Ship to a Managed Host and Add a Domain

Getting your app off your laptop and onto the internet using a managed host — a platform that takes your code and runs it for you with HTTPS, scaling, and environment variables handled — and pointing a domain name at it. It's the step between 'works on my machine' and 'anyone can use it'.

A managed host removes the hardest, most error-prone parts of going live: servers, certificates, and scaling. You connect your code repository, set your secrets as environment variables (kept off the client), and the platform deploys on every change. That lets a solo vibecoder ship a secure, live app without becoming an operations engineer — and keeps secrets server-side by design.

When the app is ready for other people to use, and any time you want a shareable live URL. Run your security checks first — going public is exactly when insecure defaults and exposed secrets start to matter.

While you're still building and only you need to see it, a local preview is enough. Don't rush a half-built app onto the public internet before it's had a security pass.

Help me deploy this app to a mainstream managed host suited to its stack. Walk me through connecting the repository, setting my secrets as server-side environment variables (not in client code), and deploying. Then explain how to point my custom domain at it with HTTPS. Before we go live, confirm debug mode is off and no secrets are exposed.

A maker finishes an app in their editor, connects the repo to a managed host, moves their API keys into the host's environment-variable settings, and deploys — a live HTTPS URL in minutes. They add their domain, and the app is public without ever touching a raw server.

Use separate environments for staging and production so you can test a deploy before users see it, keep production secrets distinct from development ones, and set up automatic deploys from your main branch so shipping is just a commit. Add basic uptime and error monitoring so you hear about problems before your users report them.

• Going live before running the security checklist, so exposed secrets or debug mode ship to production.
• Pasting secrets into the code to make the deploy work instead of using the host's environment variables.
• Deploying a broken or half-finished build to a public URL because there's no staging step.