Service Types

Yeet detects payload type and installs the service accordingly. For step-by-step usage, start with Payloads.

You should be able to look at a payload and predict which host mechanism catch will use before the command changes anything.

• ELF or Mach-O binary.
• Catch installs it as a systemd service on the host.
• Use yeet run <svc> ./bin/<svc>.
• Build for the catch host architecture first.

• Shebang file (e.g., #!/usr/bin/env bash).
• Catch treats it like a binary and installs it as a systemd service.
• The interpreter must exist on the host.

• Any YAML with a top-level services: key.
• Catch installs it as a Docker Compose service.
• Use --pull on yeet run when you want to refresh images; otherwise run reuses existing images.
• See Containers.

• If the payload looks like an OCI image ref (e.g. nginx:latest, ghcr.io/org/app:1.2.3), catch pulls the image on the host.
• For local images, use yeet docker push <svc> <image>:<tag> --run.
• For Dockerfiles, use yeet run <svc> ./Dockerfile (builds for the host arch and pushes).
• See Containers.

• .ts files are run via a Deno container.
• Catch runs it as a container-backed service.
• See Containers.

• .py files are run via a uv container image.
• Catch runs it as a container-backed service.
• See Containers.

• vm://ubuntu/26.04 creates a long-lived Ubuntu VM service.
• vm://nixos/26.05 creates a long-lived NixOS VM service.
• Imported images run as vm://<name> after yeet vm images import.
• Requires a Linux catch host with KVM available.
• Uses yeet-owned VM image bundles published from yeetrun/yeet-vm-images.
• yeet init checks the host for KVM, TUN/TAP, and required VM tooling; on capable Debian/Ubuntu hosts it can prompt for missing VM tools.
• See VMs.

• Yeet detects and unpacks Zstd-compressed binaries.

• yeet cron installs a cron-style job as a timer on the host.
• See Cron Jobs.

• Yeet detects file type by extension or content.
• Architecture must match the target host; mismatches fail early.
• ZFS is storage backing for service roots and VM disks, not a service type.
• If a service already exists, its type is fixed. Replace it with a new service name or remove the old one first.