Deploying with now

This documents how to deploy a simple node app to https://zeit.co/now, set up alias, and configure environment variables. Check out this test site at https://muan-testing.now.sh.

Steps

1. Fork this repository or have your project ready with npm start script and these configurations in your package.json.

2. Get an account at https://zeit.co/login.

3. Install now CLI with npm install now -g.

4. Authenticate and deploy with now --public.

5. Set an environment variable with now secrets [name] [value].

6. Alias deployment with now ln.

7. :tada:.

Details

now --public

Deploys your project and marks it as public. The --public flag prevents you from having to confirm that your project will be public.

"Public" means that people will be able to view your source code and logs via deployment_url/_logs. For example, https://muan-testing.now.sh/_logs.

now ln

Aliases your deployment.

Every deployment gets a new random URL like projectname-aicbqophhw.now.sh. This command aliases your latest deployment with the name set in package.json.

⚠️ Old deployments stay around til it's frozen or manually removed (which takes a while to die completely). This means if your app is actively pulling, listening, or actiing on things, it will not stopped immediately on demand – you might get into a situation where multiple versions of your script is running.

Environment variables

Expose your secret environment variables to your app in package.json. The @ before the variable name tells now to look for variable of that name in the secrets.

Doc links

aliases, env-and-secrets.