Getting started

What is Trellis?

Trellis brings an app-store experience to software you own. Choose established open-source applications, run them on infrastructure you control, and make them fit the way your company works.

Start with a good application

Use Memos for notes or Plane for project management. Keep their familiar interfaces and the expertise already built into them. You don’t need to commission a new notes app or project tracker to get one workflow that suits your business.

An existing deployment matters too: bringing an app into Trellis should preserve its data and useful customisations, not replace it with an empty installation.

Make it yours

Start with the application’s settings. Use an extension when settings aren’t enough. Ask an app-specific agent for a code change or an integration when you need something more.

The result belongs in the tool you use: a workflow, a screen, a button or a connection. You shouldn’t need to repeat a prompt every time you do the same task. Keeping that change working through upgrades is part of the job, not an afterthought.

Delegate the operating work

The administrator connects infrastructure and sets access, region and spending constraints. Owners choose their apps and the changes they want. Routine deployment, checks, backups and updates belong behind that experience; consequential choices come back to the owner.

An app definition supplies the application-specific knowledge: how to deploy it, check it, change it and recover it. The agent interprets requests and problems; bounded tools carry out operations. That knowledge stays with the application when the conversation or agent changes.

Keep control

Ownership means access to the code, configuration and data—not just paying the server bill. Export, recovery and the ability to operate without Trellis are design requirements. Self-hosting doesn’t automatically make an application work offline; that depends on the application itself.

See how it works, read common questions, or explore the full argument in Software Worth Keeping.