Deployment Guide

How to deploy Tova applications to production. For zero-config VPS deployment using the deploy block, see the Deploy Block guide.

Build for Production

tova build --production

This generates optimized output in .tova-out/:

• Bundled JavaScript files
• Hashed filenames for cache busting
• Minified code
• Source maps

Deployment Targets

Fly.io

1. Create a Dockerfile:

FROM oven/bun:1-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY .tova-out/ ./.tova-out/
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["bun", "run", ".tova-out/server.min.js"]

2. Deploy:

tova build --production
fly launch
fly deploy

Railway

1. Set the build command in your Railway project:

tova build --production

2. Set the start command:

bun run .tova-out/server.min.js

3. Push to your Railway-connected Git repository.

Vercel (Serverless)

For client-only Tova applications:

1. Create vercel.json:

{
  "buildCommand": "tova build --production",
  "outputDirectory": ".tova-out",
  "framework": null
}

2. Deploy:

vercel

For full-stack Tova apps with server routes, use Vercel's Node.js serverless functions:

{
  "buildCommand": "tova build --production",
  "functions": {
    ".tova-out/server.min.js": {
      "runtime": "bun@1"
    }
  }
}

Docker

Multi-stage build with oven/bun:1-slim for a minimal production image:

# Build stage
FROM oven/bun:1 AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json bun.lock* ./
RUN bun install
COPY src/ ./src/
COPY tova.toml ./
RUN bunx tova build --production

# Production stage
FROM oven/bun:1-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app/.tova-out ./.tova-out
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["bun", "run", ".tova-out/server.min.js"]

Add a .dockerignore to keep the build context small:

.tova-out
node_modules
.git

Build and run:

docker build -t my-tova-app .
docker run -p 3000:3000 my-tova-app

The production build bundles everything into self-contained files — no node_modules needed in the production image.

Static Hosting (Netlify, GitHub Pages)

For client-only apps:

tova build --production
# Upload .tova-out/ to your static host

Netlify netlify.toml:

[build]
  command = "tova build --production"
  publish = ".tova-out"

Environment Variables

Set environment variables for your server:

server {
  env PORT: Int = 3000
  env DATABASE_URL: String
  env SECRET_KEY: String
}

These map to process.env at runtime. Set them in your hosting platform's dashboard or via .env files during development.

Health Checks

Add a health check endpoint:

server {
  health "/health"
}

Configure your platform to ping /health for uptime monitoring.

Production Checklist

• [ ] Run tova check --strict to verify no type errors
• [ ] Run tova test to verify all tests pass
• [ ] Build with tova build --production
• [ ] Set all required environment variables
• [ ] Configure health check endpoint
• [ ] Enable HTTPS (handled by most platforms)
• [ ] Set up logging and error monitoring