Let's Git Started

Matt Sinagra

Updated February 24, 2026 00:45

Welcome!

This is a beginner training for Upsun.

Start by first watching the video below - it will give you a good idea of the problem Upsun is trying to solve: the complexity of application delivery.

When you’ve finished, follow along through the series of articles to get started!

Introduction

Watch: Build apps, not platforms: Optimized DevOps without platform engineering

Prerequisites

Upsun is a flexible and highly customizable DevOps solution for deploying web applications. That said, there are a few rules and some basic knowledge of configuration you will need to know to start using it.

These guides are meant to take you through those basic concepts by deploying your first project. After that, additional topics are covered to provide a full scope of what Upsun is useful for, and to show what development looks like on a day-to-day basis.

Each of the guides in this section assume some prior understanding of conventional DevOps topics. They assume some working knowledge of Git, SSH, DevOps workflows, development environments, CI/CD, and infrastructure-as-code as a practice.

Useful resources are provided for context throughout these guides, but it’s best not to rely on them completely if this is your first time deploying applications to production, or using version control to create copies of those applications to review changes to them. Before starting, review some of the links below if you are not yet familiar.

Git

Upsun respects and is built upon Git as a version control system for all projects. That is to say, upsun really is just Git under-the-hood. You can go through all of the guides in this section with only some familiarity with DevOps concepts, but prior knowledge of Git (as well as its installation on your machine) is necessary beforehand.

Below are a few resources that may help you with context before going forward.

Before getting started, make sure you have Git installed on your computer.

Create an account

Upsun provides a free 15 day trial from when you create your first organization, which will provide all of the resources you will need to go through these Getting Started guides.

Before starting, be sure to register for a trial upsun account if you have not done so already. You can use your email address to register, or you can sign up using an existing GitHub, Bitbucket, or Google account. If you choose this option, you will be able to set a password for your Upsun account later.

You will be given an option to create a project at this point (two options: Use a template and Create from scratch). Click the Cancel button in the right-hand corner of the screen for now - you will create a project later in this guide.

Install the CLI

In addition to a Upsun account, each of the following guides assume that you will use the Upsun CLI. The CLI is the primary, and the most useful, tool for deploying applications and interacting with your projects.

Read the documentation to install the CLI on your computer

Once the installation has completed, run the CLI in your terminal with the command:

upsun

upsun list

Get started

In this first section, you will deploy a simple application on Upsun, and learn the basic concepts about how it works. Most importantly, you’ll see how a few rules in configuration allow infrastructure and data to be inherited, giving true staging environments for every branch of your project.

Here is a brief outline of what will be covered in this section:

Guide	Topics
Let's Git Started!	Some of the hard problems in DevOps A brief introduction to Platform.sh Creating your first project Configuration: applications and requests Branches and development environments How environment variables work What happens when you merge?
How data works	How Platform.sh handles production data Managed services and service configuration Giving applications access to services Accessing services within application code How Platform.sh ensures data stays secure Accessing services during local development

Ready to go?