Builder Methods

Deploy our app to production with Hatchbox

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A faster pass through the deployment workflow, this time targeting production. Spin up a second Hatchbox cluster and Digital Ocean server, point it at the main branch, configure production environment variables, attach the root domain, and verify the live site end-to-end.

  • Creating a separate Hatchbox cluster and Digital Ocean droplet for production
  • Why staging and production live on separate clusters
  • Adding the production app and connecting it to the GitHub repo
  • Pointing production at the main branch (vs. staging)
  • Setting RAILS_MASTER_KEY from production credentials and RAILS_ENV=production
  • Waiting for the database button to appear and creating the production database
  • When to use the root domain vs. a subdomain like app.yourdomain.com for production
  • Adding an A record in Cloudflare with @ for the root domain
  • Cloudflare proxy and automatic SSL on the root domain
  • Verifying production is fully separate from staging (separate database, separate accounts)
  • Confirming the OpenAI summary integration works on production
  • Enabling automatic deploys so pushes to main ship straight to the live site
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