GitHub Pages + Render

Deploy the frontend to GitHub Pages (free static hosting) and the backend to Render (free tier available).

Frontend → GitHub Pages

Build

cd frontend
GITHUB_PAGES=true VITE_API_URL=https://your-app.onrender.com npm run build

This sets:

• base: "/sentri/" — so assets load from the correct path
• VITE_API_URL — baked into the JS bundle, points API calls to Render

Deploy

Push the frontend/dist/ output to the gh-pages branch, or use a GitHub Action.

SPA Routing

The repo includes frontend/public/404.html and a restore script in frontend/index.html that handle client-side routing on GitHub Pages. Without these, refreshing on /sentri/dashboard would show a 404.

Backend → Render

Setup

1. Create a new Web Service on render.com
2. Connect your GitHub repo
3. Set:
   • Root directory: backend
   • Build command: npm install && npx playwright install chromium ffmpeg
   • Start command: npm start

Environment Variables

Set these in Render → Environment:

NODE_ENV=production
JWT_SECRET=<generate with: openssl rand -base64 48>
PORT=3001

Plus your AI provider key(s):

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

OAuth (Optional)

If using GitHub/Google sign-in:

GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=...
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=...
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=...
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=...
GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI=https://your-username.github.io/sentri/login?provider=google

Render Free Tier

Free Render instances spin down after inactivity. The first request after sleep takes ~30 seconds. Consider a paid plan for production.