Starter kit templates

The Starter Kits category of the template catalog holds seven small multi-service templates. Unlike the rest of the catalog, where each entry deploys one open-source project, these show wiring patterns across two or three services: a web tier talking to a database, a worker pulling from a queue, a reverse proxy fanning out to backends. Swap the web, api or worker service’s image: for your own build output. The environment variable names and the depends_on: graph are the part meant to be copied as is.

Levelrail service templates page with category filters and the Starter Kits cards at the top

How to deploy any template, and how $SERVICE_... variables work, is covered in Templates and registry.

The seven templates

ID	What it demonstrates	Env vars
`node-postgres-starter`	A Node web service depending on a healthchecked Postgres	`DATABASE_URL` (password generated via `$SERVICE_PASSWORD_DB`)
`redis-cache-starter`	A web service backed by a Redis cache (cache-aside)	`REDIS_URL`
`nextjs-postgres-starter`	The server-rendered-app-plus-database pairing behind most Next.js apps	`DATABASE_URL` (generated)
`static-site-api-starter`	A static frontend and a separate API service side by side	none required
`fastapi-postgres-starter`	A Python HTTP service wired to Postgres, the usual FastAPI backend pairing	`DATABASE_URL` (generated)
`worker-redis-queue-starter`	A background worker depending on a Redis queue, no HTTP port	`QUEUE_URL`
`nginx-multi-backend-starter`	One Nginx entrypoint routing to two independent backends	none required

$SERVICE_PASSWORD_* tokens generate a real secret at deploy time, so no credential is stored in the template itself.

Start ordering with depends_on

Every template with a real dependency declares depends_on: on it. The reconciler waits until the dependency’s container is running before it creates the dependent service’s container. This is Compose’s service_started behavior: it orders startup but does not wait for the dependency to be healthy, and a condition: key is accepted with no additional effect. In nginx-multi-backend-starter the proxy service depends on both orders and payments.

Deploy one

Dashboard
CLI

Go to Apps, choose New app, then Browse templates. Search for “Starter Kits”, pick a template, review the pre-filled Compose body, and deploy.

levelrail-cli templates list
levelrail-cli templates get node-postgres-starter
levelrail-cli templates deploy node-postgres-starter --name my-app

Caveats

Each template’s Compose body is checked structurally in the test suite (parse, validation, expansion into services, dependency cycles, health check presence). Templates are reference wiring, not production-ready apps: the web, api and worker services run a minimal server built from their base image’s own runtime (Node’s http module, Python’s http.server) so that nothing needs installing at start. Replace them with your own image.

Last modified on October 12, 2026

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Starter kit templates

The seven templates

Start ordering with depends_on

Deploy one

Caveats

​The seven templates

​Start ordering with depends_on

​Deploy one

​Caveats

The seven templates

Start ordering with depends_on

Deploy one

Caveats