Deploy from a template or Git URL
Start a project without connecting your own GitHub account, from a one-click app, a framework starter, or any repository URL from GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea, Forgejo or your own Git server.
Not every project starts from a GitHub repository you connected. The New Project page (sidebar New Project) has three ways to start without one:
| You want | Use | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| A ready-made app: a database, a CMS, an analytics or automation tool | The Apps tab | One-click apps |
| Code from any Git host, public or private | The Git URL tab | Deploy from any Git URL |
| A blank starter for a framework | The Template tab | Framework starters below |
Git URL
The Git URL tab deploys a repository from any Git host, not only GitHub: GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea, Forgejo, Codeberg, or your own server, over HTTPS or SSH. Public repositories need nothing; private ones use an access token or a deploy key that Synq generates for you. In short:
- Paste the Repository URL, for example
https://gitlab.com/acme/shop.gitorgit@git.example.com:team/app.git. - Under Access, choose Public, Access token or Deploy key.
- Press Test access, pick the Branch (and a Root directory for a monorepo), and press Continue.
- Review the detected build on the deploy screen and press Deploy.
The full walkthrough, with token types per provider, SSH host key pinning and error codes, is in Deploy from any Git URL. To redeploy on every push, add the webhook Synq gives you in your provider: see Auto-deploy.
GitHub repositories
A GitHub URL works in the Git URL tab too. For your own GitHub repositories, the GitHub tab is usually better: it lists your repositories, shows commits, and manages the push webhook. See Deploy from GitHub.
One-click apps
The Apps tab (also at /apps/new) is the catalog of ready-made apps: more than 150 stacks such as
PostgreSQL, Ghost, n8n, Plausible or Uptime Kuma. Pick one, answer a few questions (name, domain, server),
and press Install; Synq generates the passwords and wires the containers together. See
One-click apps and the full list in the
Templates catalog.
To turn your own stack into a one-click app for your organization, see Custom templates.
Framework starters
The Template tab shows a grid of framework tiles (Next.js, Astro, Express, Django and more). Clicking a
tile opens the deploy screen for that framework's starter repository, synq/template-<framework> on
GitHub, so you can deploy a blank app and build on it.
Starter repositories are not published yet
The starter repositories the Template tab points at are not published in this release, so clicking a tile ends on "Failed to Load Repository". Until they are, start from a one-click app, or paste any public starter repository (for example your framework's official example) into the Git URL tab.
CLI
For a GitHub repository, a project is "a name plus an owner and repository":
# For https://github.com/acme/example: owner = acme, repo = example
synq project create --name my-app --git-owner acme --git-repo example
# Ship it
synq deploy --project <project-id> --watchThe CLI has no command for Git URL imports yet; use the panel, or the
API routes with synq api.
Troubleshooting
“Enter an https:// or SSH Git URL”
The Git URL tab could not read what you pasted. Use an https:// URL or an SSH URL (git@host:path or
ssh://git@host/path). http://, git:// and URLs with a password in them are refused on purpose.
The import worked but the build failed
Open the build screen and read the last few red lines; that is the real reason. Common causes are a missing build command, a missing environment variable, or the app listening on the wrong port. See Troubleshooting → Deployments.
Related guides
Box: a dev environment in the browser
Install a Box to get VS Code in the browser on your own server, with the runtimes you pick, git and build tools, your code on persistent volumes, and a domain for any dev server in one step.
Build detection and builders
How Synq decides how to build your code (the Dockerfile-first rule, Compose, framework detection) and how to choose another builder per project, Dockerfile with a custom path and context, Nixpacks, Railpack or Cloud Native Buildpacks.