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+# Adding a new stack
+
+See [this PR](https://github.com/cerc-io/stack-orchestrator/pull/434) for an example of how to currently add a minimal stack to stack orchestrator. The [reth stack](https://github.com/cerc-io/stack-orchestrator/pull/435) is another good example.
+
+For external developers, we recommend forking this repo and adding your stack directly to your fork. This initially requires running in "developer mode" as described [here](/docs/CONTRIBUTING.md). Check out the [Namada stack](https://github.com/vknowable/stack-orchestrator/blob/main/app/data/stacks/public-namada/digitalocean_quickstart.md) from Knowable to see how that is done.
+
+Core to the feature completeness of stack orchestrator is to [decouple the tool functionality from payload](https://github.com/cerc-io/stack-orchestrator/issues/315) which will no longer require forking to add a stack.
+
+## Example
+
+- in `app/data/stacks/my-new-stack/stack.yml` add:
+
+```yaml
+version: "0.1"
+name: my-new-stack
+repos:
+  - github.com/my-org/my-new-stack
+containers:
+  - cerc/my-new-stack
+pods:
+  - my-new-stack
+```
+
+- in `app/data/container-build/cerc-my-new-stack/build.sh` add:
+
+```yaml
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Build the my-new-stack image
+source ${CERC_CONTAINER_BASE_DIR}/build-base.sh
+docker build -t cerc/my-new-stack:local -f ${CERC_REPO_BASE_DIR}/my-new-stack/Dockerfile ${build_command_args} ${CERC_REPO_BASE_DIR}/my-new-stack
+```
+
+- in `app/data/compose/docker-compose-my-new-stack.yml` add:
+
+```yaml
+version: "3.2"
+
+services:
+  my-new-stack:
+    image: cerc/my-new-stack:local
+    restart: always
+    ports:
+      - "0.0.0.0:3000:3000"
+```
+
+- in `app/data/repository-list.txt` add:
+
+```bash
+github.com/my-org/my-new-stack
+```
+whereby that repository contains your source code and a `Dockerfile`, and matches the `repos:` field in the `stack.yml`.
+
+- in `app/data/container-image-list.txt` add:
+
+```bash
+cerc/my-new-stack
+```
+
+- in `app/data/pod-list.txt` add:
+
+```bash
+my-new-stack
+```
+
+Now, the following commands will fetch, build, and deploy you app:
+
+```bash
+laconic-so --stack my-new-stack setup-repositories
+laconic-so --stack my-new-stack build-containers
+laconic-so --stack my-new-stack deploy-system up
+```