A VPS with Coolify and Outline gives you a dashboard for deploying services and a documentation base for your future AI employee. You’ll need access to the server and a domain to follow the setup in the video using your own subdomains. This first part gets the infrastructure and documentation up and running; RAG-based memory, MCP and automations will be connected later.
In my setup, I use a Hostinger VPS. Hostinger sponsored the video, and I select Coolify from its control panel. The goal is to host several services on the same server and cut down on the subscriptions I pay for separately. The server still costs money, and you’re responsible for managing it.
What you’ll set up and which resources you need
The setup starts with the VPS, where the services run. On top of that sits Coolify, the dashboard you use to deploy and configure them. Outline will be the place to store documentation, decisions and notes for each project.
Coolify handles deployment, while Outline provides the editor and document organisation. Outline supports hosting on your own infrastructure and includes collaboration and permissions features. (getoutline.com)
To follow the walkthrough in the video, you’ll need:
- A VPS with access to the provider’s control panel.
- Coolify installed or available as an installation option.
- A domain whose DNS records you can edit.
- The server’s public IP address.
In the video, I recommend KVM 2 as a starting point and KVM 4 if you’re going to set up all the services in the series. That recommendation also accounts for the components coming later: with 4 GB of RAM, there’s too little headroom for everything I want to deploy.
If you want to understand the dashboard’s role first, read my article on Coolify as an alternative to Vercel. Here, the focus is on getting the documentation ready for the agents to use.
How to prepare Coolify on your VPS
-
Select Coolify when setting up the server.
In the Hostinger walkthrough, the dashboard appears among the installation options. Then you choose the VPS location and set up your access credentials. I recommend using an SSH key, although I use a password in the demo.
If you already have a server with services or data on it, check the implications before applying a different image or operating system through your provider. Use this walkthrough for a new VPS or one that’s ready for this installation.
-
Open the Coolify dashboard and create your account.
Once installation finishes, the provider shows you how to access the dashboard. In the video, I open it using the server’s IP address and port
8000. Create the administrator account before moving on to resources.Complete the initial setup wizard and select the same machine as the deployment server. Then create your first project, which will group Outline and its resources together.
By the end of this section, you should have an accessible dashboard and a project ready to use. You don’t need to deploy databases or applications separately yet: the next resource will use a template.
How to give the dashboard a domain
- Create an A record for the Coolify subdomain.
Source: Instance settings
Open your domain’s DNS manager and add an A record. Use coolify as the name and the VPS’s public IP address as the target. This record points the subdomain to the server hosting the dashboard. (coolify.io)
In the video, I make this change in Hostinger. If you manage your DNS with another provider, create the record there.
-
Save the full address in Coolify’s settings.
Open “Settings”, find the “URL” field and enter your subdomain with the
https://prefix. Save the changes after pointing the DNS record to the server. Coolify uses this address for dashboard access and to generate instance links. (coolify.io)Check that you can open the dashboard from the domain and sign in. Use a dedicated subdomain for Coolify: sharing the same address with an application can cause routing and certificate conflicts. (coolify.io)
In my test, the domain started responding before HTTPS access was working as expected. DNS and HTTPS need separate checks: confirm that the name points to the server and that the browser accepts the certificate before considering this step complete. (coolify.io)
How to deploy Outline from a template
-
Add Outline to the project.
Go to “Projects”, open the project you created and click “New resource”. Search for “Outline” in the service list and select the template. In the video, I name it “Outline documentation” to identify it in the dashboard.
Review the details generated by the template and save the configuration. The PostgreSQL credentials shown are part of the deployment; avoid copying them into screenshots or shared documents.
-
Assign a subdomain to the documentation.
In the service’s domain field, set the subdomain you want to use. I use
docu. Then create anotherArecord with that name and the same public IP address for the VPS.When Coolify asks for the service port, select
3000, as in the demo. This port identifies the destination inside the container where the proxy should send requests. (coolify.io) -
Deploy the resource.
Open “Actions” and click “Deploy”. In the video, Coolify downloads the images and starts the containers. Wait for the process to finish and check the status of the components before opening Outline.
In my installation, the service reached “Running” status and the domain check showed “DNS match”. DNS took longer than the containers to become ready, so I checked both separately.
For the application’s own requirements, see the official Outline hosting documentation. Its installation requires supporting services, including PostgreSQL and Redis, so you need to review the entire deployment when something fails. (docs.getoutline.com)
How to configure access to the documentation
-
Open Outline from the resource link.
Use “Links” in Coolify to access it through the configured domain. In the deployment shown in the video, the first visit asks for the workspace name, administrator and their email address. Complete that setup and check that you can access the editor.
Create a collection for a project and save a document. Outline organises documentation into collections and provides permissions to control who can access the content. (getoutline.com)
-
Set up a sign-in method you can use again.
A word of warning: sort out authentication before ending your initial session. In my deployment, I configure a passkey in the settings and explain email sign-in as an alternative.
For email sign-in, fill in the SMTP configuration in the service’s environment variables and apply the changes. In the video, the email option wasn’t available until those details were configured.
If you’re going to use that method, see my tutorial on SMTP with Oracle Cloud. It helps you set up the email sending needed for sign-in.
The useful test is to sign out of Outline and sign back in using your configured method. Keeping a tab open only confirms that your current session is still active.
Errors that came up during deployment
The first blocker was domain validation. I’d created the record, but Coolify still wasn’t detecting it. Check the subdomain name and target IP address, then run the check again once the DNS change has taken effect. (coolify.io)
The second was the Outline container’s “Degraded” status. In my test, the image tagged latest caused problems, and I fixed it by editing Docker Compose to pin a version I already had working in another installation. Keep a record of the version that works for you before updating it.
If you run into something similar, open the affected component’s logs before changing images. Check whether Outline itself or one of its supporting services is failing, because the application needs those dependencies to be available. (docs.getoutline.com)
The third issue was email sign-in being disabled. In the deployment shown, the fix was to fill in the SMTP details in the environment variables. Store those credentials as service secrets and avoid including them in the documentation you’ll later query with agents.
How to check that the foundation is ready
-
Verify the full workflow in your browser.
Access Coolify through its domain and open the Outline resource. Go into the documentation, create a collection, save a note and open it again. Then sign out and check that you can authenticate again.
This test confirms that the deployment and document access work. Connecting that documentation to RAG and MCP belongs to the next part of the setup.
Now create a collection for a real project and record its goal, the decisions made and the outstanding tasks. That will be the first useful documentation you connect to your AI employee’s memory.
What do you think?
Leave your opinion, question or suggestion. Comments are synced with GitHub Discussions .