Create a self-hosted backend

Updated Sep 29, 2026·4 min read

A self-hosted backend is one image you build and run, for one type, such as payments. You make it in the workspace once a trial is running or you have bought providers. Making one builds nothing yet.

Owners and admins make and manage self-hosted backends.

Make one

Open Self-hosted in the sidebar. With a trial running and no backend yet, the page offers your first one. Otherwise, use New backend at the top of the page.

The Self-hosted page with a trial and no backend yet: Make your first backend, with the New backend button. — A trial is running, and there is no backend yet.

The dialog asks for:

Type: which type the backend is for. It shows only when you hold more than one.
Name: how the backend shows in the workspace. You can change it at any time.
Image name: what the image is pulled as from your registry. It follows the name as you type, and you can edit it. Lowercase letters, digits and dashes, 15 at most. It is fixed once an image is built.
Icon: optional.

The New self-hosted backend dialog: the name Payments for CI, the image name that follows it, and the icon. — The name, the image name that follows it, and the icon.

Choose Create. The backend is licensed at once for every provider you hold for its type, until the date your trial or purchase ends.

A trial and a purchase each allow a set number of backends per type. Once you have them all, the dialog says so and makes no more.

The backend's page

The backend opens on its own page. The top shows its name, its image name, its type and its license, with Build on the right.

A self-hosted backend's page: its name, image name and trial license at the top, the Image, Behavior and Setup sections on the left, and its Providers. — A self-hosted backend's page, open on its providers.

The menu on the left has three parts:

Image: what goes into the image and what comes out of it. Providers, License, Builds, Security, Registry and Settings.
Behavior: how the backend answers. Contexts, Scenarios, Webhooks, Service config and Runtime defaults.
Setup: how to run it. Quick start, Mirrors and Storage drivers.

Providers

Providers lists every provider your license covers. Select the ones the image should include. Your license stays the same whatever you select, so you can add a provider back later.

At least one provider has to be selected.

What goes into the next image

A change on this page does not reach an image you already run. The next build takes all of it:

Providers: the ones selected.
Storage drivers: the ones selected under Settings. With none selected, the image holds every driver.
Contexts, scenarios, webhooks and service config: yours, packed into the image. The image can also read them from a folder you mount when you run it, with no new build.
Runtime defaults: whether the API explorer shows, whether traffic is recorded, and whether replay is on. You can override each one when you run the image.
How the image gets its license: fetched from us, or carried inside.

You edit contexts and scenarios the same way as on a hosted backend.

See Change values with contexts and Write your own scenarios.

Settings

Name and icon: how the backend shows in the workspace.
Repository: the image name. You can rename it until the first build.
The license: whether images fetch their license from us. A change takes effect with the next build.
Storage drivers: which drivers the image holds. Every driver is included in the price.

See Licenses and Storage drivers.