Deployment

A Zero app is a regular Node.js server. You should zero build your project in your build step (after npm install or yarn step): Here is an example package.json:

{
  "name": "my-zero-app",
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "zero",
    "build": "zero build",
    "start": "NODE_ENV=production zero"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "zero": "latest"
  }
}

• We add dependency zero, so the cloud builder can install zero on your server.
• Add a "start" command and also set NODE_ENV to production so zero generates minified builds and disabled HMR etc.
• Add a "build" command to pre-build all files to speed up cold boots. Don't forget to run npm run build in your build step (in your Dockerfile, heroku-postbuild, etc)
• If your cloud has an option to set environment variables / config variables (to store secrets, API keys, etc), these variables are automatically passed to your code and can be accessed as you normally would. In node, using process.env.MY_SECRET. You should never commit your local .env file to your code.

After this, you can follow the instructions from your cloud provider for deploying a Node.js app.

Heroku Buildpack

We provide an official Buildpack for Heroku. If you are deploying on Heroku, this is the easiest way.

Changing Server's Port

By default zero runs on port 3000. You can change this by setting the PORT environment variable, like this: PORT=8080 zero

Running with Docker

Here is a basic Dockerfile you can add to your zero application to Docker-ize it:

FROM node:alpine
# Install dependencies via apk
RUN apk update && apk upgrade \
    && apk add --no-cache python python3 g++ make \
    && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*
# Install zero globally
RUN npm install --quiet --no-progress --unsafe-perm -g zero
# Add current folder to /app
ADD . /app
# Run zero in production mode
ENV NODE_ENV production
# Generate bundles
RUN zero build
# Expose port
ENV PORT 80
EXPOSE 80
WORKDIR /app
CMD ["zero"]