Deploy a Go API from GitHub

Before you start

• Your API should be in a GitHub or GitLab repository.
• Commit go.mod and go.sum.
• Your server must listen on the PORT environment variable Shiprr provides.
• Add a lightweight health endpoint such as /health.

Recommended Shiprr settings

Shiprr can detect many Go projects from go.mod. For a single API binary, use explicit settings under App → Settings → Build & Runtime.

root directory: ./
install command: go mod download
build command: go build -o app .
start command: ./app
health check path: /health

If your main package is in a subdirectory, set the root directory to that folder or build the package path explicitly, such as go build -o app ./cmd/api.

Listen on PORT

Your app should read PORT at startup and bind to 0.0.0.0. A minimal HTTP server looks like this:

package main

import (
  "log"
  "net/http"
  "os"
)

func main() {
  port := os.Getenv("PORT")
  if port == "" {
    port = "3000"
  }

  http.HandleFunc("/health", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
    _, _ = w.Write([]byte("ok"))
  })

  addr := "0.0.0.0:" + port
  log.Println("listening on " + addr)
  log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(addr, nil))
}

Binding only to localhost can make the app unreachable to health checks and routing.

Environment variables

Add production values under App → Settings → Environment variables. Saving env vars redeploys the app so new values apply to live replicas.

DATABASE_URL=postgres://...
REDIS_URL=redis://...
JWT_SECRET=change-me
APP_ENV=production

Keep secrets out of Git and avoid printing secret values in logs.

Deploy

1. Open the dashboard and choose Apps → New app.
2. Connect GitHub or GitLab if needed.
3. Select the repository, branch, region, root directory, and deploy trigger.
4. Confirm install, build, start command, health check path, and env vars.
5. Create and deploy the app.

New apps start with 1,000 MHz CPU and 512 MB RAM per replica. Increase CPU, RAM, or replicas if the API is CPU-bound, memory-heavy, or needs more request capacity.

Verify and debug

• Use build logs if dependency download, compile, or package selection fails.
• Use runtime logs if the app starts and then exits or cannot connect to services.
• Check the health check path if the app is running but deploy status stays unhealthy.

After the default Shiprr hostname works, attach a custom domain from the app's Domains page. Shiprr provisions HTTPS automatically after DNS points to the Shiprr target.

Rollback

If a release breaks the API, roll back from deployment/build history. Shiprr reuses the selected previous successful build, skips a source rebuild, and creates a fresh deployment attempt with current runtime settings.