GB minimum.

For storage, container images and build caches add up quickly. Base images for languages like Ruby or Python are 50-80MB compressed but expand on disk, and BuildKit caches intermediate build layers aggressively—keeping up to 10GB by default. A single Rails deployment can use 15-20GB between base images, build cache, and the container registry. With multiple apps and their version history, usage grows from there. Starting with 50GB gives you comfortable headroom; if you're tight on space, you'll see "no space left on device" errors during builds.

We're still learning about system requirements as more users deploy Miren in different contexts. If you have an interesting deployment scenario or resource constraints you'd like to discuss, come chat with us on Discord!

Next Steps​