Moving from Coolify or Docker Compose

Migrate production stacks in seconds with zero downtime, automatic database volume safeguards, and over 1.3 GB of RAM instantly reclaimed on your VPS.

Scenario // Solo SaaS & Indie Founders

Eliminate OOM build crashes on $5/mo VPS nodes

Coolify consumes 1.4 GB RAM just idling with PHP, Laravel Horizon, and internal daemons. When Next.js builds trigger on a 2 GB VPS, the Linux kernel terminates your Postgres database.

1.35 GB RAM Reclaimed: Smoooth idles at under 28 MB.
Volume Lock: Automatic pgdata retention prevents data loss.
Zero-Downtime TLS: Embedded Caddy with sub-second ACME.

View complete Indie Hacker playbook →

terminal — smoooth migrate coolify bash

# 1. Preview detected Coolify Next.js + Postgres stack

$ smoooth migrate coolify /data/coolify/services/saas-prod

✓ Detected Coolify Service: Next.js 15 App + Postgres 16 + Redis

• Target Ingress: https://app.indiesaas.com (auto Caddy route)

• Volume: /var/lib/postgresql/data → is_persistent: true [LOCKED]

# 2. Apply transactional migration

$ smoooth migrate coolify /data/coolify/services/saas-prod --apply

✓ PostgreSQL 16 ready (port 5432 healthy)

✓ Redis 7 ready (in-memory caching layer active)

✓ Next.js 15 container healthy (HTTP 200 on /)

✓ Ingress route cutover successful. Reclaimed 1,380 MB RAM.

Scenario // Multi-Tenant Client Workspaces

Partition 15+ client sites without Traefik SSL collisions

Managing dozens of WordPress, Ghost, PocketBase, and Strapi instances on shared VPS nodes frequently breaks when Traefik experiences certificate renewal race conditions.

Workspace Isolation: Encapsulate containers by client ID.
Host Container Adoption: Adopt live containers with zero downtime.
Immutable Audit Logs: Cryptographic operation history.

View complete Agency playbook →

terminal — smoooth migrate scan-host bash

# Adopt live containers into a dedicated client workspace

$ smoooth migrate scan-host --adopt-live --workspace client-nike

✓ Discovered 4 running containers on host docker.sock:

[1] wordpress:6.5-php8.2 → port 80 → nike-campaign.com

[2] mysql:8.0 → volume /var/lib/mysql [is_persistent: true]

[3] redis:alpine → in-memory cache

✓ Assigned to Workspace 'client-nike' with isolated Caddy domain block

✓ Zero-downtime routing cutover complete. Existing sockets uninterrupted.

Scenario // AI Coding Agents (Claude Code, Cursor)

Migrate and deploy via natural language in your editor

Coolify traps you in a browser dashboard. Smoooth provides native Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools so Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf migrate stacks straight from your chat conversation.

Native MCP Server: Built-in migrate_stack tool.
Least-Privilege Token: 256-bit cryptographically scoped auth.
Zero Context Switching: Stay focused in your IDE.

View complete AI-First playbook →

Claude Code — MCP Tool Execution claude-mcp

> Claude, migrate my docker-compose.yml into Smoooth and verify database safety.

• Invoking MCP Tool: scan_foreign_workloads({ target_path: "./docker-compose.yml" })

{"format":"compose","workloads":["postgres","fastapi","celery"],"volumes_safeguarded":["pgdata"]}

• Invoking MCP Tool: migrate_stack({ manifest_content: "...", apply: true })

✓ Applied DAG: [postgres] → [celery] → [fastapi]

I have successfully migrated your stack into Smoooth. Persistent volumes are locked and rollback checkpoint active.

Scenario // Homelab & DevOps Minimalists

Single 25MB static binary. Zero telemetry. Transparent JSON state.

Tired of massive black-box management platforms with hidden SQL tables, automatic telemetry, and fragile daemon updates.

Zero Bloat: Single Rust binary, no external runtime needed.
Git-Friendly State: Human-readable smoooth_state.json.
Air-Gapped & Offline: Runs purely on local loopback without phone-home code.

View complete DevOps Minimalist playbook →

terminal — smoooth migrate compose bash

# Direct Compose file migration with plain JSON audit output

$ smoooth migrate compose /opt/homelab/compose.yaml --apply

✓ Verified 6 services: vaultwarden, pihole, gitea, syncthing, minio, caddy

✓ Host bind mounts verified and preserved (/opt/data/*)

✓ Written atomic state to ./smoooth_state.json

• Active memory footprint: 24.8 MB RSS

✓ All containers running under systemd service smoooth.service

Technical Architecture & Efficiency Comparison

Verified on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (x86_64, 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM).

Dimension	Coolify v4	Smoooth Runtime
Idle Memory Overhead	1,200 – 1,800 MB RAM	< 28 MB RAM (98% reduction)
AI Agent Native Access	None (Web dashboard only)	Native Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Reverse Proxy & TLS	Traefik (label parsing, file race risks)	Embedded Caddy (sub-ms route reload)
Stateful Volume Safeguards	Generic Docker volumes	Dedicated Database Adapters + Volume Locks
Zero-Downtime Host Adoption	Requires container restart	Live Container Scanner (in-flight adoption)