# Choose your Nibleaf path

> Decide between Nibleaf Cloud and self-hosting, understand the publishing model, and reach a useful first result without guessing.

Nibleaf is a documentation platform for teams that want a browser editor
without giving up portable Markdown. You write and review a draft, then publish
an immutable snapshot that readers can search and navigate.

## Choose Cloud or self-hosting

### Nibleaf Cloud

Choose [Nibleaf Cloud](/getting-started/cloud) when you want to evaluate the
product or start writing without infrastructure work.

- **You operate:** your content and team settings.
- **Nibleaf operates:** the application and supporting services.

### Self-hosting

Choose [self-hosting](/getting-started/self-hosted) when you need the application
and data on infrastructure you control.

- **You operate:** DNS, TLS, Postgres, Dragonfly, object storage, email, backups,
  monitoring, and upgrades.
- **Nibleaf provides:** the application source, container images, Compose
  templates, and installation tooling.

Cloud is a free beta. It does not currently carry an enterprise uptime or
support commitment. Self-hosting gives you operational control, not fewer
operational responsibilities. Review [known limitations](/reference/known-limitations)
before choosing either path for a critical workload.

## Understand drafts and published versions

Nibleaf stores the active page tree and Markdown drafts in Postgres. Selecting
**Publish** creates a deployment job. The worker freezes the current content
and configuration into a versioned snapshot and marks it ready only after the
job succeeds. Readers keep receiving the previous ready version while a new
version builds.

This boundary prevents a half-written draft from leaking into the public site.
It does not replace backups, review, or source control: database state can still
be lost, and a correctly built version can still contain incorrect content.

## Define a first-success test

Before importing a large knowledge base, publish a two-page project:

1. Write an introduction that names the audience and the result they can reach.
2. Add a second page under a group and link to it from the introduction.
3. Preview both pages and wait for autosave to report **Saved**.
4. Publish once.
5. Open the public site while signed out, search for a phrase from the second
   page, and request a made-up URL to confirm a real 404.

You have a successful baseline when the public site, deep link, search result,
and 404 response all behave as expected. Continue with the [Cloud tutorial](/getting-started/cloud)
or the [self-hosted tutorial](/getting-started/self-hosted).

## Know where product truth lives

The public repository is authoritative for code, environment variables,
Compose topology, and release tags. This documentation explains how to use
those artifacts. When a command or setting differs from the checked-out release,
follow the template shipped with that release and report the documentation gap.

Use the API specification served at `/docs` on the API service for exact
server routes. Use [.env.production.example](https://github.com/lord007tn/nibleaf/blob/main/.env.production.example)
for the complete production setting list.