Installing your first app

Install self-hosted apps from the Companion App Store in your Hub dashboard. Your Hub must be paired with your CI Account first: the App Store downloads apps with the device key that pairing creates, and installs fail without it.

Browse the Companion App Store

In the top bar, select App Store. Search with Search apps…, or pick a category in the sidebar — Featured, Agents, AI, Data, Media, and more. The page groups apps into rows such as Companion Intelligence (first-party apps) and Featured.

Companion Hub App Store, Featured view: a search box and category list on the left (All, Expose a port, Alternatives, Featured, Agents, AI, and more), a Companion Intelligence row with Companion Earth, Companion Memory, Companion Planning, and Companion Scan, and a Featured row with Audiobookshelf, Code Server, Collabora Online, and ComfyUI — The App Store: search or pick a category on the left; each card shows the app, its price, and an install icon, or a check mark once it's installed.

Choose an app

Find an app you’d like to install. Popular choices for getting started include:

Nextcloud — File sync and collaboration
Jellyfin — Media streaming
Vaultwarden — Password management
Immich — Photo management

If an app doesn’t support your CPU architecture, Hub refuses the install and shows Wrong architecture, naming the architectures the app needs.

Install

Select the app to open its page, then select Install. Review the options in the Install form and select Install again. The form can include:

Exposure mode — Public Web (through the Cloudflare Gateway), Private VPN (Tailscale), or This Machine Only. The public and VPN options are unavailable until you’ve connected them.
App-specific fields, such as an admin email or password. Random secrets the app needs are generated for you and don’t appear in the form.
Options such as Enable authentication and Open port. Show advanced settings reveals more, and App backup limit appears only while Advanced Mode is on.

Install Hermes dialog with Import config and Export config buttons, Exposure mode set to Public Web with This Machine Only and a greyed-out Private VPN beside it, a Subdomain field reading ci-hermes, a Hostname field, a Show advanced settings switch that is off, and an Install button — The Install form for Hermes. Exposure mode is at the top, and Show advanced settings reveals more fields.

Companion Hub pulls the Docker image, configures networking, and starts the app. The button walks through Downloading…, Setting up…, and Finalizing install…; the first install of a large app can take several minutes. If you open the app’s public address before it finishes starting, Hub shows <App> is starting… and reloads every five seconds.

Access your app

After installation, the app appears on Home. Select Open on the app’s page or card.

Companion Hub dashboard with disk space, CPU load, and memory used cards, then a Batch actions button above a grid of installed app tiles: Companion Memory, OpenClaw, Immich, Jellyfin, and Nextcloud — Installed apps on the dashboard, below the disk, CPU, and memory gauges. The apps shown are example data.

An app’s page has an Access points card with up to three addresses: Public domain, Private VPN, and Local access (“Open this app directly on this machine”). Local access is a direct port on the Hub machine, such as http://127.0.0.1:8301 for Nextcloud, and it works whether or not you’ve connected anything else. From another device on your network, use the Hub’s address and the same port. See Finding your app’s URL.

App not opening? Finding your app’s URL explains where each address comes from and what to check when one doesn’t load.

To access apps from outside your network, use the Cloudflare Gateway for managed public access or Tailscale for private access.