Quick Start

Prerequisites

All you need is a GitHub account and a repository containing your application code. StackBlaze will handle building, containerizing, and running it. No Dockerfile required, though you can provide one if you want full control.

Step-by-step

1. 1

   Sign up for StackBlaze

   Go to stackblaze.com/signup and create a free account. No credit card required to get started.
2. 2

   Connect your GitHub account

   From the dashboard, click Connect GitHub. StackBlaze requests the repo scope for only the specific repositories you select , not your entire account. You can add more repos later from Settings.
3. 3

   Create a new service

   Click New Service → Web Service, then select your repository and the branch you want to deploy (usually main).
4. 4

   Review auto-detected settings

   StackBlaze scans your repo and pre-fills the build command, install command, and start command based on your language and framework. Review these and adjust if needed. See the runtime detection table below for what gets auto-detected.
5. 5

   Set environment variables

   Add any environment variables your app needs, database URLs, API keys, etc. Values are encrypted at rest and injected into the container at runtime. You can also reference internal service hostnames here, e.g. redis://my-redis.internal:6379.
6. 6

   Deploy

   Click Deploy. StackBlaze clones your repo, installs dependencies, builds your app, pushes a Docker image, and rolls it out to the cluster. Watch the build logs stream in real time.
7. 7

   Visit your live URL

   Once the health check passes, your service is live at https://your-app.stackblaze.app. You can add a custom domain any time.

Runtime auto-detection

StackBlaze inspects your repository to determine the runtime. The following table shows what file triggers detection, the default install command, and the default start command. All of these can be overridden in Service Settings.

What happens during a deploy

Understanding the deploy pipeline helps you debug build failures quickly. Here's what each phase means in the build log:

Clone

StackBlaze clones the exact commit SHA that triggered the deploy into an ephemeral build container. Submodules are initialized if present. The clone is shallow by default (depth 50) to keep it fast.

Install

The install command runs. Dependency caches are shared across builds for the same service, so subsequent deploys are significantly faster. Cache invalidation happens automatically when lock files change (package-lock.json, Pipfile.lock, etc.).

Build

The build command runs (e.g., npm run build). Build output is written to the image layer. If your build command exits with a non-zero status, the deploy fails here and your currently-running service is unaffected.

Push

The built image is tagged with the commit SHA and pushed to StackBlaze's private registry. Images are retained for 90 days, enabling one-click rollbacks.

Health check & traffic switchover

New pods must pass the readiness probe before traffic is routed to them. By default, StackBlaze sends HTTP GET requests to / every 10 seconds. The first successful response marks the pod ready. Old pods are terminated only after all new pods are healthy, ensuring zero downtime.

Deploy from the CLI

You can also trigger deploys without touching the dashboard. Install the CLI and run:

npm install -g @stackblaze/cli
stackblaze login
stackblaze deploy

The CLI detects the current directory's linked service (via .stackblaze/config) and triggers a new build from the current branch's HEAD.