VPS (Nginx)

This guide walks you through deploying WeaveAI to a VPS using Nginx as a reverse proxy and PM2 as a process manager.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

A VPS running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Root/sudo and SSH access to your server
A domain name pointed to your VPS IP address

Install Required Software

Connect to your VPS
Terminal window
```
ssh root@your-server-ip
```
Update system packages
Terminal window
```
apt update
```

Install Node.js v22 or v24

# Download and install nvm:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bash

# in lieu of restarting the shell
\. "$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"

# Download and install Node.js v24:
nvm install 24

# Verify the Node.js version:
node -v # Should print "v24.11.1".

# Verify npm version:
npm -v # Should print "11.6.2".

Install PostgreSQL 17

# Add PostgreSQL APT repository
apt install -y postgresql-common
/usr/share/postgresql-common/pgdg/apt.postgresql.org.sh -y

# Install PostgreSQL 17
apt install -y postgresql-17 postgresql-contrib-17

# Verify installation
psql --version  # Should show PostgreSQL 17.x

Install Nginx
Terminal window
```
apt install -y nginx
```
Install PM2 globally
Terminal window
```
npm install -g pm2
```

Set Up PostgreSQL Database

Switch to postgres user
Terminal window
```
sudo -u postgres psql
```

Create database and user

Run these commands in the PostgreSQL prompt:

CREATE DATABASE weaveai;
CREATE USER weaveai_user WITH PASSWORD 'your_secure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE weaveai TO weaveai_user;

-- Connect to the weaveai database
\c weaveai

-- Grant schema privileges to your user
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO weaveai_user;

-- Make the user the owner of the database for full control
ALTER DATABASE weaveai OWNER TO weaveai_user;

\q

Note your DATABASE_URL

Your DATABASE_URL connection string that goes in your .env file will be:
```
postgresql://weaveai_user:your_secure_password@localhost:5432/weaveai
```

Deploy WeaveAI Application

Create application directory

mkdir -p /var/www/weaveai
cd /var/www/weaveai

Upload your application files

You can either:

Option A: Using Git (if you’ve pushed to a private repository)
Terminal window
```
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo.git .
```
Option B: Using SCP from your local machine
Terminal window
```
# Run this on your local machine (not the server)
scp -r /path/to/weaveai/* root@your-server-ip:/var/www/weaveai/
```
Option C: Using SFTP client (FileZilla, WinSCP, etc.)

Install Node.js Adapter

SvelteKit requires a deployment adapter for Node.js environments. Install the Node adapter:

cd /var/www/weaveai
npm install -D @sveltejs/adapter-node

Update your svelte.config.js file on the first line, change adapter-auto to adapter-node:

import adapter from "@sveltejs/adapter-auto"; // change this to @sveltejs/adapter-node
import { vitePreprocess } from "@sveltejs/vite-plugin-svelte";

/** @type {import('@sveltejs/kit').Config} */
const config = {
  preprocess: vitePreprocess(),

  kit: {
    adapter: adapter(),
  },
};

export default config;

Install dependencies
Terminal window
```
npm install
```
Generate AUTH_SECRET

Before creating the environment file (.env), generate your Auth.js secret using this Generator.

Create environment file

nano .env

Add your environment variables:

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://weaveai_user:your_secure_password@localhost:5432/weaveai"
AUTH_SECRET="your_generated_auth_secret"
PUBLIC_ORIGIN="https://your-domain.com"
NODE_ENV="production"
BODY_SIZE_LIMIT=104857600

Save and exit (Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter)

Build the application
Terminal window
```
npm run build
```

Push Database Schema

Before starting the application, you need to set up the database schema. Follow the Database Schema guide to push your schema using Drizzle.

Quick version:

cd /var/www/weaveai
npm run db:push

Configure PM2

Start the application with PM2

cd /var/www/weaveai
pm2 start build/index.js --name "weaveai" --node-args="--env-file=.env"

Configure PM2 to start on boot
Terminal window
```
pm2 startup
pm2 save
```
Verify the application is running
Terminal window
```
pm2 status
pm2 logs weaveai
```
The application should now be running on http://localhost:3000

Configure Nginx

Create Nginx configuration

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/weaveai

Add the following configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com www.your-domain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        proxy_buffer_size 256k;
        proxy_buffers 4 512k;
        proxy_busy_buffers_size 512k;
    }
}

Replace your-domain.com with your actual domain.

Save and exit (Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter)

Enable the site

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/weaveai /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Test Nginx configuration
Terminal window
```
nginx -t
```
Restart Nginx
Terminal window
```
systemctl restart nginx
```

Set Up SSL

Install Certbot

apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Obtain SSL certificate
Terminal window
```
certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com -d www.your-domain.com
```
Follow the prompts to complete the SSL setup.
Auto-renewal is configured automatically

Test renewal:
Terminal window
```
certbot renew --dry-run
```

Verify Deployment

Check application status
Terminal window
```
pm2 status
pm2 logs weaveai
```
Check Nginx status
Terminal window
```
systemctl status nginx
```
Visit your application - Open your browser and navigate to your domain

Useful PM2 Commands

View logs: pm2 logs weaveai
Restart app: pm2 restart weaveai
Stop app: pm2 stop weaveai
Delete app from PM2: pm2 delete weaveai
Monitor resources: pm2 monit

Updating WeaveAI

When a new version is available:

Stop the application
Terminal window
```
pm2 stop weaveai
```

Backup your .env file

cp /var/www/weaveai/.env /var/www/weaveai/.env.backup

Update the application files

If using Git:
Terminal window
```
cd /var/www/weaveai
git pull
```
If uploading manually, upload the new files via SCP or SFTP
Install any new dependencies
Terminal window
```
npm install
```
Rebuild the application
Terminal window
```
npm run build
```
Push database schema if needed
Terminal window
```
npm run db:push
```
Restart the application
Terminal window
```
pm2 restart weaveai
```
Verify everything works
Terminal window
```
pm2 logs weaveai
```