Deploy Your Server - Larkup-RAG

LarkupRAG generates a fully self-contained Node.js server with zero bloat. Because it’s standard Node.js under the hood, you can deploy it anywhere — serverless platforms, bare-metal VPS, or managed cloud services.

Every generated server ships with a vercel.json for Vercel and a Dockerfile for VPS / container deployments out of the box. No extra configuration needed.

Choose Your Deployment Target

Vercel
Hetzner / VPS
Azure
Other Clouds

Recommended · ServerlessThe fastest path to production. The generated server includes a vercel.json pre-configured for serverless deployment — one command and you’re live.

Demo

Note: Full demo video coming soon. Screenshots below show the in-app deployment flow.

Deploy to Vercel — in-app modal showing Access Token and Project ID fields

Environment Variables configuration panel with pre-filled API keys

Steps

Open the Deploy Panel

From the Server page in the Larkup-RAG app, click the Deploy button in the top-right corner and select Vercel from the dropdown.

Enter Your Vercel Access Token

Paste your Vercel Access Token into the field. You can generate one at vercel.com/account/tokens.

Set the Project Name

Enter a unique Project ID or Name (e.g. my-rag-server). This is saved per server for future re-deployments.

Configure Environment Variables

Click Configure next to the Environment Variables section. Your workspace .env values are pre-filled automatically. Ensure at minimum your LLM provider API key is set (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY).

Deploy

Click Deploy — Larkup-RAG will push your server to Vercel. Once complete, a live URL will appear in the Server panel.

After your first deployment, subsequent deploys are instant — just click Deploy again. Your project name and token are remembered.

Docker · SSH DeployDeploy to any Linux VPS (Hetzner, DigitalOcean Droplets, AWS EC2, etc.) via SSH. Larkup-RAG automatically connects, installs Docker, and launches your server — no manual setup needed.

Demo

Note: Full demo video coming soon. Screenshots below show the live SSH deployment in action.

Server launched — Remote server URL shown with live curl command for testing

Deploy via SSH modal — Server IP, SSH Username, and Authentication Type fields

Steps

Provision a VPS

Create a fresh Ubuntu 22.04+ server on Hetzner Cloud, DigitalOcean, or any VPS provider. Note the public IP address.

Open the Deploy Panel

In the Larkup-RAG app, click Deploy → Deploy via SSH (Hetzner, EC2, Droplets).

Enter Server Credentials

Fill in:

Server IP / Hostname — e.g. 167.233.113.67
SSH Username — typically root for a fresh VPS
Authentication Type — choose Password or Private Key

Configure Environment Variables

Click Configure to set your API keys. Values from your local .env are pre-filled and synced automatically.

Deploy via SSH

Click Deploy via SSH. Larkup-RAG will:

Connect to your server over SSH
Install Docker (if not present)
Pull and build your RAG server image
Launch the container on port 8080

You can watch the live terminal output stream directly in the app.

Access Your Live Server

Once deployment completes, the live server URL (http://<ip>:8080) appears in the panel with a ready-to-use curl test command.

For production use, configure a reverse proxy (Nginx or Caddy) in front of port 8080 to handle SSL termination and custom domain routing.

AWS · GCP · Railway · Fly.io · and moreLarkupRAG’s generated server is a plain Node.js app with an included Dockerfile — it runs on any cloud or platform that supports containers or Node.js.

Supported Platforms

Platform	Method	Notes
AWS EC2	SSH / Docker	Use the Hetzner SSH deploy flow with your EC2 IP
AWS ECS / Fargate	Docker	Push to ECR, deploy as ECS task
AWS App Runner	Docker / Git	Connect your repo or push an image directly
Google Cloud Run	Docker	Push to Artifact Registry, deploy as a Cloud Run service
Railway	Git / Docker	`railway up` from the generated server directory
Fly.io	Docker	`fly launch` from the generated server directory
Render	Docker / Git	Connect your repo or use the `Dockerfile`
Self-hosted	Docker	Run anywhere with `docker run`

Generic Docker Deploy

All platforms that support containers can use the included Dockerfile:

# Build
docker build -t my-rag-server .

# Run (replace env vars as needed)
docker run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key \
  -e SERVER_API_KEY=your_secret \
  my-rag-server

AWS-Specific Quick Start

Push to Amazon ECR

aws ecr create-repository --repository-name my-rag-server
aws ecr get-login-password | docker login --username AWS \
  --password-stdin <account-id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com

docker tag my-rag-server:latest \
  <account-id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/my-rag-server:latest
docker push \
  <account-id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/my-rag-server:latest

Deploy to ECS Fargate or App Runner

Create a task definition or App Runner service pointing to your ECR image. Set environment variables in the service configuration.

Need first-class support for a specific cloud? Open an issue or submit a PR — one-click deploy integrations for AWS, GCP, and Railway are on the roadmap.

Environment Variables Reference

Regardless of your deployment target, ensure the following variables are configured in your cloud provider’s settings panel:

Variable	Required	Description
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	✅ Yes (if using OpenAI)	Your OpenAI API key for embeddings / completions
`SERVER_API_KEY`	Recommended	Secures your deployed RAG endpoints with Bearer auth
`EMBEDDING_API_KEY`	✅ Yes	API key used to embed incoming queries
`LANCEDB_TABLE`	Optional	Vector table name (default: `documents`)
`LANCEDB_URI`	Optional	LanceDB Cloud URI (for cloud vector storage mode)
`LANCEDB_API_KEY`	Optional	LanceDB Cloud API key

Environment Variables configuration panel

​Choose Your Deployment Target

​Demo

​Steps

​Demo

​Steps

​Supported Platforms

​Generic Docker Deploy

​AWS-Specific Quick Start

​Environment Variables Reference

Choose Your Deployment Target

Demo

Steps

Demo

Steps

Supported Platforms

Generic Docker Deploy

AWS-Specific Quick Start

Environment Variables Reference