# What is Nolay

URL: https://docs.nolay.ru/en/start/what-is-nolay/
Updated: 2026-09-23

> What Nolay is made of, what the agent does on your server and what stays with you.

Nolay is a deploy panel for your own server. You rent a VPS from any hosting provider, run one command on it, and from then on your projects are built and run on that machine. We do not sell servers and do not ask for access to them.

## Three parts

| Part | Where it runs | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Panel | `app.nolay.ru`, ours | The interface: servers, projects, deploys, logs, domains, secrets |
| Hub | `api.nolay.ru`, ours | The agent gateway: accepts agent connections and passes commands from the panel |
| Agent | your server | Builds images, runs containers, manages the proxy, certificates and backups |

Connections go out only: the agent opens one WSS connection to the hub on port 443 itself. No inbound ports need to be opened for the agent. Ports 80 and 443 on the server are taken by the Caddy proxy that serves your projects.

## What the agent does

- **Deploy.** Fetches the code, builds the image on your server and starts the new version. If the new version fails the readiness check, the previous one keeps running.
- **Rollback.** Brings back any stored version without rebuilding.
- **Logs.** Streams build and container logs to the panel on request.
- **Domains and HTTPS.** Configures the proxy and issues and renews certificates itself.
- **Secrets.** Keeps them encrypted on the server and passes them to the container.
- **Backups.** Puts volumes and database dumps into your S3 storage on a schedule.

The agent has a closed list of commands: running an arbitrary command on the server through Nolay is not possible. The agent runs as the `nolay` system user, not as root.

## If Nolay is unavailable

Projects keep running: containers and the proxy live on your server and do not depend on the panel. While the hub is unreachable, the panel shows the last known data and new deploys wait for the connection.

## Next

If you do not have a server yet, read [what a VPS is and where to get one](/en/start/vps/). If you do, check the [server requirements](/en/start/requirements/).