Connect to Cloud & migrate
Link the copy of Openship you run yourself to Openship Cloud, move a single project up or bring it home, and (at a high level) open your instance up to a whole team.
Openship can run in two places. One is your own instance — the copy you installed and manage yourself. The other is Openship Cloud — the managed version, where we run the servers, SSL, and the global network for you. Think of it like a workshop: you can build things in your own garage, or rent a fully-equipped bench at a shared makerspace. This guide is about connecting the two, and moving work between them.
There are three separate things people mix up, so let's name them up front:
- Connecting — link your instance to a Cloud account so cloud features light up. Nothing moves.
- Promoting a project — take one existing project and hand it to Cloud to run. It moves.
- Team-mode migration — turn your whole single-user instance into a shared, multi-user setup.
What you need first
- Your own Openship instance, up and running (you can see the dashboard). The Cloud settings tab only appears on self-hosted instances — on Cloud itself there's nothing to connect.
- To be the workspace owner. Connecting and disconnecting Cloud is an owner-only action.
- An Openship Cloud account. You sign in — or create one — in the window that opens during the connect step, so you don't need one beforehand.
Connect your instance to Openship Cloud
This links your instance to a Cloud account. Existing Cloud projects, apps and managed servers appear alongside your local resources. Connecting does not move projects or duplicate their settings.
Open the Cloud settings
In the dashboard, go to Settings and choose the Cloud tab from the left. You'll see a card that says Connect to Cloud with a Connect to Openship Cloud button.
Sign in and give consent
Press Connect to Openship Cloud. A window opens on Openship Cloud and asks you to sign in. Review the account and active Organization on the consent screen before pressing Authorize. Use Switch beside the account to sign in with another account, or beside Organization to choose another workspace. Switching keeps the connection request and requires you to authorize again. If organizations cannot be loaded, use Try again; the connection stays unauthorized.
When the window closes, the card flips to a green Connected badge showing the Cloud account you linked.
Connecting doesn't move anything
After connecting, your projects still run where they were. Opening a Cloud project uses its Cloud settings, history and operations through your instance. Local projects keep their local settings. Managed server purchases and billing stay in Cloud. To move a project, see the next section.
Disconnecting
On the same card, Disconnect unlinks the account. Running workloads continue on their servers, but this installation cannot manage Cloud resources or start new work through that connection until you reconnect. Cloud inventory refreshes immediately, and any explicit local server links remain visible with their connection unavailable. Repositories using the shared Cloud GitHub connection also require reconnection.
Move one project to Cloud (and back)
Once connected, you can hand a single self-hosted project to Cloud to run — this is called promoting. You can also pull a cloud project back down to your own instance — bringing it home.
Who owns a cloud project?
This is the important boundary. Once a project lives on Openship Cloud, Cloud owns it — the cloud copy is the one true copy. Your instance keeps a pointer to it and acts as a gateway in front of it, so it still shows up in your dashboard, but the real project lives on Cloud. Bringing it home reverses that and makes your instance the owner again. For the full picture, see Cloud as source.
Today this move is done from the CLI. Both directions are self-hosted-only, and your instance must be connected to Cloud first (from the section above).
# Promote a project up to Openship Cloud (Cloud runs it from now on)
openship project transfer <project-id> to-cloud
# Bring a cloud project back to your own instance
openship project transfer <project-id> to-self-hostedYou can find a project's id with openship project list. Under the hood these call
POST /api/projects/:id/transfer/to-cloud and .../to-self-hosted.
Keep your instance online for a team
Choose Settings → Instance → Move to a server. Select your own server or a connected managed Cloud server, then choose API-only access through Desktop or API + dashboard. Your workspaces and credentials move together while existing apps stay on their servers. The Team tab links to this same flow; there is no separate migration chooser.
Moving a control plane is separate from transferring a project to Openship Cloud. Your Cloud-owned projects continue to be managed by Cloud, and the transferred Cloud connection keeps them accessible from the relocated instance.
See Move your Openship instance for prerequisites, recovery, and moving the latest data back to Desktop. Team members can connect their own Desktop without becoming instance administrators.
Troubleshooting
There's no Cloud tab in Settings
The Cloud tab only shows on a self-hosted instance. If you're already using Openship Cloud, there's nothing to connect — cloud features are on by default. If you are self-hosting and still don't see it, make sure you're signed in as the workspace owner.
“This organization is not connected to Openship Cloud”
A transfer or a Cloud migration ran before the instance was linked. Connect first in Settings → Cloud
(you must be the owner), then run the command again.
The connect window closes but the card still says “Connect”
The sign-in or consent step didn't finish. Press Connect to Openship Cloud again and complete both the sign-in and the Authorize step in the popup. If your browser blocks pop-ups, allow them for the dashboard and retry.
Related guides
Cloud as source
Why a cloud project is owned by Cloud, and how your instance proxies to it.
Cloud boundary
Exactly what crosses the line to Cloud — and what never leaves your machine.
Teams & members
The full multi-user migration walkthrough, roles, and invites.
Data ownership
Export and import everything, so there's no lock-in either way.
Move your Openship instance
Move control between Desktop and a server while keeping your projects, credentials and deployment ownership.
Database migrations & stateful safety
Safely back up and migrate a persistent database (MySQL/Postgres) volume around a deploy — using Openship's pre-deploy backup trigger and post-deploy jobs.