Convex Deploy

<overview> Cover deployment lifecycle, environments, and safe rollout strategies for Convex backends and full-stack apps. </overview>

<context name="Deployment Concepts">

• Model: one prod deployment per project, one dev deployment per team member, preview deployments per branch.
• Preview deployments are beta and auto-cleaned; data seeding requires --preview-run.
• Local deployments: npx convex dev --local --once, no public URL, Node actions require Node 18.
• Agent Mode: Use CONVEX_AGENT_MODE=anonymous for AI coding agents to limit permissions during development.
• Env vars are per-deployment; system vars CONVEX_CLOUD_URL and CONVEX_SITE_URL.
• Safe change rules: schema MUST match data; use optional/backfill/union migrations; keep functions backwards compatible; scheduled args MUST remain valid.
• Project config: convex.json CAN change functions path, node runtime; static codegen is beta.
• Pausing deployments returns errors for new calls, queues scheduled jobs, skips crons; You SHOULD test on dev first.

</context>

<rules>

Deployment Operations

• Core commands: npx convex dev, npx convex deploy, npx convex codegen, npx convex run (use --prod for prod).
• Agent Mode: You SHOULD use CONVEX_AGENT_MODE=anonymous npx convex dev --once when iterating as an AI agent to safely generate codegen artifacts.
• Deploy target resolution: CONVEX_DEPLOY_KEY overrides, else uses production of CONVEX_DEPLOYMENT project.
• Build step: npx convex deploy --cmd "npm run build" and --cmd-url-env-var-name if needed.
• Deploy keys: production, preview, dev, admin (You MUST NOT commit/log).
• Hosting flows:
• Vercel/Netlify build command SHOULD use npx convex deploy --cmd 'npm run build'.
• You MUST set CONVEX_DEPLOY_KEY per environment (Preview vs Production).
• Preview seeding via --preview-run 'functionName'.
• Custom hosting: deploy backend, host frontend elsewhere; custom domains require overriding CONVEX_CLOUD_URL and redeploying; optional CONVEX_SITE_URL.

Required Outputs

• You MUST use exact CLI commands and flags from docs.
• You MUST state target deployment resolution (deploy key vs CONVEX_DEPLOYMENT).
• You MUST call out deploy-side effects: schema validation, index backfill, codegen, bundling.
• You SHOULD always mention .convex.site vs .convex.cloud URL usage where relevant.

Deployment Model

• Each project has one production deployment and one cloud dev deployment per team member.
• Preview deployments are per-branch and are auto-cleaned after a time window.
• Local deployments are dev-only and run as subprocesses of npx convex dev.

CLI Workflow

Dev

• npx convex dev:
• Watches files, pushes changes to dev deployment.
• Regenerates convex/_generated/*.
• You SHOULD use --tail-logs to control log output.
• Local dev:
• npx convex dev --local --once for local backend.
• Note: No public URL; HTTP requests need a proxy (e.g., ngrok).
• Node actions require Node 18 locally.

Deploy

• npx convex deploy:
• Typechecks functions.
• Regenerates codegen.
• Bundles and pushes functions, schema, and indexes.
• Deploy target resolution:
• If CONVEX_DEPLOY_KEY is set, deploys to that key's target.
• Else uses the production deployment of CONVEX_DEPLOYMENT's project.
• Optional build command:
• npx convex deploy --cmd "npm run build"
• Use --cmd-url-env-var-name to customize env var name.

Deploy Keys

• Production deploy key: targets project production deployment (typical CI).
• Preview deploy key: creates preview deployment per branch.
• Dev deploy key: scoped to a single dev deployment.
• Admin key: full control; used for anonymous local deployments.
• Security: You MUST NOT paste deploy keys into code or commit history.

Preview Deployments

• Beta feature, lifecycle auto-cleans (5 days default).
• Preview deployment name is tied to branch; redeploy replaces previous preview.
• Data seeding requires running a function during deploy (--preview-run).

Environment Variables

• You MUST set per-deployment via dashboard or npx convex env.
• Same key MAY require values in both dev and prod.
• System vars:
• CONVEX_CLOUD_URL for client RPCs.
• CONVEX_SITE_URL for HTTP actions.
• You MUST NOT branch exports on process.env at runtime; functions set at deploy time.

Safe Rollout Rules

• Schema MUST match existing data; deploy blocks on validation failures.
• Safe schema changes:
• Add tables.
• Add optional fields, backfill, then make required.
• Widen via v.union, backfill, then narrow.
• Functions MUST remain backward compatible while old clients are running.
• Scheduled functions MUST accept previously scheduled args.

Index Backfill

• New indexes backfill during deploy; CAN slow production push.
• You SHOULD use staged indexes (including search/vector) for large tables.
• Removing indexes deletes them on deploy; You MUST ensure no code paths depend on them.

URLs

• HTTP actions: https://<deployment>.convex.site.
• Client URLs: https://<deployment>.convex.cloud (via CONVEX_CLOUD_URL).
• You SHOULD warn about mixing .convex.site and .convex.cloud.

Response Checklist

• [ ] State environment (dev/prod/preview/local).
• [ ] Provide exact commands and required env vars.
• [ ] List safety considerations (schema, functions, scheduled).
• [ ] Mention logs location (CLI or dashboard) when troubleshooting.

</rules>