# Using Gel Cloud

Gel Cloud is a fully managed, effortless cloud database service, engineered to let you deploy your database instantly and connect from anywhere with near-zero configuration.

## Connecting your app

Try a guide for connecting your app running on your platform of choice:

- [Vercel](https://docs.geldata.com/cloud/deploy/vercel.md#ref-guide-cloud-deploy-vercel)
- [Netlify](https://docs.geldata.com/cloud/deploy/netlify.md#ref-guide-cloud-deploy-netlify)
- [Fly.io](https://docs.geldata.com/cloud/deploy/fly.md#ref-guide-cloud-deploy-fly)
- [Render](https://docs.geldata.com/cloud/deploy/render.md#ref-guide-cloud-deploy-render)
- [Railway](https://docs.geldata.com/cloud/deploy/railway.md#ref-guide-cloud-deploy-railway)

To connect your apps running on other platforms, generate a dedicated secret key for your instance with `gel cloud secretkey create` or via the web UI's “Secret Keys” pane in your instance dashboard. Create two environment variables accessible to your production application:

- `GEL_SECRET_KEY` - contains the secret key you generated
- `GEL_INSTANCE` - the name of your Gel Cloud instance (`<org-name>/<instance-name>`)

## Two ways to use Gel Cloud

### 1. CLI

Log in to Gel Cloud via the CLI:

```bash
$ gel cloud login
```

This will open a browser window and allow you to log in via GitHub. Now, create your Gel Cloud instance the same way you would create a local instance:

```bash
$ gel instance create <org-name>/<instance-name>
```

or

```bash
$ gel project init \
--server-instance <org-name>/<instance-name>
```

### 2. GUI

Create your instance at [cloud.geldata.com](https://cloud.geldata.com) by clicking on “Create new instance” in the “Instances” tab.

Complete the following form to configure your instance. You can access your instance via the CLI using the name `<org-name>/<instance-name>` or via the GUI.

## Useful Gel Cloud commands

### Get REPL

```bash
$ gel \
  -I <org-name>/<instance-name>
```

### Run migrations

```bash
$ gel migrate \
  -I <org-name>/<instance-name>
```

### Update your instance

```bash
$ gel instance upgrade \
  --to-version <target-version> \
  -I <org-name>/<instance-name>
```

### Manual full backup

```bash
$ gel dump \
  --all --format dir \
  -I <org-name>/<instance-name> \
  <local-dump-path>
```

### Full restore

```bash
$ gel restore \
  --all \
  -I <org-name>/<instance-name> \
  <local-dump-path>
```

> Note: Restoring works only to an empty database.

## Questions? Problems? Bugs?

Thank you for helping us make the best way to host your Gel instances even better!

- Please join us on [our Discord](https://discord.gg/umUueND6ag) to ask questions.
- If you're experiencing a service interruption, check [our status page](https://www.gelstatus.com/) for information on what may be causing it.

- Report any bugs you find by [submitting a support ticket](https://www.geldata.com/p/cloud-support). Note: when using Gel Cloud through the CLI, setting the `RUST_LOG` environment variable to `info`, `debug`, or `trace` may provide additional debugging information which will be useful to include with your ticket.