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Hosting and deployment

Deploying on Vercel

How it works

• The repo includes a Vercel configuration: all requests are rewritten to /api?path=<original path>. The serverless function in api/index.ts reconstructs the request and passes it to the main Hono app (built from src/index.ts).
• The build runs npm run build, which compiles TypeScript, runs Prisma generate, and builds Tailwind. The output used in production is dist/index.js plus api/index.ts as the Vercel serverless entry.

Steps

1. Connect the repo to Vercel (GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket).

2. Set environment variables in the Vercel project:

   • DATABASE_URL – Your PostgreSQL URL. For Vercel Postgres, use the connection string from the Vercel dashboard (often with ?connection_limit=1 for serverless).
   • APP_BASE_URL – Your production URL, e.g. https://your-app.vercel.app.
   • Optional: STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN, SMTP_*, Discord vars (see Environment Variables).

3. Build command: npm run build
   Output directory: leave default (Vercel uses the repo root; the function is in api/).

4. Deploy. On first deploy, ensure migrations have been applied to your production database. You can run:

   bashCopy
   npx prisma migrate deploy

   locally with DATABASE_URL pointing to the production DB, or run it in a one-off script/CI step.

Notes for Vercel

• Read-only filesystem: The app cannot write files to disk at runtime. Commission file uploads and user banners should use Vercel Blob (or an external store) if you need them in production. The code already supports BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN for banner uploads; commission uploads currently write to uploads/ and will only work on a host with a writable filesystem unless you add Blob (or S3) for those too.
• Connection pooling: For serverless, add ?connection_limit=1 to DATABASE_URL if recommended by your DB provider to avoid exhausting connections.

Self-hosting (VPS, Railway, Render, etc.)

1. Server requirements: Node.js 18+, PostgreSQL.

2. Clone, install, set env:

   bashCopy
   git clone <repo>
   cd <project>
   npm install
   cp .env.example .env
   # Edit .env with DATABASE_URL and other vars

3. Database:

   bashCopy
   npx prisma migrate deploy

4. Build and start:

   bashCopy
   npm run build
   npm start

5. Process manager (recommended): Use PM2, systemd, or the platform’s process manager so the app restarts on crash and on reboot. Example with PM2:

   bashCopy
   npx pm2 start dist/index.js --name panel

6. Reverse proxy: Put Nginx (or Caddy) in front and proxy to the Node port. Use HTTPS (e.g. Let’s Encrypt). Set APP_BASE_URL to your public URL (e.g. https://panel.yourdomain.com).

7. Uploads: On a VPS, uploads/ is writable; commission uploads and banners will be stored on disk. Ensure the app has write permissions to the uploads (and uploads/banners) directories. Serve user-uploaded files via the existing /static/:file (and any route that serves /uploads/) so paths match what the app expects.

Summary