Deploy Kitsu on your own server.

Kitsu is a production tracker for animation and VFX studios, built by CGWire. Organize projects, shots, and assets, track task progress across your pipeline, and manage preview files, all from one collaborative dashboard. This template deploys Kitsu's real production architecture — the Zou API, its event stream, and the frontend behind…

Deploy Kitsu View source

Your infrastructureAutomatic HTTPSNo lock-in

Screenshots

A closer look at Kitsu.

2 images

Setup time

A few minutes

Deployment

Your own server

Services

6 connected services

Why Kitsu

Everything you need, running where you choose.

Get the full Kitsu experience with Easypanel handling the repetitive infrastructure work around it.

Shot and Asset Tracking

Break projects down into sequences, shots, and assets, each with their own task pipeline and status history.

Preview Review Tools

Upload and review image, video, and PDF previews directly on each task, with version history kept alongside them.

Team and Studio Dashboards

Track workload and progress across the whole studio, not just a single project, from dashboards built for production managers.

Optional Background Job Worker

Turn on a dedicated worker for heavier background jobs like playlist builds without blocking the main API.

Built From CGWire's Own Reference, Not a Test-Only Image

The Zou API, event stream, and frontend are built as separate services wired to real Postgres and Redis, mirroring CGWire's own production systemd setup instead of their single-container trial image.

Purpose-Built for Animation and VFX Pipelines

Task statuses, shot/asset hierarchies, and preview review tools are modeled around how animation and VFX studios actually track production.

How it works

From template to live app in three steps.

Easypanel turns the template into real services, storage, and domains on the server you already control.

Already have Easypanel? Open your dashboard at the URL or IP of your own installation.

Installation guide

Open your dashboard

Visit the URL or IP of your Easypanel installation and choose the target project.

Choose Kitsu

Open Templates, select Kitsu, then review its service names and configuration.

Deploy and open your app

Easypanel starts every service and provisions an HTTPS domain for you.

Installation options

The template asks for these values before creating your services.

Option	Default	Required
App Service Name	kitsu	Required
Public Domain Optional, without https:// or a trailing slash (e.g. kitsu.example.com). Leave blank to deploy immediately on the domain Easypanel assigns automatically — but until you set this (and redeploy), passkey/WebAuthn login won't work and outgoing emails will link to a placeholder address instead of your real one. Normal password login and the app itself are unaffected either way.	—	Optional
Admin Email Used to sign in as the first admin user after deploying.	—	Required
Studio Type Selects the starter reference data seeded on first boot (task statuses, task types, etc.).	3D Animation / 2D Animation / VFX / Video Games	Required
Enable Background Job Worker Deploys a worker for background jobs like playlist building. Off by default, matching Zou's own default.	false	Required
Zou (Backend) Version	1.0.57	Required
Kitsu (Frontend) Version	1.0.53	Required
SMTP Host Optional. Required for invite emails and notifications; leave blank to disable outgoing mail entirely.	—	Optional
SMTP Port	587	Optional
SMTP Username Optional.	—	Optional
SMTP Password Optional.	Set during install	Optional
SMTP From Address Optional. Defaults to the admin email if left blank.	—	Optional

Before you deploy

Open the app URL and sign in with the admin email you set and the auto-generated password shown as ZOU_ADMIN_PASSWORD in the "-api" service's Environment tab. If you left Public Domain blank, set it and redeploy before inviting anyone else — until then, passkey/WebAuthn login won't work and outgoing emails (invites, notifications) will link to a placeholder address instead of your real one; normal password login and the app itself work fine either way. Deploys build the Zou backend from source on first run, so the initial rollout takes noticeably longer than a plain image pull — subsequent redeploys are faster. Preview files and the database both live on persistent volumes; back up the database with `zou dump-database` and keep a copy of the previews volume if the production history matters to you.

Resources

Project documentation and source code.