Self-host NocoDB in France, with its PostgreSQL database, from your AI agent

Prerequisites

• A new NocoDB instance, or your exported tables.
• Your AI agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or Gemini CLI.

Step 1: Ask your agent for NocoDB

Your agent adds while’s MCP server itself. If it asks you to, restart it. On the first call to while, a page opens in your browser. In Claude Code, if it doesn’t open, type /mcp, choose while, then Authenticate. On that page, choose “A new app”, then click Authorize.

Step 2: Create your NocoDB account

Your agent gives you the address of your NocoDB, for example https://nocodb.while.cloud. Open it right away: the first account created becomes NocoDB’s administrator. You then create your tables there.

What your agent does

It deploys the official NocoDB image as it is, without a Dockerfile, with this while.yaml:

apiVersion: while/v1
project: nocodb
services:
  - name: web
    image: docker.io/nocodb/nocodb:latest
    port: 8080
    health:
      path: /api/v1/health
    env:
      NC_TOOL_DIR: /tmp/nocodb/
    resources:
      memory: 1Gi
databases:
  - name: main

NocoDB reads its database from DATABASE_URL, which while gives it, and stores your tables and their data there¹. Two settings let it run without administrator rights: NC_TOOL_DIR gives it a working folder where it can write, and memory: 1Gi leaves it the memory it needs to start. The /api/v1/health route tells while that NocoDB is ready.

Restrict NocoDB to your colleagues

Your agent adds two lines to the service:

    access: internal
    email_domains: [acme.com]

Once your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 is linked to while, on the Pro plan, your colleagues go through their usual account, then through NocoDB’s sign-in.

Move to your own domain

Your agent declares the domain, you add the DNS records it gives you, and the HTTPS certificate follows.

Upgrade to the latest version of NocoDB

Your agent deploys the latest NocoDB image. If the new version disappoints, it rolls back to the previous one.

Put NocoDB back the way it was yesterday

Your agent prepares the restore, and you approve it: a safety backup is taken first, then the database goes back to the moment you asked for.

In the docs: PostgreSQL databases, Internal access, Custom domain and Prebuilt image.

Next steps

• Restore your database to a precise moment
• Deploy a Docker container