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How to Deploy Monica CRM

Introduction

Monica CRM is an open-source personal relationship management platform. Deploying Monica CRM on Klutch.sh provides scalable, secure infrastructure for your CRM, with support for persistent storage and automated CI/CD.

This guide covers deploying Monica CRM on Klutch.sh using a Dockerfile, configuring persistent storage, and best practices for production deployments.

Prerequisites

  • A Klutch.sh account (sign up here)
  • A GitHub repository for your Monica CRM deployment (or fork of the Monica repo)
  • Basic knowledge of Docker and CRM concepts

1. Prepare your Monica CRM repository

  • Fork or clone the Monica CRM repository, or create a wrapper repo for your customizations.
  • Store large assets (such as configuration files, logs, or database files) outside the Git repo; use persistent volumes or object storage and mount or fetch them at runtime.

Refer to the Klutch.sh Quick Start Guide for repository setup and GitHub integration.

2. Sample non-Docker deployment (Klutch.sh build)

You can deploy Monica CRM from your repo without a Dockerfile using Klutch.sh’s build system:

  1. Push your repo to GitHub. Include a start script (for example: start.sh) that installs dependencies and runs Monica CRM.
  2. In Klutch.sh, create a new project and app, and connect your repository.
  3. Set the start command to the script or Monica’s start command (example: monica start).
  4. Attach persistent volumes for configuration, logs, or database files (see Volumes Guide).
  5. Set the app port to 80 (or your configured port).
  6. Click “Create” to build and deploy.

Notes:

  • Configure runtime secrets (database credentials, API keys) as environment variables in Klutch.sh.
  • For advanced use, customize the start script to load assets from mounted volumes or object storage.

A Dockerfile ensures reproducible builds and full control over dependencies. Example:

FROM monica/monica:latest


# Optional: Add custom configuration or plugins
# COPY ./config /var/www/html/config


EXPOSE 80

For custom assets, mount persistent volumes or fetch from object storage at startup.

4. Persistent storage & volumes

Monica CRM requires persistent storage for configuration, logs, and database files:

  • Create a persistent volume in Klutch.sh and mount it to /var/www/html/config or your chosen path.
  • Configure Monica CRM (or your startup script) to read/write from the mounted path.

Example mount mapping in Klutch.sh app settings:

/var/www/html/config  <- my-monica-storage

If using object storage (S3-compatible), store credentials in environment variables and fetch assets at startup.

5. Environment variables and secrets

  • Store database credentials, API keys, and other secrets in Klutch.sh environment variables (never in the repo).
  • Use the Klutch.sh UI to mark secrets and prevent them from being logged.

6. Scaling, monitoring, and best practices

  • Use health checks and readiness probes if supported by Monica CRM.
  • Monitor CPU, memory, and latency; scale instances as needed.
  • Pin dependency versions and use multi-stage Docker builds for smaller images.
  • Use CI to build and publish images, or let Klutch.sh build from your repo and tag releases.
  • Restrict public access to endpoints; require authentication or place behind an API gateway.

Resources

Deploying Monica CRM on Klutch.sh gives you a reproducible, scalable path to serve modern CRM applications. For advanced setups, you can add a startup script to fetch assets from S3, a multi-stage Dockerfile for smaller images, or CI/CD integration to automate builds and deployments.