I almost replaced Lovable with a $5 VPS, Dokploy and one MCP gateway

Description and use

Deployments are automated in minutes, cost reduced to $5/month, code remains on the user’s VPS, and the agent has fine‑grained control over deployment tools via a secure OAuth gateway.

Problem

High cost and limited flexibility of Lovable’s deployment platform, lack of control over code and runtime environments, and difficulty integrating AI agents with deployment workflows.

Outcome

Deployments are automated in minutes, cost reduced to $5/month, code remains on the user’s VPS, and the agent has fine‑grained control over deployment tools via a secure OAuth gateway.

Workflow

• 1. Provision a $5 VPS with at least 1 GB RAM (2 GB for Dokploy).
• 2. Install Dokploy on the VPS.
• 3. Deploy Junctio as a Docker container alongside Dokploy.
• 4. Run the @dokploy/mcp server inside Junctio as a stdio process.
• 5. Configure Junctio with environment variables (JUNCTIO_SECRET, JUNCTIO_BASE_URL, etc.) and connect it to Dokploy’s network.
• 6. In Dokploy UI, add a new server: runtime npx (or bunx), package @dokploy/mcp, set env variables DOKPLOY_URL and DOKPLOY_API_KEY.
• 7. Create a namespace in Junctio, hide unnecessary tools, expose only the essential MCP endpoints (create project, create application, set source, set domain, deploy, read logs).
• 8. Enable OAuth on the exposed endpoint and obtain the connector URL.
• 9. Add the connector URL to the AI agent (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) as a custom MCP connector.
• 10. Use the agent to issue deployment prompts (e.g., “Build a landing page for X, push to GitHub, deploy on Dokploy under x.example.com”).
• 11. Monitor tool calls via Junctio’s request log for method, tool, upstream, status, and timing.
• 12. Optionally run scheduled vulnerability checks on Junctio’s servers.
• 13. Repeat for additional projects, maintaining separate namespaces and tool sets.

Evidence

The client talks to one URL. Junctio runs the Dokploy MCP server, keeps the Dokploy API key, and exposes the tools over Streamable HTTP with OAuth.

Source

A few minutes end to end, most of it the Docker build.

Source

~600 tools is too many. The official Dokploy MCP server exposes the whole API, upwards of 600 tools at the moment.. That’s a lot of context, and the agent picks the wrong application‑* call half the time.

Source