Distr: Simplify Self-Managed Software Distribution

Shipping software to customer-managed environments is notoriously complex. Whether you are deploying on-premises, supporting Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC), or managing edge fleets, keeping track of versions, licenses, and deployment health across dozens of environments quickly becomes a burden. Distr is an open source control plane that solves this problem by centralizing artifact distribution and deployment management in one unified platform.

What is Distr?

Distr is a self-hostable software distribution platform built for companies that ship applications to complex, self-managed environments. Rather than juggling custom scripts, manual artifact uploads, and spreadsheet-based license tracking, Distr provides a turnkey solution with a web UI, container registry, and optional deployment agents.

The project emerged from real-world experience helping software vendors distribute Helm charts, Docker images, and Terraform modules to enterprise customers who run their own infrastructure.

Key Features

• Centralized Management: View all deployments, artifacts, agents, and customers through an intuitive web dashboard
• Container Registry: Distribute OCI-compatible artifacts with granular access control and download analytics
• Deployment Agents: Prebuilt Helm and Docker agents that manage deployments, collect logs, and enable remote troubleshooting
• License Management: Assign specific application versions to specific customers and control access at the artifact level
• White-Label Customer Portal: Let customers download artifacts or control their own deployments through a branded interface
• MCP Server Integration: Connect deployments and licenses to agentic workflows and LLM clients

Installation

Deploy Distr in Kubernetes with a single Helm command:

helm upgrade --install --wait --namespace distr --create-namespace \
  distr oci://ghcr.io/distr-sh/charts/distr \
  --set postgresql.enabled=true --set minio.enabled=true

For Docker Compose setups:

mkdir distr && cd distr
curl -fsSL https://github.com/distr-sh/distr/releases/latest/download/deploy-docker.tar.bz2 | tar -jx
docker-compose up -d

Access the dashboard at http://localhost:8080/register to create your first account.

Practical Use Case

Consider a SaaS company offering an on-prem version of their platform. With Distr, the workflow becomes straightforward: push new Helm chart versions to the built-in registry, assign licenses to each customer, and let the Distr agent handle rolling updates and health reporting. The customer portal gives end users visibility into available updates without requiring direct support interaction.

Conclusion

Distr removes the friction from self-managed software distribution. For platform teams shipping to enterprise customers, edge locations, or BYOC environments, it provides the control plane layer that turns ad-hoc processes into a repeatable system.

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