Deploy a Grit app

grit deploy takes local Grit code to a live, migrated, HTTPS app through Orbita — no hand-written Dockerfile, no touching the dashboard.

What happens, in order

  1. Resolve the host — Orbita API URL + orb_ token from ~/.grit/hosts.yaml.
  2. Load grit.yaml (+ grit.json + the env.from file), or run the first-run wizard to generate grit.yaml from the detected app shape.
  3. Ensure the GitHub repo exists (create private if missing) and push your code.
  4. Reconcile — org/project/environment, addons (Postgres/Redis/MinIO), env + secrets, domains — idempotent.
  5. Build → migrate → cut over — build each service from the shipped Dockerfiles, run migrations under a Postgres advisory lock, then cut over. Previous images are kept for rollback.

One-time setup

grit cloud github-auth      # store a GitHub token (repo + admin:repo_hook scope)

Deploy

cd my-grit-app
grit deploy --host prod

Preview first with a dry run:

grit deploy --plan --host prod
▸ Plan (dry run — nothing will be changed)
  App:       rental
  Mode:      triple
  Migrate:   true
  Addons:    postgres, redis

  create  rental-api    → api.rental.example.com
  create  rental-web    → rental.example.com
  create  rental-admin  → admin.rental.example.com

The grit.yaml manifest

You write this once; everything else is inferred from grit.json + the repo. See the full grit.yaml spec.

app: rental
repo: MUKE-coder/rental
branch: main
addons: [postgres, redis]
domains:
  web: rental.example.com
  admin: admin.rental.example.com
  api: api.rental.example.com
migrate: true
env:
  from: .env.production   # values encrypted into Orbita, never committed
What's derived (you don't write it)

Services, build contexts, ports, and the NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL build arg all come from grit.json + the mode. Orbita reuses the Dockerfiles Grit ships — it never generates one or guesses with Nixpacks.

Migrations gate cutover

A failed migration aborts the deploy

Orbita runs cmd/migrate in a one-off container under a Postgres advisory lock before cutover. If it exits non-zero, the deploy stops — you never cut over to a schema-mismatched image. The previous version keeps serving.

Common migration failure: the app's go.sum isn't committed, so go run ./cmd/migrate can't resolve modules. Commit go.sum (real Grit apps ship it).

After deploy

grit logs -f --host prod          # stream logs (WebSocket)
grit rollback --host prod         # revert to the previous deploy
grit cloud status --host prod     # health + platform metrics

Every future git push to your branch auto-deploys via webhook.

Deploy a non-Grit app

Orbita also deploys any Docker image or Git repo through the dashboard:

Apps → Create App → Source: Docker Image
  Image: nginx:alpine   Port: 80   → Deploy

Next

Install on a fresh servergrit.yaml spec