User Guide

This guide builds one project: a web server with a firewall, a static site, and HTTPS. Each page adds one part of the server and the part of winch that it needs.

1. Start a project: the project file, and a first command on the server.
2. A web server: steps, the plan, and apply.
3. Environments: inventories for production and staging, variables, and templates.
4. Groups and pipelines: servers with different roles.
5. Recipes: the steps, templates, and handlers of one service in one place.
6. HTTPS: a certificate from Let's Encrypt.

You need winch on your machine. The Quick Start shows how to install it. You also need a server with Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04, or Ubuntu 26.04 that you can log in to with SSH, as root or as a user with passwordless sudo. Later pages add two more servers. Small virtual machines are enough. The HTTPS page needs a domain name that points to the web server.

The Reference has the details of every command, file, and module.