Installation

Prerequisites

Requirement	Notes
Node.js 20+	Fleet requires Node 20 or later
Docker + Docker Compose v2	docker compose (not docker-compose)
systemd	Required for service management
nginx	Required for fleet nginx commands
age	Required for secrets (apt install age)
gh	Required for Git/GitHub commands

Install from npm

npm install -g @matthesketh/fleet

Verify the installation:

fleet --version

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/wrxck/fleet.git
cd fleet
npm install
npm run build
sudo npm link

Privilege requirements

Fleet requires root for all commands that interact with systemd, nginx, or the secrets vault. The exceptions are fleet mcp and fleet install-mcp, which can run as any user.

Run fleet commands with sudo or as root:

sudo fleet status
sudo fleet deploy /srv/myapp

MCP server setup

To install fleet as a Claude Code MCP server, run:

sudo fleet install-mcp

This writes the MCP server config to ~/.claude.json so all Claude Code sessions can use fleet tools. Alternatively, add it manually:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fleet": {
      "command": "fleet",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

You can also start the MCP server directly for testing:

fleet mcp

The server communicates over stdio using the Model Context Protocol.