Deploying a Serverpod Application

Serverpod is a full-stack framework for building scalable server applications in Dart. It includes a server component and a Flutter client library. Globe supports deploying both the Serverpod server and Flutter client applications. This page outlines requirements and deployment behavior.

Project Setup

To create a new Serverpod project:

Install the Serverpod CLI:
```
dart pub global activate serverpod_cli
```

Create a new Serverpod project:

serverpod create my_serverpod_app
cd my_serverpod_app

Test your server locally:

cd my_serverpod_app_server
dart run bin/main.dart

Serverpod creates directories with your project name as a prefix. For a project named my_serverpod_app, the directories will be my_serverpod_app_server and my_serverpod_app_flutter.

Database Requirements

Serverpod requires a PostgreSQL database. Compatible providers include Neon, Supabase, or any PostgreSQL service.

Required connection details:

Host: Database host URL
Database name: Name of the database
User: Database username
Password: Database password (configured as environment variable)

Configuration

Database connection details are stored in Serverpod's configuration files located in my_serverpod_app_server/config/.

Example config/production.yaml:

database:
  host: your-database-host
  name: your-database-name
  user: your-database-username
  # password is injected via SERVERPOD_DATABASE_PASSWORD environment variable

The staging.yaml file can be configured with separate staging database credentials.

Database passwords are not stored in configuration files. They are injected at runtime via environment variables.

Environment Variables

Serverpod deployments require the following environment variables:

Server

Variable	Description
`SERVERPOD_DATABASE_PASSWORD`	PostgreSQL database password

Flutter Client

Variable	Description
`SERVER_URL`	Deployed server URL (include trailing slash)

Different values can be configured for preview and production environments. See Environment Variables for configuration details.

Deploying to Globe

Serverpod projects contain two deployable components that are linked and deployed separately.

Server Deployment

From the project root directory, link the server project:
```
globe link
```
Select my_serverpod_app_server as the root directory when prompted
Configure the SERVERPOD_DATABASE_PASSWORD environment variable in the Globe dashboard
Deploy to production:
```
globe deploy --prod
```

The deployment URL (e.g., https://my-serverpod-server.globeapp.dev/) is required for the Flutter client configuration.

Flutter Client Deployment

From the project root directory, link the Flutter project:
```
globe link
```
Select my_serverpod_app_flutter as the root directory when prompted
Configure the SERVER_URL environment variable with the deployed server URL (include trailing slash)
Deploy to production:
```
globe deploy --prod
```

Deployment Behavior

Globe handles Serverpod deployments with the following behavior:

Preset detection: Serverpod server projects are automatically recognized as Dart backend applications
Database configuration: Connection details are read from config/production.yaml with passwords injected via environment variables
Flutter client: Deployed as a standard Flutter Web application to Globe's CDN
Multi-project structure: Each component (server, Flutter client) is linked and deployed as a separate Globe project

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Frameworks

Products

Infrastructure

Troubleshooting