deploy.rb

# config/deploy.rb

# probably a lot of ways to improve this...
set :application, 'my_app'
set :repo_url, 'git@github.com:USERNAME/my_app.git'
# should set up a deploy user
set :user, 'deploy'

set :deploy_to, '/var/www/my_app'
set :scm, :git

set :format, :pretty
set :log_level, :debug
set :pty, true

set :keep_releases, 5

namespace :deploy do

  #TODO: Add stop task in upstart
  desc "Stop Forever"
  task :started do
    on roles(:app) do
      execute "forever stopall" 
    end
  end

  desc "Install node modules non-globally"
  task :npm_install do
    on roles(:app) do
      execute "cd #{current_path} && npm install"
    end
  end

  desc 'Restart application'
  task :restart do
    on roles(:app), in: :sequence, wait: 5 do
      # This assumes you are using upstart to startup your application 
      # - be sure that your upstart script runs as the 'deploy' user
      execute "sudo start node-upstart-script", raise_on_non_zero_exit: false
    end
  end

  before :restart, 'deploy:npm_install'

end

node-upstart-script.conf

# /etc/init/node-upstart-script.conf
description "myapp"
author "Your Name <your@email.com>"

start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up IFACE=eth0)
stop on shutdown

script
    export HOME=/home/deploy
    export NODE_ENV=production

    cd /var/www/my_app/current/
    exec sudo -u deploy forever start -l "/var/log/node/my_app.log" -a app.js >> /var/log/node/my_app.log 2>&1
end script

production.rb

# config/deploy/production.rb
set :stage, :production

server '127.0.0.1', user: 'deploy', roles: %w{web app}, my_property: :my_value

server '127.0.0.1',
  user: 'deploy',
  roles: %w{web app},
  ssh_options: {
#    user: 'user_name', # overrides user setting above
#    keys: %w(~/.ssh/id_rsa),
    forward_agent: true,
    auth_methods: %w(publickey password),
    #password: 'use a key instead'
  }