Deployment
==========

This page gives an overview of how to run and deploy ngapp applications,
and how compute environments fit into the picture.

Running locally
----------------

During development you typically run your app locally in **development
mode**:

.. code-block:: bash

   python -m <module_name> --dev

This starts a local server, enables hot reloading, and opens a browser
page (or prints a link) to your app.

For simple use cases you can also run your app without the ``--dev``
flag, which disables some development features.

GitHub Pages and static hosting
-------------------------------

The project template generated by ``python -m ngapp.create_app``
includes a GitHub Actions workflow file
``.github/workflows/deploy.yml``. This workflow can build your app and
publish it as a static web application on GitHub Pages.

For a step-by-step guide, see the :doc:`tutorials/host_on_github`
 tutorial. This tutorial explains how to:

- enable GitHub Pages for your repository,
- configure secrets if needed, and
- trigger deployments from pushes or tags.

Where to go next
----------------

- See the :doc:`tutorials` for concrete deployment and compute
  examples.
- Consult :doc:`api/utils` for details on the environment and backend
  helper functions.
- For front-end focused work continue with :doc:`components` and
  :doc:`visualization`.