Quickstart

You need a Guv account with a card on file. A trial gives you £5 of credit for 30 days, and nothing is charged unless you choose a plan.

Option 1: from the dashboard

1. Open the dashboard and choose Connect GitHub.
2. Pick a repository. Guv looks at it and tells you, in plain English, what it is going to do. For example: “We’ll build a Next.js app with Node 22 and give you a Postgres database.”
3. If your repository has a .env.example, Guv offers to fill in each variable. Anything that looks like a key is stored as a write-only secret.
4. Choose Deploy. You will see a friendly build log (“Installing packages… 42 s”) with the raw log one click away.
5. When it is live you get a URL on guv.run, a QR code for your phone, and a card to invite your AI.

Option 2: from your terminal

Install the CLI and sign in. The CLI opens your browser and you confirm with your passkey.

brew install guv        # or: scoop install guv, or npx guv
guv login

From your project directory, either deploy what is in front of you, without git:

guv up

or set the project up properly, with a guv.yaml you can commit:

guv init                # detects your stack and writes guv.yaml
guv deploy --wait

Option 3: ask your AI

If you use Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or another coding agent, install the Guv skill and connect the MCP server:

guv setup agent

Then ask: “Deploy this app to Guv with a Postgres database.” Your agent works through the same API as you. It can deploy to previews and staging on its own, and anything that touches production waits for your approval. See Deploy with your AI.

What you get by default

Without changing a setting, every Guv project has:

• Data kept in London. Compute, databases, volumes, backups and logs stay in the UK.
• Its own virtual machine for every service. Your code never shares a kernel with anyone else’s.
• Backups on every database, with restores tested daily.
• A spend cap. £10 on Hobby and £50 on Pro, until you change it.
• A Safety Centre grade that checks for leaked keys, exposed databases and missing headers.
• Zero-downtime deploys with health checks, and one-click rollback.

Next steps

• Add a custom domain.
• Describe your project as code with guv.yaml.
• Check your Safety Centre grade.