mediator/deploy/README.md

Deploying mediator

Target: Ubuntu 22.04 VPS, nginx in front, app in /opt/mediator.

The app runs as an unprivileged mediator system user, listens only on 127.0.0.1:8080, and nginx proxies the public domain to it. Polls live in /opt/mediator/data/polls.json — that one file is the whole backup.

One-time setup (on the server)

Copy the deploy files over and run the setup script as root:

scp deploy/mediator.service deploy/mediator.nginx.conf deploy/setup-server.sh himalia:/tmp/
ssh himalia
  cd /tmp
  sudo ./setup-server.sh <your-ssh-user> <your-domain>

The script creates the mediator user, installs the systemd unit and nginx site, and adds a sudoers rule so your user can systemctl restart mediator without a password (that keeps deploys to a single password prompt).

Then get a certificate:

sudo certbot --nginx -d <your-domain>

Every deploy (from your machine)

./deploy/deploy.sh            # or: ./deploy/deploy.sh otherhost

Cross-compiles a static linux/amd64 binary, streams it to the server over one ssh connection (one password prompt), swaps it in atomically, restarts the service, and prints active on success.

Useful commands on the server

systemctl status mediator
journalctl -u mediator -f
cp /opt/mediator/data/polls.json ~/polls-backup.json   # backup