Deployment

---

Environment Variables Reference

Variable	Default	Required	Description
APP_NAME	FastAPI Boilerplate	No	App name shown in docs
APP_VERSION	0.1.0	No	Version string
DEBUG	false	No	Enable SQLAlchemy query logging
DATABASE_URL	—	Yes	Full async postgres URL
SECRET_KEY	—	Yes	256-bit random string for JWT signing
ALGORITHM	HS256	No	JWT algorithm
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES	30	No	Access token lifetime
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRE_DAYS	7	No	Refresh token lifetime
REDIS_URL	redis://localhost:6379/0	Yes	Redis connection URL
RATE_LIMIT_PER_MINUTE	60	No	Requests per minute per IP
CORS_ORIGINS	["http://localhost:3000"]	No	JSON array of allowed origins

Generate a secure SECRET_KEY:

python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))"

---

Option 1: Docker Compose (Self-hosted VPS)

Best for: DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Linode, any Linux VPS.

# 1. Clone on your server
git clone https://github.com/plasmacat420/fastapi-production-boilerplate
cd fastapi-production-boilerplate

# 2. Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
nano .env   # set SECRET_KEY and DATABASE_URL

# 3. Start in detached mode
docker compose up -d

# 4. View logs
docker compose logs -f api

# 5. Run migrations (done automatically on startup)
# Or manually: docker compose exec api alembic upgrade head

# 6. Create first admin
docker compose exec api python scripts/create_admin.py \
  --email admin@yourdomain.com --password securepassword --name "Admin"

For HTTPS, put Nginx or Caddy in front:

server {
    server_name api.yourdomain.com;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

---

Option 2: Railway.app

Best for: Fastest path to production, automatic HTTPS, managed postgres + redis.

1. Fork this repo on GitHub
2. Go to railway.app → New Project → Deploy from GitHub repo
3. Add services: PostgreSQL and Redis from the Railway marketplace
4. Set environment variables in the Railway dashboard:
5. SECRET_KEY — generate with secrets.token_hex(32)
6. DATABASE_URL — Railway auto-injects ${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}}
7. REDIS_URL — Railway auto-injects ${{Redis.REDIS_URL}}
8. Set start command: alembic upgrade head && uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port $PORT

Railway detects Python automatically. Deploys on every push to main.

---

Option 3: Render.com

Best for: Free tier with sleep, simple dashboard, managed databases.

1. Fork this repo
2. Go to render.com → New Web Service → Connect GitHub repo
3. Settings:
4. Environment: Python 3
5. Build command: pip install -e .
6. Start command: alembic upgrade head && uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port $PORT
7. Add PostgreSQL and Redis from Render's dashboard
8. Set environment variables (same as above)

Note: Free tier spins down after 15 minutes of inactivity. Use the /health endpoint as a keep-alive ping if needed.

---

Production Checklist

• [ ] SECRET_KEY is a random 256-bit string (not the default)
• [ ] DEBUG=false
• [ ] Database is backed up (automated snapshots)
• [ ] HTTPS is enabled
• [ ] CORS_ORIGINS is restricted to your frontend domains
• [ ] Rate limiting is tuned for your traffic
• [ ] Celery worker is running (required for background tasks)
• [ ] /health/ready is wired to your load balancer health check