Deploy Express / Node.js

How nesly detects, builds and serves a Express / Node.js project — and the two commands that put it on a live URL.

Deploy Express / Node.js on nesly

A Express / Node.js project is built into a container and run as a server process.

nesly new node-postgres my-app
cd my-app
nesly addon add postgres
nesly deploy --yes

The first deploy creates the project and prints the live URL; after that, nesly deploy is enough. The node-postgres template is a complete, readable starting point.

How detection sees it

A Node project that is not a recognised frontend framework runs as a container: dependencies from your lockfile's package manager, started with your package.json start script.
A Dockerfile in the project root always wins — the platform builds exactly what it says.

When detection is not what you want, say it yourself: build and start commands, root directory and output directory live in nesly.toml committed next to the code — see builds.

Worth knowing

Listen on process.env.PORT and bind 0.0.0.0 — a server on localhost or a fixed port is invisible to the platform.
Add a managed database with `nesly addon add postgres`; DATABASE_URL is injected on the next deploy.
Attach a managed database with nesly addon add postgres (or mssql) — connection env vars are injected on the next deploy.
When a deploy fails, nesly diagnose reads the logs for you and names the fix.

Full walkthrough: get started. Custom domains, backups, GitHub deploys and the rest of the reference: nesly CLI.