Skip to content

Production Deployment

This section covers deploying GoForge to a production server.

Deployment Options

Method Best For Complexity
Docker Compose Most deployments Low
Systemd Bare metal servers Medium

Production Checklist

Before deploying GoForge to production, ensure:

Security

  • [ ] GOFORGE_DEV_MODE=false
  • [ ] Strong, unique ENCRYPTION_KEY generated (openssl rand -base64 32)
  • [ ] Strong, unique SESSION_SECRET generated
  • [ ] Strong, unique CSRF_SECRET generated
  • [ ] Strong database password (not the default password)
  • [ ] DATABASE_URL uses sslmode=require or stronger
  • [ ] GitHub OAuth callback URL uses HTTPS
  • [ ] Traefik dashboard disabled or authenticated

Networking

  • [ ] Domain DNS pointing to server
  • [ ] Ports 80 and 443 open (for Let's Encrypt and HTTPS)
  • [ ] GOFORGE_BASE_URL set to https://your-domain.com
  • [ ] GOFORGE_DOMAIN set to your-domain.com
  • [ ] ACME_EMAIL set to a valid email for Let's Encrypt

Infrastructure

  • [ ] Docker Engine installed and running
  • [ ] Sufficient disk space for Docker images and volumes
  • [ ] PostgreSQL database accessible
  • [ ] Firewall configured (allow 80, 443; block direct access to 8080, 5432)

Monitoring

  • [ ] Log aggregation configured (journald, syslog, or Docker logging driver)
  • [ ] Health check endpoint monitored (/health)
  • [ ] Disk space monitoring (Docker images can accumulate)
  • [ ] Database backup strategy in place

Resource Recommendations

Component CPU RAM Disk
GoForge 1 core 512 MB 1 GB
PostgreSQL 1 core 1 GB 10 GB
Traefik 0.5 core 256 MB 100 MB
Docker Images/Containers 2+ cores 2+ GB 20+ GB
Total (minimum) 2 cores 4 GB 30+ GB

Upgrading

Docker Compose

git pull origin main
docker compose build goforge
docker compose up -d goforge

Systemd

git pull origin main
make build
sudo systemctl stop goforge
sudo cp bin/goforge /opt/goforge/
sudo cp -r static /opt/goforge/
sudo systemctl start goforge

Database Migrations

Migrations run automatically on startup. For manual control:

./bin/goforge migrate up

Zero-downtime upgrades

Run migrations separately before restarting the application: 

./bin/goforge migrate up
sudo systemctl restart goforge