Stacks: deploy guides for Node, Python, PHP and Java

Deploy guides for every stack ox runs: React, Next.js, Django, Rails, Laravel, Spring Boot and more, each with its plan and proof, filterable by language.

Last updated 2026-10-09

On this page

Pick your stack below. Each guide shows the plan ox check prints for a small repo of that stack, the ox.toml if you need one, the variables to set, and the messages a failed deploy prints. A simple repo needs no ox.toml at all, so the Quickstart is the shortest path for any stack.

Three of the guides, drawn from their own ox.toml: what ox starts or serves for each. Each guide's file goes through the same checks as ox check, which says Ready to deploy. for every one.

Each guide carries one of two badges:

  • Tested on a real server: ox deployed an app of this stack on a real Ubuntu server in its test lab, and the app served pages.
  • Plan verified, real-server test pending: ox's tests check the plan it makes for this stack. No deploy on a real server is recorded yet.

All stack guides

Filter by language, or browse by kind of app.

Static sites and single-page apps

ox runs the build and Caddy serves the files over HTTPS. No app process runs.

Server-rendered JavaScript apps

ox builds the app and runs its server under systemd, with Caddy in front.

Full-stack web frameworks

The framework's own server, its migrations and its database, from the repo.

APIs, backends and workers

A long-running server or worker, with the database it uses.

More stacks ox has deployed or detected

These have no page of their own yet. Each links to the page to start from.

Works with an ox.toml, not yet tested

ox does not detect these yet, and no test has deployed them. Write the start, build and services in an ox.toml, and check it with ox check first.

Not supported

  • Express with MongoDB: ox runs no MongoDB: Ubuntu 26.04 has no MongoDB server package. Use a hosted one and set its URL as a variable.
  • Ghost: Ghost needs MySQL 8, and ox ships MariaDB.
  • Meteor: Meteor needs MongoDB, which ox does not run.
  • Swift Vapor: No Swift toolchain for Ubuntu 26.04 is verified yet.
  • Puppeteer worker: ox skips Puppeteer's Chrome download and installs none of its system packages, and Ubuntu 26.04's own Chromium is a snap, which ox does not run.
  • GPU inference (vLLM, Ollama on a GPU): ox does not manage GPUs or their drivers.
  • Docker Compose app: ox runs apps without Docker, by design.
  • Windows, IIS or .NET Framework: ox runs on Ubuntu only.

If your stack is not here, read the detection rules to see what ox finds on its own, and the config examples for the rest. Troubleshooting lists the messages any deploy can print.