How to deploy a single app to a container from a pnpm monorepo using `pnpm deploy` in Github Actions

deploy.yml

name: Deploy myapp as a container

jobs:
    deploy-myapp:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        steps:
            - uses: actions/checkout@v2

            - name: Use Node.js
              uses: actions/setup-node@v1
              with:
                  node-version: 16

            - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v2.0.1
              with:
                  version: 7.9.5

            - name: Set pnpm store path
              run: echo "PNPM_STORE_PATH=$(pnpm store path)" >> $GITHUB_ENV

            - name: Cache pnpm modules
              uses: actions/cache@v2
              with:
                  path: ${{ env.PNPM_STORE_PATH }}
                  key: pnpm-${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('**/pnpm-lock.yaml') }}
                  restore-keys: |
                      pnpm-${{ runner.os }}-

            - name: Cache turborepo
              uses: actions/cache@v2
              with:
                  path: node_modules/.cache/turbo/
                  key: turbo-${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('**/pnpm-lock.yaml') }}
                  restore-keys: |
                      turbo-${{ runner.os }}-

            - name: Install node modules only for the root package and myapp
              run: pnpm install --filter root --filter myapp
              # Turborepo is installed to the workspace root which is why
              # we need to install root deps as well

            - name: Build myapp only with Turborepo
              run: ./node_modules/.bin/turbo run build --filter myapp

            - name: Run pnpm deploy
              run: pnpm deploy --filter myapp pnpm-deploy-output

            - name: Authenticate to the Container Registry
              run: XXX

            - name: Build the container and push it to Container Registry
              uses: docker/build-push-action@v2
              with:
                  context: .
                  file: packages/myapp/Dockerfile
                  push: true
                  tags: XXX

            - name: Deploy the container
              run: XXX

Dockerfile

FROM node:14-slim

ENV NODE_ENV=production

COPY pnpm-deploy-output /app

WORKDIR /app

ENTRYPOINT  ["/app/entrypoint.sh"]

This is gold. Thanks a lot!

I was curious which platform do you use to deploy your project? I'm currently using Dokku, but was thinking to switch to AWS Elastic Beanstalk

@rohanrajpal We push the container to AWS ECR and deploy it to AWS ECS and AWS Batch using AWS CDK.

But not really recommending this if you are just running a simple web app. It's quite complicated but it makes sense for us because we deploy bunch of other infra as well to AWS with CDK.

@rohanrajpal We push the container to AWS ECR and deploy it to AWS ECS and AWS Batch using AWS CDK.

But not really recommending this if you are just running a simple web app. It's quite complicated but it makes sense for us because we deploy bunch of other infra as well to AWS with CDK.

Got it, and how are the build times like? Is Github Actions poweful enough to build decent sized projects (nestjs project with ~1200 nodemodules) in a minute?

I know only way to know is to give it a shot, but just curious to know what your build times are right now.

@rohanrajpal looking at our last Github Actions run it installed 2301 node modules in 15 seconds. Got full cache hit (no downloaded modules). In comparison the same installation takes on my Intel i9 8-core MacBook Pro (2020) 23 seconds with the full cache hit.

@rohanrajpal looking at our last Github Actions run it installed 2301 node modules in 15 seconds. Got full cache hit (no downloaded modules). In comparison the same installation takes on my Intel i9 8-core MacBook Pro (2020) 23 seconds with the full cache hit.

Pretty fast! Guess it shall work then, thanks!

@esamattis thanks for sharing this!

Wondering if you could share parts of your /app/entrypoint.sh file, since I'm getting "module not found" errors when trying to run the container.

@Clee681 It's just

#!/bin/sh

set -eu

exec node myapp.js

But the node_modules/.bin usage might be broken inside the container because the file system paths are different on GH Actions and the container. So invoke your app directly.