Deployment Procedures

Deployment Procedures

This section outlines the steps required to deploy the HCG AI application to production environments such as Replit, Render, or Railway.

1. Environment Configuration

Before deploying, ensure all required environment variables are configured in your hosting provider's "Secrets" or "Environment Variables" panel.

| Variable | Description | Requirement | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | DATABASE_URL | PostgreSQL connection string (e.g., Neon, AWS RDS). | Required | | OPENAI_API_KEY | API key from OpenAI for chatbot functionality. | Required | | SESSION_SECRET | A long, random string used to sign session cookies. | Required | | SMTP_PASS | Password/App key for the SMTP server (hello@in.hcgai.com). | Required for Emails | | PORT | The port the server listens on (defaults to 5000). | Optional | | NODE_ENV | Set to production to enable secure cookies. | Recommended |

2. Database Provisioning

The application uses PostgreSQL with Drizzle ORM. You must provision a database instance before the application can start.

1. Obtain a Connection String: Use a provider like Neon.tech (recommended for serverless) or a standard PostgreSQL instance.
2. Initialize Schema: Once the DATABASE_URL is set, push the schema to your remote database:

   npm run db:push
   

3. Session Table: The application uses connect-pg-simple for persistent sessions. Ensure the sessions table is created. If createTableIfMissing is set to false in your configuration, you may need to run the official schema SQL manually via psql.

3. Deploying to Replit

Replit is a preferred environment for this application due to its integrated handling of Node.js services.

1. Import Repository: Connect your GitHub account and import the hcgai repository.
2. Configure Secrets: Add the variables listed in the Environment Configuration section to the Tools > Secrets tab.
3. Configure Run Command: Ensure the .replit file or the "Run" button is configured to execute:

   npm start
   

   Note: If you are using the simplified version, use node simple-app-server.js.
4. Database Migration: Open the Replit Shell and run npm run db:push to sync the schema with your connected database.

4. Deploying to Generic Node.js Hosting (Render/Railway/Heroku)

For standard cloud hosting providers:

1. Build Command: Most providers will automatically run npm install. No additional build step is required for the vanilla JS frontend.
2. Start Command: Set the start command to:

   node simple-app-server.js
   

3. Networking: Ensure the platform is configured to listen on 0.0.0.0 rather than 127.0.0.1 to allow external traffic.

5. SMTP and API Integrations

• Email Services: The application is pre-configured for Hostinger SMTP. If using a different provider (e.g., SendGrid, Mailgun), you must update the host and port in the createEmailTransporter function within simple-app-server.js.
• OpenAI: Ensure your OpenAI account has sufficient credits; otherwise, the "AI Chat" tab will return 500 errors.

6. Post-Deployment Verification

After deployment, verify the following:

1. Health Check: Navigate to https://your-app-url.com/health (if using auth-server.js) to confirm the service is status healthy.
2. Database Connection: Attempt to register a new user. If the registration fails with a "500" error, check your DATABASE_URL and ensure the users table exists.
3. SSL/HTTPS: Verify that the site is served over HTTPS. The application's session cookies are configured with secure: true in production environments, which requires an SSL certificate to maintain user sessions.

7. Troubleshooting

• Session Disconnects: If users are logged out immediately after login, ensure NODE_ENV is set to production and you are accessing the site via https.
• CORS Issues: If the frontend cannot reach the API, verify that the cors middleware in simple-app-server.js allows your production domain.