Create Your Application
As a Free-Tier account, you can have up to two (2) Applications in Release. (Need more? Learn how to upgrade your account here.) To create an Application, make sure you're logged in and selected the account that you want this Application to belong to.
In the lefthand menu you should see a Create New Application link. Click that to begin the process.
Select a repository from your VCS that you'd like to use to create your Release application. If the repository is not listed, click the refresh button to fetch the repositories or manage your VCS permissions with the link below the repositories list (not pictured). Release will automatically pick your master or main branch, but you can pick any branch from your repository to build your application from.
When a repository is selected, Release will analyze a specified branch on that repo to find all the services that it contains. This information is gathered from having one or more of the following:
.release.yaml(Learn more about the .release.yaml file)docker-compose.ymlpackage.json(used to build static services)
Review all of the detected services to ensure they are correct. If you are missing a service, review your .release.yaml or your docker-compose file. If this looks correct, you can proceed.
Each service can be one of three types: Static, Docker, or Isomorphic.
Choosing Docker as a service will show you the public and private ports that Release has found, and if public, an example hostname Release may create for this service. This is another opportunity to make sure that what you're seeing is correct.
Selecting a Static Service means Release will need to know:
What is the path to the base of your static service
What command do you use to build the frontend?
After the build completes, where is the output directory from the build?
​Read more about why you would choose static service deployment.
If Release finds an issue with a service when analyzing, you will also see that here. In this case, if you choose a Static Service Type for this service, then it doesn't matter that Release has found an issue with your service definition in your docker-compose.
By default we use the name of your repository as the name of the application. This name is used for two purposes:
To identify this application in Release (sidebar and CLI).
The application name is used as a part of the URL generated for ephemeral environments. Example:
${service}-${randomness}-${applicationName}.domainname.com
By default, the domain your application will live under is rls.sh. Custom domains are available on Professional and Enterprise plans.
Click "Generate App Template" to move forward.
Familiarize yourself with the Application Template. You can optionally modify if needed, otherwise stick with the default template for now. You have the ability to change this later on after initial app creation. Click "Save & Continue" after review and/or edit.
In this section of the Create Application process, you can add Build Arguments, Default Environment Variables, or Just-in-time File Mounts if your application requires them.
When you click "Start Build & Deploy", you will be directed to the Application Dashboard where Release will build and deploy your app services. If you haven't already read the document about Preparing to use Release you should do so now while you wait for your deployment to finish. We strongly advise understanding the Release build process and how Release interprets your docker-compose.yml or your .release.yaml.
From the Application Dashboard, you can navigate to the Builds page at the top and view specific build logs while it is currently being built and when it finally completes. Same for deploys, you can navigate to the Deploys page and view the deployment status logs.
Lastly, when the initial build and deployment are successful, you can navigate to your first Environment by clicking on the <user-branchName> title in the Activity log on the App Dashboard. From here, you can see details about your Environment, make edits to it's configuration, and ultimately click on the URL hostname to preview a live replica of your App!
If something goes wrong you can refer to Preparing to use Release documentation. In some cases, your services might not be talking to each other, so you can read the next section below to learn how to set that up. You can also ask for assistance in getting your builds working by opening a chat with us or by emailing [email protected]
Your environment was successfully built and deployed, but your services might not be talking to each other as you would expect. Go to your Environment and check that the Hostnames resolve in a way that makes sense. If not, you can troubleshoot and find more set-up tips on how to get your application running in Release. You can also follow along with one of our 3 example apps or spin up one of our boilerplate apps found in our Example Library.
Note: Release creates an initial Ephemeral Environment from the Create Application process. After your Application is created, you can manually create new environments (including Permanent) from the Environments page.