FAQ
Is there a hosted Falak?
Section titled “Is there a hosted Falak?”No. Falak is self-hosted and open source under the Apache License 2.0. You run the control plane on your own host and connect your own servers.
Can the control plane run on the same machine as my apps?
Section titled “Can the control plane run on the same machine as my apps?”No. The control plane host runs only Falak, and it uses ports 80 and 443 itself. Your apps run on separate servers.
What happens to my apps if the control plane goes down?
Section titled “What happens to my apps if the control plane goes down?”They keep running. Caddy/FrankenPHP, your processes, cron jobs and databases run on your servers without the control plane. You cannot deploy, and telemetry forwarded to the control plane host is buffered on disk by the agent until it can be sent.
Which operating systems can my servers run?
Section titled “Which operating systems can my servers run?”Ubuntu LTS; 24.04 is the tested target. The control plane host can be Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or Debian 12. Both amd64 and arm64 work.
Do my servers build code?
Section titled “Do my servers build code?”No. Builds run once per deployment on a builder (the control plane host by default, or a builder server). Servers only download the result.
Does Falak need SSH access to my servers?
Section titled “Does Falak need SSH access to my servers?”No. The agent connects out to the control plane over HTTPS with mutual TLS. SSH remains available for you.
Which languages and frameworks are supported?
Section titled “Which languages and frameworks are supported?”Laravel, Symfony, Statamic, WordPress, plain PHP, Next.js, Nuxt, any Node.js app, Bun, Deno, static sites, Docker images and Docker Compose. See Sites and runtimes.
Can I migrate from Laravel Forge?
Section titled “Can I migrate from Laravel Forge?”There is no automated importer. Connect a fresh server to Falak (provisioning takes over the firewall, SSH and web server), create the site from the same repository, copy your environment variables with falak env push, move data, then switch DNS.
Where is my data stored?
Section titled “Where is my data stored?”On machines you control: the control plane’s PostgreSQL (configuration, encrypted secrets), your servers (apps, databases), your S3 buckets (backups), and the optional observability stack on the control plane host.
How do I back up Falak itself?
Section titled “How do I back up Falak itself?”falak-ctl backup, scheduled with cron and copied off the host. The backup must include the database and .env together. See Backup and restore.
How many servers can one control plane handle?
Section titled “How many servers can one control plane handle?”The defaults cover about 120 servers (FALAK_AGENT_API_THREADS=128). Raise that setting and the agent-api memory limit for more. See Performance.
Can several teams share one installation?
Section titled “Can several teams share one installation?”Yes. Use separate organizations for isolation, and roles within each. Restrict sign-up with FALAK_REGISTRATION=invite or closed, and note that Grafana is not filtered per organization. See Security.
Does Falak support preview deployments for pull requests?
Section titled “Does Falak support preview deployments for pull requests?”Not yet.
Where do I report bugs or security issues?
Section titled “Where do I report bugs or security issues?”Bugs: github.com/OthmanHaba/falak/issues. Security issues: contact the maintainers privately.