Production reality check
Your AI app did not deploy. Good: it failed before users found it.
A deployment failure is evidence. Preserve its exact stage and message before another generated change replaces the useful clue.
01
What happened?
The code that worked in preview may meet a different runtime, clean filesystem, production build command, port, domain, secret set or database state during deployment.
02
Why this happens
- Dependencies or lockfiles differ from the environment that worked.
- The service listens on the wrong host or port, or a health check targets the wrong path.
- Production secrets are missing, malformed or only configured for preview.
- A migration requires an order or permission the release process does not provide.
03
What you can check yourself
- Identify whether failure occurred during install, build, start, health check or first request.
- Record runtime versions, exact commands, exit code and the first meaningful error.
- Build the same commit in a clean environment with production settings.
- Verify ports, domains, secrets, storage, network access and migration order.
NOT TECHNICAL
Hosting and servers are not your problem to solve.
A deployment failure is a technical event, but it does not require a technical response from you.
- You do not need to learn Docker, servers or command lines to get this running.
- Do not keep clicking "deploy" hoping it works differently next time — an unchanged failure will not fix itself.
- Note exactly when it failed and what message, if any, appeared.
- Decide whether you want it hosted for you or connected to hosting or infrastructure you already have.
Shipvise can provide a managed environment for the whole thing, or connect to your existing setup if you already have one — either way, the deployment itself becomes someone else's problem to solve, not yours.
04
How to test the fix safely
Correct one layer at a time, redeploy the same version to staging and exercise health plus a critical user path. Do not run destructive migrations without a tested recovery path.
05
When you need a developer
A developer is needed when logs point across infrastructure and application code, or when a failed migration may have changed data. Shipvise provides staged, checked and explicitly approved deployments with rollback and hosting options — if you do not run your own infrastructure, Shipvise can host it for you; if you do, it can deploy through what you already have.
FAQ
Questions people actually ask
Why does a build pass locally but fail during deployment?
Local caches, undeclared dependencies, runtime versions, filesystem case, environment variables and build commands often differ from a clean production build.
Why does the preview work but production does not?
Preview environments often supply routing, variables or services that production does not have by default. Compare the two environments component by component instead of changing application code first.
Do I need to manage hosting, domains and servers myself?
No. Shipvise can provide a managed environment and handle domain and runtime configuration, or connect to hosting and infrastructure you already run.
Can I retry the same deployment?
A retry is reasonable for a confirmed transient service failure. It will not fix deterministic build, configuration or migration errors.
What does a safe rollback require?
A previous working artifact, backward-compatible database changes (or none), and a known way to switch traffic or the running version back without guessing.
Do I need to learn Docker to deploy an AI-built app?
No. Docker is just one way of packaging an app to run consistently across environments. If you do not have your own infrastructure, Shipvise can run the app in a managed environment for you; if you do, it can deploy through what you already use.
What does a failed deployment actually mean?
It means the app never reached a state where it could serve real traffic — the failure happened during install, build, startup or a health check, before any user could see it. That is a safer failure than one that reaches production and breaks live.