Deployment Skill

Configure deployment settings, publish your project, and debug deployment issues.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Configuring how the project should run in production
• The project is in a working state and ready for publishing
• The user explicitly asks to publish or deploy the project
• You've completed implementing a feature and verified it works
• Setting up deployment for different project types (websites, bots, scheduled jobs)
• The user reports their deployed application is not working correctly
• The user wants to see what errors are occurring in production
• The user needs to debug a runtime issue with their deployed app
• The user asks to check deployment or server logs

When NOT to Use

• Project has known errors or incomplete features
• You haven't validated that the project works
• The user is just testing or prototyping
• You are a task agent running in a subrepl context and want to suggest publishing — only the main repl can trigger a publish. However,

  deployConfig()

  is allowed because it only modifies

  .replit

  configuration. If you call

  deployConfig()

  from a task agent, remind the user that they will need to publish from the main version of the project after the current task is merged

Reference Documents

This skill has additional reference documents for specific deployment scenarios. Read them as needed:

• references/deployment-logs.md

  — How to fetch and analyze runtime deployment logs. Read this when the user's deployed app is misbehaving, the live site is down, or they want to check production logs.

Available Functions

deployConfig(deploymentTarget, run, build, publicDir)

Configure how the project should be deployed to production.

Parameters:

• deploymentTarget

  (str, required): "autoscale", "vm", "scheduled", or "static"

• run

  (list[str], optional): Production run command. First entry is binary/script, rest are arguments

• build

  (list[str], optional): Build/compile command before deployment

• publicDir

  (str, required for "static"): Directory containing static files

Returns: Dict with

success

,

message

, and configuration details

Example:

// Configure a Python web app
const result = await deployConfig({
    deploymentTarget: "autoscale",
    run: ["gunicorn", "--bind=0.0.0.0:5000", "--reuse-port", "main:app"]
});

// Configure a static site
const result2 = await deployConfig({
    deploymentTarget: "static",
    build: ["npm", "run", "build"],
    publicDir: "dist"
});

// Configure an always-running bot
const result3 = await deployConfig({
    deploymentTarget: "vm",
    run: ["python", "bot.py"]
});

suggestDeploy()

Prompt the user to click the Publish button after the app is ready. Only works in the main repl context — in task-agent/subrepl sessions this callback returns

success: false

. If you are in a task agent, skip this call and instead remind the user to publish from the main version after merging.

fetchDeploymentLogs({ afterTimestamp, beforeTimestamp, message, messageContext })

Fetch and analyze deployment logs. See

references/deployment-logs.md

for full documentation.

Deployment Targets

Choose the appropriate deployment target based on your project type:

autoscale (Recommended Default)

Use for stateless websites and APIs that don't need persistent server memory.

• Best for: Web applications, REST APIs, stateless services
• Behavior: Scales up/down based on traffic, only runs when requests arrive
• State: Use databases for persistent state (not server memory)
• Cost: Most cost-effective for variable traffic

await deployConfig({
    deploymentTarget: "autoscale",
    run: ["gunicorn", "--bind=0.0.0.0:5000", "app:app"]
});

vm (Always Running)

Use for applications that need persistent server-side state or long-running processes.

• Best for: Discord/Telegram bots, WebSocket servers, web scrapers, background workers
• Behavior: Always running, maintains state in server memory
• State: Can use in-memory databases, local files, or external databases

await deployConfig({
    deploymentTarget: "vm",
    run: ["python", "bot.py"]
});

scheduled

Use for cron-like jobs that run on a schedule.

• Best for: Data processing, cleanup tasks, periodic reports, batch jobs
• Behavior: Runs on configured schedule, not continuously
• Note: Do NOT use for websites or APIs

await deployConfig({
    deploymentTarget: "scheduled",
    run: ["python", "daily_report.py"]
});

static

Use for client-side websites with no backend server.

• Best for: Static HTML sites, SPAs (React, Vue, etc.), documentation sites
• Behavior: Serves static files directly, no server-side processing
• Note: The

  run

  command is ignored; must specify

  publicDir

await deployConfig({
    deploymentTarget: "static",
    build: ["npm", "run", "build"],
    publicDir: "dist"
});

Run Command Examples

Use production-ready servers, not development servers:

# Python with Gunicorn
run=["gunicorn", "--bind=0.0.0.0:5000", "--reuse-port", "main:app"]

# Python with Streamlit
run=["streamlit", "run", "main.py"]

# Node.js
run=["node", "server.js"]

# Multiple processes with bash
run=["bash", "-c", "gunicorn --reuse-port -w 4 -b 0.0.0.0:8000 app:app & npm run dev"]

Build Command Examples

Only use build commands when compilation is needed:

# TypeScript/bundler
build=["npm", "run", "build"]

# Multiple build steps
build=["bash", "-c", "make assets && make compile"]

# Rust
build=["cargo", "build", "--release"]

Best Practices

1. Validate before publishing: Always verify the project works before suggesting publish
2. Use production servers: Avoid insecure development servers in production
3. Choose the right target: Match deployment type to your application's needs
4. Configure once: Set up deployment config early, then suggest publishing when ready
5. Check workflows first: Ensure workflows are running without errors before publishing

Important Notes

1. User-initiated publishing: The user must click the Publish button to actually deploy
2. Automatic handling: Publishing handles building, hosting, TLS, and health checks automatically
3. Domain: Published apps are available at a

   .replit.app

   domain or custom domain if configured

Example Workflow

// 1. Configure deployment settings for a web app
await deployConfig({
    deploymentTarget: "autoscale",
    run: ["gunicorn", "--bind=0.0.0.0:5000", "app:app"]
});

// 2. After verifying the app works, suggest publishing to the user