# PivoCloud - [How do I start using PivoCloud?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/index.md): Sign up, verify your email, complete your profile and claim the 1,200 DA starting credit, then follow three steps to a running app: check your repository, connect GitHub, deploy it. - [What your repository needs](https://docs.pivocloud.com/apps/deployment-contract.md): The six rules a repository must meet for PivoCloud to build and run it: a Dockerfile, the EXPOSE port contract, binding 0.0.0.0, one HTTP port per app, explicit migrations, and an ephemeral filesystem. - [How do I connect GitHub to PivoCloud?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/apps/connect-github.md): Install the PivoCloud GitHub App, see exactly which repositories PivoCloud can read and why, including private and organisation-owned ones, and change that set from GitHub whenever you need to. - [How do I deploy my first app?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/apps/deploy.md): Fill every field on the PivoCloud create-app form without guessing: name, subdomain, plan, repository, branch and build settings. Plus the port rule the platform really enforces, and the two messages a failed first deploy prints. - [How do I set environment variables for my app?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/apps/environment-variables.md): Paste a .env file into the PivoCloud console, see which five key names are refused and why, what the console keeps from your file and what it drops, what saving actually changes, and how your running app reads the values. - [Why did my deploy fail?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/apps/troubleshooting.md): The messages PivoCloud shows when a deploy does not work, what each one really means, and what to change. Search this page for the exact sentence you were shown and it will take you to that failure. - [What does each button on my app page do?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/apps/manage.md): Every control on a deployed app in the PivoCloud console, in the order the console shows them, with what each one does and what each one does to your bill before you press it. Plus the two separate places your logs appear. - [How do I put my own domain on my app?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/apps/custom-domains.md): Add your own domain to a PivoCloud app: the order that works, the CNAME case for a subdomain, the A record case for the root of your domain, what each status means, and what to do when the check says your DNS is not pointing here yet. - [How do I connect to my database](https://docs.pivocloud.com/databases/connect.md): The connection string PivoCloud gives you for a PostgreSQL database, the setting each client library needs before it accepts that string, what those settings encrypt and what they do not verify, how to pin your database's certificate, and how to turn on pgvector. - [How do I get my data back](https://docs.pivocloud.com/databases/recovery.md): What PivoCloud keeps of your PostgreSQL database, how to take a backup or an export yourself, how to download and check an export, what a restore really produces and what it costs, how far back each plan lets you go, and what survives losing the machine. - [What does it cost, and when am I charged?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/billing/credit-and-charges.md): How PivoCloud credit works in Algerian dinars: adding credit and who approves it, what every app plan and database tier costs, when a charge happens and how long a paid period runs, why your price stays fixed, and what happens if your balance runs out. - [How do I call the API with a token?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/api/personal-access-tokens.md): How to create a personal access token in the PivoCloud console, how to send it with a request that starts a database export, what the reply carries, and what to do when the API answers that you should wait rather than starting one. - [Start a database export](https://docs.pivocloud.com/api-reference/start-a-database-export.md): Starts a fresh export of one of your databases and returns a signed download URL straight away. - [Download a finished export](https://docs.pivocloud.com/api-reference/download-a-finished-export.md): Downloads the archive produced by an export. The link is the one the export request returned, signature and expiry included, so it needs no token of its own. Request it verbatim rather than rebuilding it. - [What can I find out before I sign up?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/whats-new/2026-09-15.md): What you can learn about PivoCloud before creating an account: answers to the most common questions on the front page, what the signup credit covers in dinars, what both products cost on one pricing page, and the recovery window each database tier includes. All readable on a phone. - [What's new on PivoCloud?](https://docs.pivocloud.com/whats-new/2026-09.md): What you can do on PivoCloud right now: read every guide at docs.pivocloud.com, hand the whole site to an assistant as plain text, follow step by step pages for deploying an app, running a database, billing and custom domains, and call the API with a token you create yourself. ## OpenAPI Specs - [openapi](/openapi.yaml)