Hosted signal pipe
Gotify is often used as a self-hosted notification server. Nerve provides a hosted relay designed around encrypted envelopes and mobile-first operational alerts.
Less power for senders
A sender DSN cannot read history and cannot execute commands. That makes it safer to place in CI/CD secrets or server scripts.
More than alerts when needed
The agent can be added later for signed actions from a trusted machine, without changing the safe send-only path.
When Gotify is still better
Gotify is a good fit when you want to own the notification server and keep the whole delivery system inside your infrastructure. Nerve is a better fit when you want a hosted relay but do not want that relay to read operational payloads.
Self-hosted does not remove token risk
Self-hosting moves trust to your server, but application tokens can still leak from CI logs, shell history, or copied scripts. Nerve focuses on making the sender credential less powerful: it can send into one pipe, not read alert history.
Good first alerts
- deploy failed in production;
- backup job failed or backup is stale;
- disk usage over threshold;
- systemd service entered failed state.
Quick start
Follow the five-step setup to install the app, create a pipe and verify a test signal before moving your existing alerts.
curl -fsSL https://nerve.ink/install.sh | sh
export NERVE_DSN="nerve://TOKEN:[email protected]"
echo "deploy failed" | nerve sendFAQ
Is Nerve self-hosted like Gotify?
The current beta uses the hosted Nerve relay. The security model focuses on encrypted payloads and scoped credentials.
What happens if a sender secret leaks?
Rotate the sender. The leaked DSN can send into one pipe but cannot read old content.
Do I need the agent?
No. Start with send-only signals unless you explicitly need action back.