Deployment

A Bever app deploys as one ASP.NET Core application that serves both the API and the built client, with a SQLite database on persistent storage.

Checklist

• Serve over HTTPS. Outside development, sign-in cookies are Secure, so browsers send them only over HTTPS.
• Keep .bever/ on persistent storage: it holds the database and the keys that encrypt sign-in cookies.
• Run migrations as a release step, before starting a new version.
• Back up .bever/bever.db.

With Docker

Every project includes a Dockerfile:

docker build -t my-app .
docker volume create my-app-data

# Release step: bring the database up to date, then exit.
docker run --rm -v my-app-data:/app/.bever my-app migrate

# Start the app on port 8080.
docker run -d --name my-app -p 8080:8080 -v my-app-data:/app/.bever my-app

The image compiles bev/, builds the client into the server's wwwroot, and publishes the server. It runs as a non-root user and stores data in the /app/.bever volume.

Put a reverse proxy that terminates TLS (Caddy, nginx, a cloud load balancer) in front of port 8080, and set ASPNETCORE_FORWARDEDHEADERS_ENABLED=true so the app sees the original scheme and client address:

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -e ASPNETCORE_FORWARDEDHEADERS_ENABLED=true -v my-app-data:/app/.bever my-app

Without Docker

On a machine with the .NET 10 SDK, Node.js, and the Bever CLI:

bever compile                              # bev/.output/model.json
npm --prefix client ci                     # or npm install
npm --prefix client run generate           # builds the client into server/wwwroot
dotnet publish server -c Release -o out

Copy out/ and bev/ to the server so that bev/ sits next to the published folder, then:

bever migration apply --bev ./bev          # creates ./.bever/bever.db
cd out && dotnet MyApp.Server.dll

The runtime needs only the ASP.NET Core 10 runtime. Configure it with environment variables:

Variable	Example	Purpose
ASPNETCORE_HTTP_PORTS	8080	Listening port
Bever__DatabasePath	/var/lib/my-app/bever.db	Database location
Bever__ModelPath	/srv/my-app/bev/.output/model.json	Compiled model location
ASPNETCORE_FORWARDEDHEADERS_ENABLED	true	Behind a reverse proxy

Upgrading

1. Pull the new version of your project (model, migrations, client, server).
2. Run migrations: docker run --rm -v my-app-data:/app/.bever my-app migrate, or bever migration apply.
3. Restart the app.

At startup the server logs a critical message when the database is behind the model. Database changes that delete data are never applied unless a migration file you committed says so.

Backups

SQLite keeps everything in one file. Back it up with the SQLite online backup, which is safe while the app runs:

sqlite3 /path/to/.bever/bever.db ".backup '/backups/bever-$(date +%F).db'"

Scale

One SQLite database serves one app instance. That covers a large share of business applications: thousands of records, dozens of concurrent users. Lists currently return all visible records of an entity, and the app pages them in the browser; plan for that when an entity grows into the tens of thousands of records. Other databases and server-side paging are on the roadmap.