Deployments

Builds and Buildpacks

How repositories without a Dockerfile are detected and built.

Every Git deployment ends up as a Docker image tagged with its commit. If the repository has a Dockerfile at the configured path, VPSPilot builds it as-is. Otherwise it inspects the checkout and writes a Dockerfile for the stack it finds.

Detection order

package.json: Node.js, or Bun when it is the package manager.
requirements.txt, pyproject.toml, Pipfile, setup.py, uv.lock or poetry.lock: Python.
go.mod: Go.
Cargo.toml: Rust.
index.html: a static site.
main.py or app.py: Python without a manifest.

If nothing matches, the deploy fails and asks you to add a Dockerfile or deploy a container image.

Node.js and Bun

Concern	How it's decided
Package manager	The `packageManager` field, then the lockfile: bun, pnpm, Yarn, otherwise npm.
Node version	`engines.node` or `.nvmrc`; defaults to 22.
Build	The `build` script, when there is one.
Start	A `Procfile` `web:` line, then the `start` script, then framework defaults (Nuxt, SvelteKit), then `main` or `server.js` / `index.js`.
Static builds	Vite, Create React App, Astro and Angular builds are served from their output directory.

Recognised frameworks: Next.js, Nuxt, Remix, SvelteKit, Astro, NestJS, Angular, Create React App, Vite, Fastify, Hono, Express and Koa.

Python

Concern	How it's decided
Installer	uv, Poetry, Pipenv or pip, from the lockfile or manifest present.
Version	`.python-version` or `runtime.txt`; defaults to 3.12.
Start	A `Procfile` `web:` line; Django runs under gunicorn; FastAPI under uvicorn; Flask under gunicorn; otherwise `python main.py`, `app.py` or `server.py`.

Go, Rust and static sites

Go builds the main package in the root or cmd/<name> into a static binary (Go 1.23 by default).
Rust builds with Cargo in release mode.
Static sites are served by a tiny busybox web server on $PORT.

Overriding commands

Set a build or start command on the app when detection gets it wrong. Both are single-line shell commands run inside the container:

example overrides

build_command:  pnpm turbo run build --filter=webstart_command:  node apps/web/server.js

Build-time variables

Non-secret environment variables are passed to the build as Docker build arguments, so values like NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL are available while building. Secret variables are only given to the running container.

Security

Repository content is untrusted. Files are read with size limits and only inside the checkout, and anything copied from them into the generated Dockerfile must match strict patterns.