Deploy to Cloudflare

Take your Roost application from local development to production on Cloudflare Workers.

Note

What you'll learn

  • How to deploy a Roost app to Cloudflare Workers
  • How to set production secrets in the Cloudflare dashboard
  • How to attach a custom domain to your deployed app

Time: ~20 minutes

Prerequisites: A working local Roost app and a Cloudflare account.

Packages used: @roostjs/cloudflare, @roostjs/start, @roostjs/cli

Step 1: Verify your local app works

Before deploying, confirm everything runs cleanly on your machine.

bun run dev

You should see the dev server start and print a local URL. Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser and confirm your app loads without errors. Fix any issues locally before continuing — deployments are much easier to debug when you start from a known-good state.

Step 2: Review wrangler.jsonc

Open wrangler.jsonc at the root of your project. Roost scaffolds this file for you, but it's worth understanding what's there.

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "compatibility_date": "2024-01-01",

  // D1 — serverless SQL database
  "d1_databases": [
    {
      "binding": "DB",
      "database_name": "my-app-db",
      "database_id": "YOUR_D1_DATABASE_ID"
    }
  ],

  // KV — key-value store used for sessions and caching
  "kv_namespaces": [
    {
      "binding": "KV",
      "id": "YOUR_KV_NAMESPACE_ID"
    }
  ],

  // AI — Cloudflare Workers AI for built-in model inference
  "ai": {
    "binding": "AI"
  }
}

You should see bindings for DB (D1 database), KV (key-value store), and AI (Workers AI). The database_id and KV id fields need to be filled in with real resource IDs before deploying. Create a D1 database with bunx wrangler d1 create my-app-db and a KV namespace with bunx wrangler kv namespace create KV, then paste the returned IDs into wrangler.jsonc.

Step 3: Sign up for Cloudflare

If you don't have a Cloudflare account yet, create one at dash.cloudflare.com/sign-up. The free tier is enough to deploy and run your app.

You should see the Cloudflare dashboard after signing in. Keep this tab open — you'll use it in the next step.

Step 4: Set production environment variables

Your .dev.vars file holds local secrets but is never deployed. Production secrets live in the Cloudflare dashboard.

In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to Workers & Pages, select your worker (it will appear after the first deploy if it doesn't exist yet — come back to this step then), and open Settings > Variables. Add each secret as an encrypted environment variable:

WORKOS_API_KEY       = sk_live_...
WORKOS_CLIENT_ID     = client_...

# If you use billing
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY    = sk_live_...
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET = whsec_...
Tip

Use the Encrypt toggle for each value so it's never shown in plaintext again after saving. Cloudflare will inject these automatically at runtime.

You should see each variable listed under Environment Variables with an encrypted badge.

Step 5: Deploy with roost deploy

Run the deploy command from your project root:

roost deploy

Roost builds your app with Vite and publishes it to Cloudflare Workers via Wrangler. The output looks like this:

Building application...
  ✓ Vite bundle complete (142 kB)

Deploying to Cloudflare Workers...
  ✓ Uploaded my-app (2.3 sec)
  ✓ Published my-app

https://my-app.your-subdomain.workers.dev
Tip

roost deploy does not run migrations. To apply your schema to the production D1 database, run bunx wrangler d1 execute my-app-db --remote --file schema.sql or use bunx drizzle-kit push pointed at your production environment before or after deploying.

You should see a workers.dev URL printed at the end of the output. Copy it — you'll use it in the next step.

Step 6: Visit the live URL

Open the workers.dev URL from the deploy output in your browser. Your app is now running on Cloudflare's global network.

You should see the same app you tested locally in Step 1. Try logging in and exercising a few routes to confirm the production environment is wired up correctly. If anything looks wrong, check the Cloudflare dashboard under Workers > Logs for error details.

Step 7: Set up a custom domain

To serve your app from your own domain instead of workers.dev, open the Cloudflare dashboard, go to Workers & Pages, select your worker, and click Settings > Triggers > Add Custom Domain. Enter your domain (e.g. app.example.com) and click Add Custom Domain.

Cloudflare will create the DNS record automatically if your domain's nameservers point to Cloudflare. If they don't, you'll see instructions to add a CNAME record at your registrar.

You should see your custom domain listed under Triggers with a green Active status after the DNS propagates (usually under a minute when using Cloudflare DNS).

Step 8: Make a change and redeploy

Edit any file in your app — for example, change a heading in one of your routes. Then deploy again:

roost deploy

You should see the same build and deploy output as before, completing in a few seconds. Reload your custom domain in the browser and you should see your change live immediately. No restarts, no servers to manage — Cloudflare's edge deploys the new version globally within seconds.

Next steps