tako

What is Tako?

Ship apps to your own servers without turning deployment into a part-time job.

Tako gives you the "upload files, refresh, done" feeling with modern guardrails: rolling deploys, load balancing, HTTPS, secrets, and logs out of the box.

Tako is not just a deployment tool. The vision is a self-hosted application platform: the backend for your backend.

Deployment is the starting point, not the finish line. Over time, Tako should provide the core primitives teams end up rebuilding in every stack: durable channels, workflows, and other platform capabilities built into one tool instead of stitched together from many.

Install

Install the CLI:

curl -fsSL https://tako.sh/install.sh | sh

Verify:

tako --version

Start local development from your app directory:

bun add tako.sh   # or: npm install tako.sh
tako dev
# optional temporary public URL:
tako dev --tunnel

Set up a deployment host:

# Connect the host and your workstation to Tailscale first.
# The host installer bootstraps only; servers add starts and verifies it.
sudo sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://tako.sh/install-server.sh)"
tako servers add my-server
# Or install/repair over SSH while adding:
tako servers add root@my-server
# Custom public ports:
tako servers add root@my-server --http-port 8080 --https-port 8443

Deploy your app:

tako init    # prompts for app name + route, offers wildcard HTTPS setup, writes tako.toml
tako servers add my-server
# Optional: Let’s Encrypt wildcard certificates via Cloudflare DNS-01; traffic can stay DNS-only/direct.
# Use a user or account API token with Zone Read and DNS Write for the matching Cloudflare zone.
tako credentials set ssl.cloudflare --env production --expires-on "in 90 days"
# Optional: Cloudflare Origin CA certificates for Cloudflare-proxied apps.
# Set ssl = "cloudflare" in tako.toml, then store a token with Zone / SSL and Certificates / Edit:
tako credentials set ssl.cloudflare --env production --expires-on "in 90 days"
tako deploy

Quick links

• Quickstart — install to live in minutes
• How Tako Works — architecture and mental model
• tako.toml Reference — every config option
• CLI Reference — all commands and flags
• Framework Guides — adapter examples
• Local Development — HTTPS, DNS, environment variables
• Deployment — deploy flow, rolling updates, rollbacks
• Troubleshooting — common issues and fixes
• Examples
• SDK
• Benchmarks — current TLDR and raw-data links

Agent Skills

Install Tako skills for Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, and other skills.sh-compatible agents:

npx skills add tako-sh/tako

Install a specific skill with --skill tako, --skill tako-sdk-js, or --skill tako-sdk-go.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.