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Deploy Manifest

Manifest is made to be self-hosted: backends can be deployed with ease wherever you want using different methods.

Unless you have motives to do otherwise, we recommend using app platform services as deploying your backend can be done in a few clicks without hassle.

Here are some quick guides to launch your app in a few minutes:

Deploy Manifest on DigitalOcean App Platform

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Deploy Manifest on Fly.io

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Deploy Manifest on Render.com

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Deploy Manifest on Heroku

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General guidelines​

The following guidelines concern every deployment of Manifest. Unlike the previous section, which is provider-specific, it applies to all Manifest deployments.

System requirements​

The minimum system requirements to run a Manifest backend are 1vCPU and 512 MB RAM. It usually corresponds to one of the cheapest option on cloud providers.

The server needs at least Node.js v18 or more and a process manager like pm2.

Environment variables​

You need to create a .env file at app root level with at least the 2 following variables:

.env
TOKEN_SECRET_KEY=%ReplaceByYourKey%
NODE_ENV=production

Available variables​

VariableDefaultDescription
TOKEN_SECRET_KEY-The JSON Web Token secret key to encode your authentication tokens. Generate one here
NODE_ENVdevelopmentThe environment of the app. For Production/Staging deployements, it should be set to production
PORT1111The port of your app. You can either adapt your server settings to listen to 1111 or change here to your server's default (usually 3000)

Start script for production​

The npm run manifest script should only be used for development as it watches file changes.

Go back to your codebase and open the package.json file and add a new start script on the scripts list with the value node node_modules/manifest/dist/manifest/src/main.js as following:

package.json
"scripts": {
    "start": "node node_modules/manifest/dist/manifest/src/main.js"
    [...]
}

After that you will be able to run Manifest for production with npm run start.

Docker​

Docker is a popular choice among developers. It uses containerization to ensure that the app will work well whatever the environment.

As of today, Manifest has no official Docker image but you can use the following steps to build your own Docker configuration.

dockerfile
# Use the official Node.js image as a base
FROM node:18

# Copy package.json and package-lock.json (if available)
COPY package*.json ./

# Install dependencies
RUN npm install

# Copy the rest of your application code
COPY . .

# Set the NODE_ENV environment variable
ENV NODE_ENV=production

# Expose the port the app runs on (adjust as needed)
EXPOSE 1111

# Start the application
CMD ["npm", "run", "start"]

And we need also to use Docker Compose file in order to persist the data for the database and the storage in a single command. Adding this docker-compose.yml file will create 2 volumes among the image.

docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  app:
    image: manifest
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    ports:
      - '1111:1111'
    volumes:
      - ./manifest/backend.db:/app/manifest/backend.db
      - ./public:/app/public