Self-Service App Hosting Portal


Difficulty	Advanced
Team Size	3-5 people
Time	~40-50 hours
Demo-ready by	Step 5
Prerequisites	Node.js, Docker, Git, CI/CD concepts
Built by	Vercel, Netlify, Railway, Render

Skills you'll earn: Git webhook integration, container builds, preview deployments, rollback systems, environment management

Start by deploying a static site from a git push. End with a Vercel-like platform with preview deployments, rollbacks, environment variables, and audit logging.

Step 1: Deploy a static site from a git repository (~3-4 hours)

The simplest deployment: clone and serve.

Accept a git repo URL via an API call
Clone the repo, copy the files to an Nginx serving directory
Assign a subdomain: <app>.hosting.local
Configure Nginx to serve the directory at that subdomain

You now have: Git-to-deploy for static sites.

Step 2: Build step (~4-5 hours)

Most apps need a build before they can be served.

Detect the project type (look for package.json, requirements.txt, etc.)
Run the build inside a Docker container for isolation
Capture build logs and stream them back to the user
Serve the build output, not the raw source

You now have: Build-and-deploy pipeline.

Step 3: Git webhook integration (~4-5 hours)

Manually triggering deploys is tedious.

Set up a webhook endpoint that GitHub or Gitea can call on push
On push to main, trigger a new deployment automatically
On push to any other branch, create a preview deployment at <branch>-<app>.hosting.local
Show deployment status as a commit status check

You now have: Automatic deploys on push.

Step 4: Deployment history and rollbacks (~4-5 hours)

The latest deploy broke production.

Store every deployment: commit hash, timestamp, build logs, status, artifact path
Keep previous build artifacts (at least the last 5)
Add a "rollback" action that re-points the serving directory to a previous artifact
Show deployment history in the dashboard

You now have: Instant rollbacks.

Step 5: Environment variables and secrets (~3-4 hours)

Apps need config that shouldn't live in git.

Store env vars per app, encrypted at rest
Inject them into the build container and the runtime environment
UI for managing env vars (add, edit, delete, mark as secret)
Secrets are write-only in the UI (shown as •••••• after creation)

You now have: Secure configuration management.

Step 6: Custom domains and TLS (~4-5 hours)

Let users add custom domains, configure DNS CNAME instructions
Auto-provision TLS certificates with Let's Encrypt via ACME
Nginx config auto-generated per domain

Step 7: Audit logging and team access (~3-4 hours)

Log every action: who deployed, who rolled back, who changed env vars
Team support: invite collaborators with role-based access (admin, deployer, viewer)
API key auth for CI/CD integration

Useful Resources

Where to go from here

Serverless function support (API routes alongside static sites)
Edge caching and CDN layer
Usage analytics per app (requests, bandwidth, errors)
Monorepo support (detect and deploy sub-projects)
Scheduled deployments (deploy at a specific time)

Self-Service App Hosting Portal ​

Step 1: Deploy a static site from a git repository (~3-4 hours) ​

Step 2: Build step (~4-5 hours) ​

Step 3: Git webhook integration (~4-5 hours) ​

Step 4: Deployment history and rollbacks (~4-5 hours) ​

Step 5: Environment variables and secrets (~3-4 hours) ​

Step 6: Custom domains and TLS (~4-5 hours) ​

Step 7: Audit logging and team access (~3-4 hours) ​

Useful Resources ​

Where to go from here ​