Render

Render provides automatic deployments from Git with a free tier.

Blueprint Deployment (Recommended)

Render can auto-detect the render.yaml blueprint file:

1. Log in to Render
2. Click New > Blueprint
3. Connect your GitHub repository
4. Render will detect deploy/render.yaml automatically
5. Configure environment variables when prompted
6. Click Apply

Manual Deployment

Step 1: Create Web Service

1. Click New > Web Service
2. Connect your GitHub repository
3. Configure the service:

Step 2: Add Persistent Disk

For SQLite persistence:

1. Go to Disks
2. Click Add Disk
3. Configure:
   • Name: inboxorcist-data
   • Mount Path: /app/data
   • Size: 1 GB

Step 3: Set Environment Variables

Go to Environment and add:

# Required - Security
JWT_SECRET=your-jwt-secret-min-32-chars
ENCRYPTION_KEY=your-64-character-hex-encryption-key

# App URL (your Render domain)
APP_URL=https://inboxorcist.onrender.com

# Optional - Google OAuth (can also be configured via /setup UI)
# GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com
# GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=GOCSPX-your-secret

Step 4: Configure Health Check

Go to Settings and set:

• Health Check Path: /health
• Health Check Port: 6616

Step 5: Deploy

Click Manual Deploy > Deploy latest commit or push to trigger automatic deployment.

Database Options

Option A: Render Managed PostgreSQL (Recommended)

1. Click New > PostgreSQL
2. Create database with:
   • Name: inboxorcist-db
   • Database: inboxorcist
   • User: inboxorcist
3. Copy the Internal Database URL
4. Add to your web service environment variables:

   DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...internal-connection-string

Option B: External PostgreSQL

If you have an existing PostgreSQL database (e.g., Supabase, Neon, or your own):

1. Go to Environment in your web service
2. Add DATABASE_URL with your connection string:

   postgres://user:password@host:5432/dbname

Option C: SQLite with Persistent Disk

If no DATABASE_URL is set, Inboxorcist uses SQLite automatically. To persist data, add a disk (see Step 2 above).

Custom Domain

1. Go to Settings > Custom Domains
2. Add your domain
3. Configure DNS as instructed
4. Update APP_URL to your custom domain

Auto-Deploy

Render automatically deploys when you push to the connected branch. To disable:

1. Go to Settings
2. Toggle Auto-Deploy off

Monitoring

Logs

View real-time logs in the Logs tab.

Metrics

Monitor CPU, memory, and bandwidth in the Metrics tab.

Alerts

Configure alerts for downtime in Settings > Notifications.

Pricing

Render's free tier includes:

• 750 hours/month of web service runtime
• Auto-sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity
• 100 GB bandwidth

Blueprint Reference

The deploy/render.yaml file configures:

services:
  - type: web
    name: inboxorcist
    runtime: docker
    dockerfilePath: ./Dockerfile
    healthCheckPath: /health
    disk:
      name: inboxorcist-data
      mountPath: /app/data
      sizeGB: 1
    envVars:
      - key: JWT_SECRET
        generateValue: true
      - key: ENCRYPTION_KEY
        generateValue: true
      # Google OAuth can be configured via /setup UI or added here:
      # - key: GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
      #   sync: false
      # - key: GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET
      #   sync: false

Troubleshooting

Service Won't Start

Check the Logs tab for startup errors. Common issues:

• Missing environment variables
• Health check failing (wrong path or port)

Slow Cold Starts

Free tier services sleep after inactivity. Upgrade to paid plan for always-on.

Disk Full

If SQLite database grows large:

1. Go to Disks
2. Increase disk size
3. Redeploy

OAuth Redirect Mismatch

Ensure your Google Cloud Console redirect URI matches ${APP_URL}/auth/google/callback exactly, including https://.