# Deploy an app locally

This guide starts a complete Podplane cluster in a local QEMU VM and deploys the built-in example web application.

## Start the cluster

```bash
podplane local start
```

The first run downloads and caches the VM image, platform dependencies, component images, templates, and seed files. Podplane then creates the VM, waits for Kubernetes to become ready, and configures your kubeconfig context. Later starts reuse the cached dependencies and existing VM.

Check the node:

```bash
kubectl get nodes
```

## Deploy the app

```bash
podplane deploy web \
  --name hello \
  --hostname hello.default.localhost
```

The `web` template supplies a default example image, Service, HTTPS routing, and workload certificate configuration. Open [https://hello.default.localhost:4433/](https://hello.default.localhost:4433/) to view the app:

![The Podplane hello-world app showing “Hello, World!”](/docs/images/hello-world.png)

Change the message by deploying the same release again:

```bash
podplane deploy web \
  --name hello \
  --hostname hello.default.localhost \
  -e HELLO_MESSAGE="Hello from Podplane"
```

## Inspect and clean up

```bash
podplane logs hello
podplane shell hello
podplane remove --name hello
podplane local stop
```

`local stop` preserves the VM. Use `podplane local delete` when you want to remove the VM and its local cluster state.

Next, learn how to [configure applications](configure-app.md), including secrets and template-specific values.