Full-Stack Application Deployment cookbook

11 recipes · 68 steps · about 57 minutes of reading

Deploy your first React build to a live URL
My app only runs on my own laptop.
BeginnerRead 5 minDoing: under an hour6 steps
Your Express API still only runs locally
It works on my machine. Nobody else can reach it.
BeginnerRead 4 minDoing: less than an hour6 steps
Store secrets as host environment variables
My .env file has all my real API keys, and I'm about to push this whole folder to GitHub.
BeginnerRead 4 minDoing: under an hour5 steps
Your app still points at a local Postgres instead of the managed one
My app has no idea where the real database is.
Beginner to intermediateRead 5 minDoing: less than an hour6 steps
Visitors still see a browser warning because your app has no certificate
My app is live, but the address bar says Not Secure and it's still on some random onrender.com address.
Beginner to intermediateRead 5 minDoing: under an hour, most of it waiting on DNS5 steps
Fix the CORS error blocking your React frontend
My frontend and my API are on two different domains, and every fetch call just dies with a CORS error in the console.
IntermediateRead 5 minDoing: a couple of hours6 steps
Add a health check endpoint
Why does Render say my last deploy failed when the app looks fine to me?
IntermediateRead 4 minDoing: less than an hour5 steps
Turn your green GitHub Actions run into an actual deploy
My tests pass on every pull request, but somebody still has to remember to actually push the new version live.
IntermediateRead 5 minDoing: less than an hour7 steps
Database migration just took the whole app down
One ALTER TABLE against production. Every request started timing out.
Intermediate to advancedRead 9 minDoing: most of a day, largely a background backfill left running unattended8 steps
Get error tracking running before your first crash in production goes unnoticed
Something broke for a user last week and the only way I found out was because they emailed me.
Intermediate to advancedRead 5 minDoing: a couple of hours7 steps
Roll back a bad deploy in minutes instead of hours
I just shipped something broken to production, and now I'm frantically trying to write a fix instead of doing the one thing that would actually help right now.
Intermediate to advancedRead 6 minDoing: usually under thirty minutes once the incident starts, most of it spent watching each step confirm itself before moving to the next7 steps

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In these roadmaps

Full Stack Developerstep 15 of 15

Full-Stack Application Deployment cookbook

Deploy your first React build to a live URL

Your Express API still only runs locally

Store secrets as host environment variables

Your app still points at a local Postgres instead of the managed one

Visitors still see a browser warning because your app has no certificate

Fix the CORS error blocking your React frontend

Add a health check endpoint

Turn your green GitHub Actions run into an actual deploy

Database migration just took the whole app down

Get error tracking running before your first crash in production goes unnoticed

Roll back a bad deploy in minutes instead of hours

In these roadmaps

Full-Stack Application Deployment cookbook

Deploy your first React build to a live URL

Your Express API still only runs locally

Store secrets as host environment variables

Your app still points at a local Postgres instead of the managed one

Visitors still see a browser warning because your app has no certificate

Fix the CORS error blocking your React frontend

Add a health check endpoint

Turn your green GitHub Actions run into an actual deploy

Database migration just took the whole app down

Get error tracking running before your first crash in production goes unnoticed

Roll back a bad deploy in minutes instead of hours

In these roadmaps