Deploy with systemd

Unit file

/etc/systemd/system/kanna.service:

[Unit]
Description=Kanna
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=kanna

# The data directory is always $HOME/.kanna and is not configurable directly,
# so point HOME at where you want state to live. systemd does not set HOME
# from User= on its own.
Environment=HOME=/var/lib/kanna

# Port and password are CLI flags — there is no KANNA_PORT / KANNA_PASSWORD.
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/kanna --port 3210 --password changeme --no-open
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable + start

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now kanna
sudo systemctl status kanna

Logs

journalctl -u kanna -f

Self-update under systemd

Nothing to configure. The kanna command is a small supervisor that runs the server as a child process: on a self-update the child installs the new version and exits with a restart code, and the supervisor re-spawns it in place. The process systemd is watching never exits, so systemctl is never involved and no Restart= tuning is needed for updates.

Restart=on-failure above is there for genuine crashes.