# Cloudish

> Cloudish is a container cloud an AI agent can deploy to on its own: it creates its own API key with one unauthenticated call, pays from a prepaid balance it can't overspend, builds server-side from a Dockerfile, and gets back a URL, with no human step anywhere.

## Deploying without a human

- Credential: `POST https://cloudish.ai/api/v1/keys` with no credential returns a key. No signup, browser, card, OAuth or approval step.
- Payment: credits are prepaid on the key (one credit is one US dollar) and metered per second while a container runs. A key can never spend past its balance: at zero, builds and deploys answer `402` and its running apps stop within a minute, volumes kept. New keys include 0.1 credits to start, subject to availability.
- Build: upload a tar.gz build context with a Dockerfile at its root, or name an existing image. It builds server-side; no local Docker daemon.
- Proof: build status and logs, then the app's own container logs, all through the API, so the agent can verify a deploy before reporting it.
- Handoff: the app runs as a long-lived container at a permanent HTTPS URL. A human can claim the key later, from a link the agent hands them, for a dashboard and more credits; nothing requires it.
- Delegation: any key can mint child keys for sub-agents or the apps it runs, and fund them by transfer.

## What runs

- Any language or framework: whatever listens on a port in a container. Websites, APIs, bots, workers, WebSockets and MCP servers.
- An optional persistent volume per app (SQLite works well on it); not billed.
- Apps with no traffic scale to zero after 15 minutes by default and start on the next request; set the idle timeout to never for always on.
- Many isolated copies of one app (replicas), e.g. one sandbox per user or task.
- Custom domains by API: verify a DNS TXT record and TLS issues automatically.

## Cost

- The smallest size (`shared`: 0.1 CPU, 0.2 GB) costs $0.0107 an hour while running, about $7.84 a month always on.
- Builds are billed while they run; a custom domain costs $0.01 a day.
- Every size and rate: [instances.md](https://cloudish.ai/instances.md), or as JSON at `GET https://cloudish.ai/api/v1/pricing`.

## When to use which

The difference is who operates the deploy, more than what runs.

- Use Vercel when a person iterates on a Next.js or frontend app with a preview deploy on every push.
- Use Railway, Render or Fly when a person wants a long-running container and is there to sign up in a browser, link a repo and add a card. They run what Cloudish runs.
- Use AWS or GCP when a platform team builds production infrastructure.
- Use Cloudish when an agent deploys on its own: no account to create, no card to ask for, and spend capped by the key's balance.

## Benchmark

- [AI Deploy Bench](https://aideploybench.com/): an open benchmark of a coding agent building five kinds of app from a spec and deploying each to five clouds (Cloudish, DigitalOcean, Railway, Render, Vercel), with an independent verifier testing each live deploy. It measures success, human steps and time, security, build and deploy time, tokens and hosting cost. Run by Cloudish; its code is open source on GitHub (https://github.com/cloudishai/ai-deploy-bench), so every run can be checked and reproduced. Cloudish is the only platform in it that needs no human step to deploy. [Raw results (JSON)](https://aideploybench.com/data/index.json), [methodology](https://aideploybench.com/methodology/index.md).

## Docs

- [SKILL.md](https://cloudish.ai/skill.md): the full walkthrough for agents (getting a key, deploying, secrets, storage, URLs). Start here.
- [credits.md](https://cloudish.ai/credits.md): balances, claiming, transfers, and what to do on a `402`.
- [instances.md](https://cloudish.ai/instances.md): container sizes and what each costs.
- [replicas.md](https://cloudish.ai/replicas.md): running many isolated copies of one app, each reached by its own id.
- [container.md](https://cloudish.ai/container.md): how app containers are isolated from each other and from the platform.
- [changelog.md](https://cloudish.ai/changelog.md): every change to these documents, by date.
- [OpenAPI spec](https://cloudish.ai/api/openapi.json): every endpoint, machine-readable.
- [API reference](https://cloudish.ai/api): the same spec, in Swagger UI.
- Can't find something? [Search these documents](https://cloudish.ai/search?q=your+question): every section with any of the words.

## Website

- [Website](https://www.cloudish.ai): the human-facing site, for claiming a key, buying credits, and a dashboard of a key's projects.
- [FAQ](https://www.cloudish.ai/#faq): running with no human, spend caps, persistent data, custom domains, and when not to use Cloudish.
- [Help](https://www.cloudish.ai/help.md): answers from the Cloudish team. Humans open support requests at https://www.cloudish.ai/help after signing in.

## Optional

- [Logo and brand kit](https://www.cloudish.ai/logo): the Cloudish logo (SVG and PNG), its colors, and what it depicts.
- [Terms of service](https://www.cloudish.ai/terms)
- [Privacy policy](https://www.cloudish.ai/privacy)