How to Deploy with Flow

Flow provides a unified f deploy command to deploy your projects to Linux hosts, Cloudflare Workers, or Railway.

Quick Start

bash

# Set up your deployment target (one-time)
f deploy set-host [email protected]:22

# Add [host] config to your flow.toml (see below)

# Deploy
f deploy

Deployment Targets

Flow auto-detects the deployment target from your flow.toml:

[host] → Linux server via SSH
[cloudflare] → Cloudflare Workers
[railway] → Railway

Linux Host Deployment

Prerequisites

SSH access to your server (key-based auth recommended)
rsync installed locally
Server should have: systemd, nginx (optional), certbot (for SSL)

Configuration

toml

[host]
dest = "/opt/myapp"                    # Where to deploy on server
setup = """
cargo build --release
"""
run = "/opt/myapp/target/release/server"  # Command to start service
port = 3000                            # Port your app listens on
service = "myapp"                      # Systemd service name
env_file = ".env.production"           # Local .env to copy to server
domain = "myapp.example.com"           # Public domain (optional)
ssl = true                             # Enable Let's Encrypt SSL

Setup Flow

bash

# Configure target host (stored in ~/.config/flow/deploy.json)
f deploy set-host [email protected]:22

# Verify connection
f deploy shell

Deploy

bash

# Full deployment
f deploy

# Or explicitly
f deploy host

# Force re-run setup script
f deploy host --setup

What Happens

Sync files via rsync (excludes: target/, .git/, node_modules/)
Copy .env from env_file to server
Run setup script (only on first deploy or with --setup)
Create systemd service with your run command
Configure nginx reverse proxy (if domain specified)
Set up SSL via certbot (if ssl = true)
Start/restart the service

Management Commands

bash

f deploy status     # Check if service is running
f deploy logs       # View recent logs
f deploy logs -f    # Follow logs in real-time
f deploy restart    # Restart the service
f deploy stop       # Stop the service
f deploy shell      # SSH into the server

Cloudflare Workers

Prerequisites

Wrangler CLI: npm install -g wrangler
Authenticated: wrangler login

Configuration

toml

[cloudflare]
path = "worker"                  # Path to worker directory
env_file = ".env.cloudflare"     # Secrets to set
env_source = "cloud"            # Use cloud as env source (optional)
env_keys = ["API_KEY"]           # Keys to fetch from cloud (optional)
env_vars = ["APP_BASE_URL"]      # Keys to set as non-secret vars (optional)
environment = "staging"          # Optional wrangler environment
deploy = "wrangler deploy"       # Custom deploy command (optional)
dev = "wrangler dev"             # Custom dev command (optional)

Setup (TUI)

bash

# Interactive Cloudflare setup (detects wrangler config + env files)
f deploy setup

Deploy

bash

# Deploy to production
f deploy cf

# Set secrets and deploy
f deploy cf --secrets

# Run in dev mode
f deploy cf --dev

Secrets

If you specify env_file, flow will set each variable as a Cloudflare secret:

env

# .env.cloudflare
API_KEY=secret123
DATABASE_URL=postgres://...

bash

f deploy cf --secrets
# Sets API_KEY and DATABASE_URL via `wrangler secret put`

If you set env_source = "cloud", flow will fetch env vars from cloud instead of a local file:

bash

f env apply

If environment is set, Flow appends --env <name> for secrets and deploys.

Railway

Prerequisites

Railway CLI: npm install -g @railway/cli
Authenticated: railway login

Configuration

toml

[railway]
project = "your-project-id"      # Railway project ID
environment = "production"       # Environment name
env_file = ".env.railway"        # Environment variables

Deploy

bash

f deploy railway

Examples

Rust Server

toml

[host]
dest = "/opt/api"
setup = """
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y
source ~/.cargo/env
cargo build --release
"""
run = "/opt/api/target/release/server"
port = 8080
service = "api-server"
env_file = ".env.production"
domain = "api.example.com"
ssl = true

Node.js App

toml

[host]
dest = "/opt/webapp"
setup = """
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs
npm ci --production
npm run build
"""
run = "node /opt/webapp/dist/server.js"
port = 3000
service = "webapp"
env_file = ".env"
domain = "app.example.com"
ssl = true

Python/FastAPI

toml

[host]
dest = "/opt/api"
setup = """
apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python3-venv
python3 -m venv venv
./venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
"""
run = "/opt/api/venv/bin/uvicorn main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000"
port = 8000
service = "fastapi"
env_file = ".env"

Cloudflare Worker with Hono

toml

[cloudflare]
path = "worker"
env_file = ".env.cf"

bash

# In worker/ directory, have wrangler.toml:
# name = "my-api"
# main = "src/index.ts"

f deploy cf --secrets

Tips

Multiple Environments

Use different env files for staging vs production:

bash

# Deploy to staging
FLOW_ENV=staging f deploy

# Or use different flow.toml sections (coming soon)

CI/CD Integration

yaml

# GitHub Actions
- name: Deploy
  run: |
    echo "${{ secrets.DEPLOY_KEY }}" > ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    f deploy set-host ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_HOST }}
    f deploy

Viewing Deployed Service

bash

# Check status
f deploy status

# View logs
f deploy logs -n 200

# Follow logs
f deploy logs -f

# SSH in for debugging
f deploy shell

Rollback

Currently manual - SSH in and use git:

bash

f deploy shell
cd /opt/myapp
git checkout HEAD~1
systemctl restart myapp

Troubleshooting

"No host configured"

bash

f deploy set-host user@host:port

"Permission denied"

Ensure SSH key is set up:

bash

ssh-copy-id user@host

"nginx: command not found"

Install nginx on the server:

bash

f deploy shell
apt-get install -y nginx

"certbot: command not found"

Install certbot for SSL:

bash

f deploy shell
apt-get install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Service won't start

Check logs:

bash

f deploy logs
f deploy shell
journalctl -u myservice -e