PaaS guide: manage an application from source to release

Platform as a service (PaaS) lets you run applications without manually configuring an operating system or maintaining the underlying web servers. This guide covers the lifecycle of a Deplomo service, from connecting source code and configuring a runtime to deploying, managing databases and monitoring the application.

With Deplomo PaaS , you can manage web applications, APIs, queue workers, scheduled jobs and other container workloads as services. For language- and framework-specific deployment instructions, see the deployment guides .

PaaS guides

Use these guides to find details for each part of the service lifecycle:

Connect Git repositories, deploy Docker images, use automatic detection and configure monorepos.

Source and deployment

Manage sensitive values, build-time and runtime variables, and references between variables.

Environment variables and secrets

Use managed add-ons, bind databases, attach volumes and manage backups.

Databases and persistent data

Manage releases, roll back, promote between environments and schedule jobs.

Operations and releases

Review a failed build log and get an AI-generated explanation and suggested next step.

AI build error explanations

Use coding agents to inspect and manage Deplomo services.

AI assistants and MCP

Service lifecycle

An application typically moves through these steps, from initial setup to release:

1. Create a project and environments

Create a project in the dashboard. Add environments such as production, staging or preview to separate live traffic from testing. Each environment has its own variables and database connections.

2. Connect your source

Choose how to provide the application code: connect a GitHub repository or a GitLab repository, use a Docker image from a registry, or deploy a local folder with deplomo deploy.

3. Configure how the application runs

Web applications must listen on 0.0.0.0 and on the port supplied in the PORT environment variable. Configure the build and start commands for your project.

4. Set variables and secrets

Add API credentials and application settings. Define variables at the project or environment level so that test environments do not use production values. See environment variables for details.

5. Connect databases and persistent storage

Create a supported managed database, such as PostgreSQL, Redis or MySQL, and bind it to the service to provide its connection string. Store user uploads and other persistent files on a volume rather than the container’s replaceable filesystem.

6. Deploy and check the service

Review the build logs in the dashboard. Once the build succeeds, check that the container starts and the service responds at its URL. You can then connect a custom domain.

7. Manage releases and rollbacks

Each code change can produce a new build and release. If a new release causes a problem, roll back to a previous build without rebuilding it.

Web and worker services run continuously. If a process crashes, the platform attempts to restart it. Cron services run on their configured schedule.

Choose a service type

Workload	Process type	Network access	Typical use
Website or API	Web process	HTTP, public	Stores, Next.js or React frontends, Laravel or Python web services
Background processing	Worker process	Private, internal network	RabbitMQ or Redis queue consumers, image processing, email delivery
Scheduled tasks	Cron process	No open port required	Backups, nightly reports, data cleanup
Database or messaging system	Stateful process	TCP, public or internal	Custom socket connections, databases and message brokers
Internal microservice	Internal web/API	Private to the project	Authentication services and communication between services

Shared responsibilities

PaaS divides day-to-day responsibilities between the platform and your development team:

Deplomo provides: the managed runtime, compute and storage resources, networking, resource monitoring and deployment tools.
Your team manages: application code, database migrations, listening on the configured PORT, secret handling and backups of important data.