Installation

Install HostFn

HostFn is published on npm and can be installed globally:

npm install -g hostfn

Verify the installation:

hostfn --version

Prerequisites

Before using HostFn, make sure you have the following:

Local Machine

Installing rsync:

# macOS
brew install rsync

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install rsync

# Windows (via WSL)
sudo apt-get install rsync

Remote Server

You need a Linux server with:

• SSH access configured with key authentication
• Root or sudo access (for the initial server setup)
• Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, CentOS 8+, or similar Linux distribution

HostFn will install everything else (Node.js, PM2, Nginx) during hostfn server setup.

SSH Key Setup

If you don't already have an SSH key:

# Generate a new SSH key
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your-email@example.com"

# Copy it to your server
ssh-copy-id ubuntu@your-server.com

HostFn looks for SSH keys in this order:

1. HOSTFN_SSH_KEY environment variable (base64-encoded, for CI/CD)
2. SSH agent (SSH_AUTH_SOCK)
3. ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
4. ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
5. ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Next Steps

Once installed, continue to Quickstart to initialize your first project.