NextDeploy: The Ultimate "Zero to Production" Engine

NextDeploy is a lightning-fast, zero-configuration deployment engine built explicitly for Next.js. It bridges the gap between your local development environment and production—whether that means a native Linux VPS or a globally distributed Serverless AWS architecture.

🚀 The Core Philosophy

Docker is heavy. SSH pipelines are brittle. Vercel is expensive. NextDeploy believes in Native Execution. By utilizing Go, systemd, Caddy, and CloudFront natively, we orchestrate your fullstack Next.js applications using the bare-metal primitives of the web, guaranteeing maximum performance with zero overhead.

🏰 Our Main Moat: Fullstack Next.js on AWS (Serverless)

While NextDeploy offers incredible zero-downtime VPS deployments, our true competitive advantage is our ability to natively deploy Fullstack Next.js to AWS Serverless without Vendor Lock-in.

When you configure NextDeploy for target_type: "serverless":

  1. Intelligent Payload Splitting: The CLI natively analyzes your .nextdeploy/metadata.json Route Plan.
  2. CDN Static Offloading: All /_next/static/* assets and public/ files are zipped and securely synced directly to an Amazon S3 Bucket, fronted by CloudFront with immutable Edge caching.
  3. The Lambda Web Adapter: Your Next.js Node/Bun process is packaged alongside the AWS Lambda Web Adapter. This allows your standard Next.js SSR server, API routes, and Middleware to run unmodified inside an AWS Lambda Function.
  4. Zero-Config Routing: NextDeploy automatically wires CloudFront to route static requests to S3 and dynamic/API requests to Lambda.

The Result: You get Vercel-like globally distributed auto-scaling and edge caching, all deployed directly into your AWS account where it costs pennies, entirely automated via the NextDeploy CLI.

💻 Getting Started (The Developer Experience)

NextDeploy is designed to be frictionless.

1. Initialization

Run this once in your Next.js project directory:

nextdeploy init

NextDeploy will instantly analyze your Next.js project, identifying your Router Type (App/Pages), Output Mode, and static/dynamic route counts. It scaffolds a nextdeploy.yml configuration file.

2. Configure Your Target

Edit your nextdeploy.yml:

For VPS:

version: 1.0
target_type: "vps"
servers:
  - host: 192.168.1.100
    ssh_key: "~/.ssh/id_rsa"

For Serverless (AWS):

version: 1.0
target_type: "serverless"
serverless:
  provider: "aws"
  region: "us-east-1"
  s3_bucket: "my-nextjs-assets"

3. Server Preparation (VPS Only)

If deploying to a VPS, run:

nextdeploy prepare

NextDeploy securely connects via Trust-On-First-Use (TOFU) SSH, installs Node.js/Bun, configures Caddy, and installs the nextdeployd daemon.

4. Continuous Integration (Zero-Touch)

Don't want to deploy from your laptop?

nextdeploy generate-ci

This generates a .github/workflows/nextdeploy.yml GitHub Action. Simply add your SSH Key to GitHub Secrets, push to main, and NextDeploy handles the rest automatically in the cloud.

5. Deployment (The Act of Shipping)

When you are ready, or when your CI/CD pipeline triggers:

nextdeploy build
nextdeploy deploy
  • The CLI analyzes your route plan.
  • If VPS: It uploads your bundle, and nextdeployd extracts it to a new release/ directory, orchestrating a zero-downtime port swap and Caddy reload.
  • If Serverless: It executes the AWS S3 Sync and Lambda Web Adapter wrap, deploying your fullstack app infinitely scalable.

🛠 Advanced Features

Zero-Downtime Hot Swaps (VPS)

NextDeploy uses a release/symlink architecture. Every deployment is a new timestamped folder. The daemon dynamically spins up the new process on a vacant port, health-checks it, and instantly points Caddy to the new port before seamlessly draining the old process. You experience 0 seconds of 502 Bad Gateway errors.

Instant Rollbacks

Because old releases are kept on disk:

nextdeploy rollback

Instantly shifts the /current symlink to the previous release and reloads Caddy.

Native Log Streaming

nextdeploy logs --route /api/webhook

Streams native systemd journal logs, with the ability to filter by specific Next.js request paths.

NextGetting Started