14 — [Optional] Trigger deploy and verify app is live

Category: Hosting & Deploy · Priority: Low · Optional

Check Render's deploy logs. Hit the public URL. Confirm the healthcheck endpoint returns 200.

⚠️ OPTIONAL — Only needed if deploying to Render.

🎯 What is this task?

After setting env vars, trigger a deploy and confirm your app is live and working on the public URL Render gave you.

📋 Step-by-step

Step 1 — Trigger a manual deploy (if not already deploying)

In your Render service dashboard, click "Manual Deploy" → "Deploy latest commit".

Step 2 — Watch the deploy logs

Click on the deploy to expand its logs. You should see:

• Building Docker image...
• Starting service...
• Server running on port 3000

Step 3 — Test your live URL

Render gives you a URL like https://my-docker-app-xxxx.onrender.com. Open it in your browser:

• https://your-app.onrender.com/ → should return { "message": "Hello from Docker!" }
• https://your-app.onrender.com/health → should return { "status": "ok" }

💡 Free-tier Render apps "spin down" after 15 minutes of inactivity. The first request after sleeping takes ~30 seconds to respond. This is normal on the free tier.

✅ Done when

• Deploy completes with no errors
• Public URL responds with correct JSON
• /health returns { "status": "ok" }