---
title: "Custom Compute"
sidebarTitle: "Overview"
description: "Run long-lived containers next to your InsForge project."
---

Use InsForge Custom Compute to run long-lived containers next to your project: queue workers, background processors, AI inference loops, websocket servers, scrapers, anything that needs to stay up. Containers attach to your project's database, storage, and auth with the same credentials a function would use.

<Note>
  **Just need to handle a request?** Use [Edge Functions](/core-concepts/functions/overview) for request/response work and short jobs. Custom Compute is for processes that need to run continuously.
</Note>

```mermaid
graph TB
    Dashboard[InsForge Dashboard] --> Service[Compute Service]
    CLI[InsForge CLI] --> Service

    Service --> Container[Long-lived Container]

    Container --> DB[(Database)]
    Container --> Storage[Storage]
    Container --> Auth[Auth]

    style Dashboard fill:#1e293b,stroke:#475569,color:#e2e8f0
    style CLI fill:#1e40af,stroke:#3b82f6,color:#dbeafe
    style Service fill:#166534,stroke:#22c55e,color:#dcfce7
    style Container fill:#c2410c,stroke:#fb923c,color:#fed7aa
    style DB fill:#0e7490,stroke:#06b6d4,color:#cffafe
    style Storage fill:#0e7490,stroke:#06b6d4,color:#cffafe
    style Auth fill:#0e7490,stroke:#06b6d4,color:#cffafe
```

## Features

### Container deploys

Push any Docker image to InsForge and it runs. Use a `Dockerfile` from your repo or point at a pre-built image on a registry. No proprietary build pipeline to learn.

### Project-linked credentials

Containers receive the InsForge project URL, service-role JWT, and S3 storage credentials as environment variables. Connect to Postgres, call the SDK, and read objects without provisioning anything.

### Scaling

Run one instance for a singleton worker, or scale horizontally for stateless workloads. Memory, CPU, and replica count are configurable per service.

### Logs

Structured logs per container, queryable by service and time range. Tail in the dashboard, CLI, or MCP without `kubectl exec`-ing into anything.

### Secrets and env vars

Set environment variables and secrets per service, separately from your edge-function secrets. Rotate without redeploying.

## Next steps

- Set up the [CLI](/quickstart) to link your project (the recommended path).
- See [Edge Functions](/core-concepts/functions/overview) if request/response is all you need.