Deploy guide · runtime = "node"

Ship Node.js in ~2 minutes.

Vanilla Node.js HTTP server with no framework. The runtime is Node 24 on a slim Alpine image. Use this when you want full control over the request pipeline or are running a small custom server without Express/Fastify overhead.

Why Percher fits

Percher's node-build pipeline ships a multi-stage Dockerfile that produces a ~225 MB image and runs `node` directly — no extra layer between your code and the runtime.
Deps are cached aggressively: redeploys with unchanged `package.json` skip the install step and finish in ~10 s.

Quick start

bunx percher create my-app --template node
cd my-app
bunx percher publish

The first command scaffolds a working Node.js project plus a percher.toml. Publish builds and deploys it, then prints the live URL.

percher.toml

The canonical config for a Node.js app on Percher. bunx percher init generates this automatically when it detects Node.js in your project.

[app]
name = "my-server"
runtime = "node"

[web]
port = 3000
health = "/health"

Common gotchas

Your server must listen on `process.env.PORT` (or `3000` if missing) — Percher passes the port at runtime and the value can change between deploys.
Add a `GET /health` route that returns 200; without it the deploy health check fails and the new version is never swapped in.

Related docs

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