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Adding Your First Target

A "target" in Patcherly represents one of your websites or applications that you want to monitor and fix errors for.

What is a Target?

A target is:

  • An application instance (e.g., your production website, staging server, or local development environment)
  • Identified by a URL (e.g., https://myapp.com or http://localhost:3000)
  • Connected via a connector (Python, Node.js, PHP, or WordPress plugin)
  • Monitored for errors automatically

Creating a Target

Step 1: Access Targets Page

  1. Log in to your Patcherly dashboard
  2. Navigate to Targets in the sidebar
  3. Click the "Add Target" button

Step 2: Fill in Target Details

Provide the following information:

  • Name: A friendly name for your website/app (target) (e.g., "Production Website")
  • Type: Connector type (WordPress, PHP, Node, Python, or Other)
  • URL: The base URL of your application (e.g., https://myapp.com). After you save the target, open Edit and use Discover next to the URL to suggest the connector type from the live site.
  • Exclusion paths (optional): Paths to exclude from monitoring
  • Language / Framework (optional): App language (e.g. Python, JavaScript, PHP) and framework (e.g. Django, Express, WordPress). Used as the default for AI prompt template selection; the connector can confirm or override when it reports context.
  • Dry-run (default on for new websites/apps): when on, the connector previews what an approved fix would do (parses the patch, runs safety checks, reports back) but does not change files or restart your application. Turn it off when you're ready for fixes to actually apply on this website/app. Dry-run is also one of the three gates that controls auto-apply — while it's on, auto-apply will not write any files. See Rollback → Dry-run mode.

Step 3: Pair Your Connector

After creating the website/app (target), click Connect next to it. The connector authenticates via OAuth 2.0 Device Authorization Grant — no key to copy. The installer launches the pairing flow automatically when it finishes; you'll see:

  1. Install the connector on the target server using the one-line command shown for your platform.
  2. The installer finishes and launches pairing automatically. The CLI prints a verification_uri and a short user_code.
  3. Open the printed URL in any browser, sign in, select the website/app, and confirm the user code.
  4. The connector saves credentials to ~/.patcherly/credentials.json (or /root/.patcherly/ when paired with sudo) and starts monitoring.

Need to skip auto-pairing (image baking, CI, batch installs)? Set SKIP_LOGIN=1 before running the installer, then run the pairing command manually later — sudo /opt/patcherly-connector/start.sh login on Linux/macOS, & "$env:USERPROFILE\patcherly-connector\start.ps1" login on Windows, or patcherly login for package installs. See Installing a Connector → Pair manually (or re-pair).

For WordPress: install the Patcherly Connector plugin, then click Pair connector in the plugin settings.

See Installing a Connector for full details.

Step 4: Verify the connection

After pairing, check Targets in the dashboard — the connector status should update to Connected. If you need connector-specific setup details, see:

Target Limits

Your plan determines how many websites/apps (targets) you can have. Visit the Pricing page for current limits. If you need more, consider upgrading your plan.

Managing Targets

After creating a website/app (target), you can:

  • View target status: See if the connector is connected
  • View errors: See all errors detected for this website/app
  • Re-pair connector: From the target server's INSTALL_DIR, run start.sh login (Linux/macOS) or start.ps1 login (Windows) — or patcherly login for package installs — to issue a fresh OAuth token
  • Enable/Disable: Temporarily disable monitoring
  • Toggle Auto-Analysis: turn on automatic AI analysis for this website/app (requires a plan that includes auto-analysis — see Pricing). When it's on, new errors skip the manual Analyze with AI click. See Auto-Analysis.
  • Delete: Remove a website/app (target) (this also immediately revokes its connector OAuth token — the connector will stop receiving fixes and refresh attempts will return invalid_grant. Re-pair with patcherly login if you restore the website/app.)

Next Steps