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Introduction
Forge is a self-hosted control plane for applications, game servers, databases, backups, and node operations.
#What is in the control plane
Forge Web is the browser interface. Forge API persists desired state, runs API-facing services, and coordinates operations. PostgreSQL is the durable source of truth. Redis supports runtime coordination. The supplied Compose stack also includes monitoring, backups, and a reverse proxy.
#What runs on a node
Beacon is the per-node execution agent. It receives authenticated work from Forge, uses the local Docker socket, stores workload files in its data directory, serves SFTP, reports health and observations, and retains no independent placement authority.
#Choose a deployment
| Model | Use it when | Reality |
|---|---|---|
| One VPS | Learning, small installations, first TCP game server | Web, API, PostgreSQL, Redis, Caddy, and one Beacon share one host. |
| Control plane + nodes | Production workloads or recovery | Keep Forge state on one host and deploy a Beacon Compose stack to every workload host. |
| Multiple nodes | Evacuation or restore testing | At least two healthy Beacons plus a shared backup destination are required. |
#Project status
The dashboard exposes a broad platform surface. Treat load balancing, evacuation, recovery, and cloud provisioning as operational features that need a tested topology and shared storage; do not assume automatic failover from their presence in the interface.