What is Pullbase?

Pullbase lets you manage Linux servers the same way developers manage code: through Git. Define what packages should be installed, which services should be running, and what configuration files should contain — then let Pullbase keep your servers in sync automatically.

The problem Pullbase solves

Managing servers manually doesn’t scale:

SSH into each server to make changes? Slow and error-prone.
Write shell scripts to push changes? Hard to track what changed and when.
Use Ansible/Chef/Puppet? Complex setup, push-based model, firewall headaches.

Pullbase takes a different approach: pull-based GitOps.

You push to Git. Agents pull. Servers stay in sync.

Who is Pullbase for?

Pullbase is built for teams managing Linux servers — VMs, bare-metal, or cloud instances:

System administrators

Managing fleets of web servers, database hosts, or application servers

DevOps engineers

Who want GitOps benefits without Kubernetes complexity

Platform teams

Standardizing configuration across environments (dev, staging, prod)

Small teams

Who need infrastructure automation without dedicated tooling expertise

What Pullbase manages

Define your desired state in a simple config.yaml:

config.yaml

packages:
  - name: nginx
    state: present
  - name: curl
    state: latest

services:
  - name: nginx
    state: running
    enabled: true

files:
  - path: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    content: |
      worker_processes auto;
      events { worker_connections 1024; }
      http {
        server {
          listen 80;
          location / { return 200 'OK'; }
        }
      }
    mode: "0644"
    reloadService: nginx

The agent ensures:

Packages are installed, upgraded, or removed (apt, yum, dnf, apk)
Services are running, stopped, enabled, or disabled (systemd, supervisor, OpenRC)
Files have the correct content and permissions

When something drifts from the desired state, Pullbase detects it and can automatically fix it.

How it works

Define desired state in Git

Create a config.yaml in a Git repository. This is your source of truth.

Connect your servers

Install the Pullbase agent on each server. The agent authenticates with the central server.

Agents pull and apply

Every 60 seconds, agents check for changes. When the Git repo updates, agents pull the new config and apply it.

Monitor from the dashboard

See which servers are in sync, which have drifted, and review the history of changes.

Key features

Feature	Description
Pull-based model	Agents initiate connections outward — no inbound firewall rules needed
Drift detection	Agents detect when actual state differs from desired state
Auto-reconciliation	Optionally fix drift automatically, or review first
Dry-run mode	Preview what would change before enabling enforcement
Environment grouping	Organize servers into environments (prod, staging, dev)
Rollback support	Revert to a previous Git commit with one click
Webhook integration	Get notified on Slack, PagerDuty, or any webhook endpoint
GitHub App support	Secure access to private repositories

What Pullbase is NOT

To set clear expectations:

Not for Kubernetes. If you’re running containers on K8s, use ArgoCD, Flux, or similar tools designed for that ecosystem.
Not a CI/CD pipeline. Pullbase manages runtime state, not build artifacts or deployments.
Not a container orchestrator. It manages what’s on your servers, not container scheduling.
Not a monitoring tool. It reports status, but doesn’t replace Prometheus, Grafana, or your APM.

Pullbase vs. other tools

	Pullbase	Ansible	Chef/Puppet
Model	Pull (agent-initiated)	Push (control node)	Pull (agent)
Firewall	Agents connect out	Needs inbound SSH	Agents connect out
Language	YAML	YAML + Jinja	Ruby DSL
State tracking	Built-in drift detection	External or manual	Built-in
Complexity	Simple — one binary	Medium	High
Learning curve	Hours	Days	Weeks

Pullbase is intentionally simpler. If you need complex orchestration, conditionals, or multi-step workflows, Ansible may be a better fit. If you want straightforward “this is what my server should look like” enforcement, Pullbase gets you there faster.

Architecture overview

Server: Central coordination, API, dashboard, Git monitoring
Agents: Run on each managed server, pull config, apply state, report status
Database: SQLite (default) or PostgreSQL — stores environments, servers, status history, audit logs
Git repository: Your source of truth for desired state

Next steps

Quickstart

Get Pullbase running and manage your first server in 5 minutes

Core concepts

Understand environments, servers, agents, and how they work together

Architecture deep dive

Learn how the server, agents, and Git repository stay in sync

Configuration reference

Full reference for config.yaml — packages, services, files, and more

New to Pullbase? Start with the Quickstart — you’ll have a working setup in under 5 minutes.

Foundations

Setup

Operations

Examples

The problem Pullbase solves

Who is Pullbase for?

System administrators

DevOps engineers

Platform teams

Small teams

What Pullbase manages

How it works

Key features

What Pullbase is NOT

Pullbase vs. other tools

Architecture overview

Next steps

Quickstart

Core concepts

Architecture deep dive

Configuration reference

​The problem Pullbase solves

​Who is Pullbase for?

System administrators

DevOps engineers

Platform teams

Small teams

​What Pullbase manages

​How it works

​Key features

​What Pullbase is NOT

​Pullbase vs. other tools

​Architecture overview

​Next steps

Quickstart

Core concepts

Architecture deep dive

Configuration reference

The problem Pullbase solves

Who is Pullbase for?

What Pullbase manages

How it works

Key features

What Pullbase is NOT

Pullbase vs. other tools

Architecture overview

Next steps