General Medusa Application Deployment Guide

In this document, you'll learn the general steps to deploy your Medusa application. How you apply these steps depend on your chosen hosting provider or platform.

Hosting Provider Requirements#

When you deploy your Medusa application, make sure your chosen hosting provider supports deploying the following resources:

1. PostgreSQL database: If your hosting provider doesn't support database hosting, you must find another hosting provider for the PostgreSQL database.
2. Redis database: If your hosting provider doesn't support database hosting, you must find another hosting provider for the Redis database.
3. Medusa application in server and worker mode. This means your hosting provider should support deploying two applications or instances from the same codebase.
4. If you're also hosting the Medusa Admin with the server, the hosting provider and plan should offer at least 2GB of RAM.

1. Configure Medusa Application#

Worker Mode#

The workerMode configuration determines which mode the Medusa application runs in.

When you deploy the Medusa application, you deploy two instances: one in server mode, and one in worker mode.

Learn more about the workerMode configuration in this document.

So, add the following configuration in medusa-config.ts:

medusa-config.ts
1module.exports = defineConfig({2  projectConfig: {3    // ...4    workerMode: process.env.MEDUSA_WORKER_MODE as "shared" | "worker" | "server",5  },6})

Later, you’ll set different values of the MEDUSA_WORKER_MODE environment variable for each Medusa application deployment or instance.

Configure Medusa Admin#

There are two cases where you may disable the Medusa Admin in your deployed Medusa application:

1. If you choose to host it separately.
2. In the Medusa application running in worker mode, as it doesn’t need to run the admin.

So, add the following configuration in medusa-config.ts:

medusa-config.ts
1module.exports = defineConfig({2  // ...3  admin: {4    disable: process.env.DISABLE_MEDUSA_ADMIN === "true",5  },6})

Later, you’ll set different values of the DISABLE_MEDUSA_ADMIN environment variable.

Configure Redis URL#

The redisUrl configuration specifies the connection URL to Redis to store the Medusa server's session.

So, add the following configuration in medusa-config.ts :

medusa-config.ts
1module.exports = defineConfig({2  projectConfig: {3    // ...4    redisUrl: process.env.REDIS_URL,5  },6})

2. Add predeploy Script#

Before you start the Medusa application in production, you should always run migrations and sync links.

So, add the following script in package.json:

Code
1"scripts": {2  // ...3  "predeploy": "medusa db:migrate"4},

3. Install Production Modules and Providers#

By default, your Medusa application uses modules and providers useful for development, such as the In-Memory Cache Module or the Local File Module Provider.

It’s highly recommended to instead use modules and providers suitable for production, including:

• Redis Cache Module
• Redis Event Bus Module
• Workflow Engine Redis Module
• S3 File Module Provider (or other file module providers production-ready).
• SendGrid Notification Module Provider (or other notification module providers production-ready).

Then, add these modules in medusa-config.ts:

medusa-config.ts
1import { Modules } from "@medusajs/framework/utils"2
3module.exports = defineConfig({4  // ...5  modules: [6    {7      resolve: "@medusajs/medusa/cache-redis",8      options: {9        redisUrl: process.env.REDIS_URL,10      },11    },12    {13      resolve: "@medusajs/medusa/event-bus-redis",14      options: {15        redisUrl: process.env.REDIS_URL,16      },17    },18    {19      resolve: "@medusajs/medusa/workflow-engine-redis",20      options: {21        redis: {22          url: process.env.REDIS_URL,23        },24      },25    },26  ],27})

4. Create PostgreSQL and Redis Databases#

Your Medusa application must connect to PostgreSQL and Redis databases. So, before you deploy it, create production PostgreSQL and Redis databases.

If your hosting provider doesn't support databases, you can use Neon for PostgreSQL database hosting, and Redis Cloud for the Redis database hosting.

After hosting both databases, keep their connection URLs for the next steps.

5. Deploy Medusa Application in Server Mode#

As mentioned earlier, you'll deploy two instances or create two deployments of your Medusa application: one in server mode, and the other in worker mode.

The deployment steps depend on your hosting provider. This section provides the general steps to perform during the deployment.

Set Environment Variables#

When setting the environment variables of the Medusa application, set the following variables:

Terminal
❯COOKIE_SECRET=supersecret # TODO GENERATE SECURE SECRET❯JWT_SECRET=supersecret  # TODO GENERATE SECURE SECRET❯STORE_CORS= # STOREFRONT URL❯ADMIN_CORS= # ADMIN URL❯AUTH_CORS= # STOREFRONT AND ADMIN URLS, SEPARATED BY COMMAS❯# change to false if you're hosting the admin with the application❯DISABLE_MEDUSA_ADMIN=true❯MEDUSA_WORKER_MODE=server❯PORT=9000❯DATABASE_URL # POSTGRES DATABASE URL❯REDIS_URL= # REDIS DATABASE URL

Where:

• The value of COOKIE_SECRET and JWT_SECRET must be a randomly generated secret.
• STORE_CORS's value is the URL of your storefront. If you don’t have it yet, you can skip adding it for now.
• ADMIN_CORS's value is the URL of the admin dashboard. If you don’t have it yet, or you’re deploying the admin with the Medusa application, you can skip adding it for now.
• AUTH_CORS's value is the URLs of any application authenticating users, customers, or other actor types, such as the storefront and admin URLs. The URLs are separated by commas. If you don’t have the URLs yet, you can set its value later.
• Change DISABLE_MEDUSA_ADMIN to false if you’re hosting the admin with the Medusa application.
• Set the PostgreSQL database's connection URL as the value of DATABASE_URL
• Set the Redis database's connection URL as the value of REDIS_URL.

Feel free to add any other relevant environment variables, such as for integrations and architectural modules.

Set Start Command#

The Medusa application's production build, which is created using the build command, outputs the Medusa application to .medusa/server.

So, you must run the start command from the .medusa/server directory.

If your hosting provider doesn't support setting a current-working directory, set the start command to the following:

npm
yarn
pnpm

Additional Configuration if Deploying with Admin#

If you’re deploying the Medusa application in server mode with the admin, you have to make some changes after you’ve obtained the application’s URL.

First, add the following configuration to medusa-config.ts:

medusa-config.ts
1module.exports = defineConfig({2  // ...3  admin: {4    // ...5    backendUrl: process.env.MEDUSA_BACKEND_URL,6  },7})

Then, push the changes to the GitHub repository or deployed application.

In your hosting provider, add or modify the following environment variables for the Medusa application in server mode:

Terminal
❯ADMIN_CORS= # MEDUSA APPLICATION URL❯AUTH_CORS= # ADD MEDUSA APPLICATION URL❯MEDUSA_BACKEND_URL= # URL TO DEPLOYED MEDUSA APPLICATION

Where you set the value of ADMIN_CORS and MEDUSA_BACKEND_URL to the Medusa application’s URL, and you add the URL to AUTH_CORS.

6. Deploy Medusa Application in Worker Mode#

Next, you'll deploy the Medusa application in worker mode.

As explained in the previous section, the deployment steps depend on your hosting provider. This section provides the general steps to perform during the deployment.

Set Environment Variables#

When setting the environment variables of the Medusa application, set the following variables:

Terminal
❯COOKIE_SECRET=supersecret # TODO GENERATE SECURE SECRET❯JWT_SECRET=supersecret  # TODO GENERATE SECURE SECRET❯DISABLE_MEDUSA_ADMIN=true❯MEDUSA_WORKER_MODE=worker❯PORT=9000❯DATABASE_URL # POSTGRES DATABASE URL❯REDIS_URL= # REDIS DATABASE URL

Where:

• The value of COOKIE_SECRET and JWT_SECRET must be a randomly generated secret.
• Keep DISABLE_MEDUSA_ADMIN's value set to true, even if you’re hosting the admin with the Medusa application.
• Set the PostgreSQL database's connection URL as the value of DATABASE_URL
• Set the Redis database's connection URL as the value of REDIS_URL.

Feel free to add any other relevant environment variables, such as for integrations and architectural modules.

Set Start Command#

The Medusa application's production build, which is created using the build command, outputs the Medusa application to .medusa/server.

So, you must run the start command from the .medusa/server directory.

If your hosting provider doesn't support setting a current-working directory, set the start command to the following:

npm
yarn
pnpm

7. Test Deployed Application#

Once the application is deployed and live, go to <APP_URL>/health, where <APP_URL> is the URL of the Medusa application in server mode. If the deployment was successful, you’ll see the OK response.

Open Deployed Medusa Admin#

If you deployed the Medusa Admin with the application, it’ll be available at <APP_URL>/app.

Create Admin User#

If your hosting provider supports running commands in your Medusa application's directory, run the following command to create an admin user:

Terminal
❯npx medusa user -e admin-medusa@test.com -p supersecret

Replace the email admin-medusa@test.com and password supersecret with the credentials you want.

You can use these credentials to log into the Medusa Admin dashboard.