Uncloud Cluster Management

Reference for the uc CLI — a decentralised self-hosting platform using Docker containers, WireGuard mesh networking, and Caddy reverse proxy.

When to Activate

Use this skill when working with Uncloud clusters, especially when:

• Bootstrapping or joining machines with uc machine
• Deploying services from Compose files with uc deploy
• Publishing HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, or UDP ports through Uncloud
• Configuring Caddy ingress with x-caddy, x-ports, or --caddyfile
• Routing external LAN devices through the cluster proxy
• Inspecting logs, service state, volumes, DNS, or machine placement

How It Works

Uncloud runs Docker services across peer machines connected by a WireGuard mesh. Each machine is an equal cluster member; services communicate on the overlay network and Caddy runs globally to terminate public HTTP/HTTPS traffic. Compose files can use Uncloud extensions for ingress, placement, and generated Caddy configuration, while the uc CLI handles image distribution, scheduling, scaling, logs, and cluster state.

Examples

uc machine init user@host --name machine-1
uc service run --name web -p app.example.com:8080/https nginx:latest
uc deploy

Core Concepts

• No central control plane — all machines are equal peers connected by WireGuard
• Caddy runs as a global service on every machine; auto-obtains TLS from Let's Encrypt
• Overlay network — services communicate via 10.210.0.0/16 by default; DNS provided inside the mesh
• Caddyfile is autogenerated — never edit it directly; use x-caddy / --caddyfile instead

CLI Quick Reference

Machines

Key init flags: --name, --network 10.210.0.0/16, --no-caddy, --no-dns, --public-ip auto\|IP\|none

Services

Images

uc image push myapp:latest                    # Push local image to all machines
uc image push myapp:latest -m machine1,machine2  # Push to specific machines
uc images                                     # List images in cluster

Volumes

uc volume ls                  # All volumes
uc volume ls -m machine1      # On specific machine
uc volume create NAME -m MACHINE
uc volume rm NAME

Caddy

uc caddy config    # Show current generated Caddyfile (read-only)
uc caddy deploy    # Deploy/upgrade Caddy across cluster

DNS & Context

uc dns show        # Show reserved *.uncld.dev domain
uc dns reserve     # Reserve a new domain
uc ctx ls          # List cluster contexts
uc ctx use prod    # Switch context

Port Publishing

HTTP/HTTPS (via Caddy reverse proxy)

-p [hostname:]container_port[/protocol]

TCP/UDP (host-bound, bypasses Caddy)

-p [host_ip:]host_port:container_port[/protocol]@host

Compose File Extensions

Uncloud adds these extensions on top of Docker Compose:

x-ports — publish ports with domains

services:
  app:
    image: app:latest
    x-ports:
      - example.com:8000/https
      - www.example.com:8000/https
      - api.example.com:9000/https

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