Deployment

Build

npm run build      # clove build

clove build regenerates .clove/types.d.ts and then compiles with tsc. If the project has no tsconfig.json, it stops after generating types — a JavaScript project has nothing to compile.

Compiler errors are reported by tsc and the command exits non-zero, so a broken build fails CI rather than shipping.

Run

node dist/main.js

The scaffolded package.json wires this up as npm start.

Environment

Variable	Effect
NODE_ENV=production	Turns off stack traces in 500 bodies; raises the default log level
PORT	Default listening port
HOST	Default bind address — set 0.0.0.0 in a container
CLOVE_SECRET	Session cookie signing key. Required in production if you use sessions

CLOVE_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"

Without it, the key is ephemeral and every restart invalidates every session. The framework warns about this at boot; see Sessions.

Docker

FROM node:20-slim AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM node:20-slim
WORKDIR /app
ENV NODE_ENV=production
ENV HOST=0.0.0.0
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --omit=dev
COPY --from=build /app/dist ./dist
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "dist/main.js"]

.clove/ is not copied into the runtime image — it is a type-checking artefact with no runtime role.

Graceful shutdown

bootstrap() registers SIGINT and SIGTERM handlers by default: the server stops accepting connections, sockets close, and every onDestroy hook runs before the process exits. That is what orchestrators send on a rolling deploy, so no extra work is needed.

If the surrounding process manager owns the lifecycle, turn the handlers off and call close() yourself — see Bootstrap.

Health checks

There is no built-in health endpoint. One file is enough:

// src/api/health.get.ts
import { get } from "clovejs"

export default get(async () => ({ status: "ok" }))

Because all singletons resolve before the server listens, a successful bind already implies the database client and every other singleton initialised — a liveness probe on this route is meaningful without extra checks.

Scaling out

The default session store is in-process. Before running more than one instance, provide a shared store as services/sessionStore.ts — see custom stores.

WebSocket connections are pinned to the instance that accepted them. Behind a load balancer, enable sticky sessions or fan out through an external broker.

Logging

ctx.logger writes to the console at a level derived from the environment. Override the level explicitly:

bootstrap({ logLevel: "warn" })

To ship structured logs, define your own services/logger.ts — it replaces the built-in logger everywhere, including the framework's own boot and error messages.