Decouple database migrations from server startup (#265)

* Use Docker Compose init service pattern for database migrations

Replaces the fragile double-migration approach (server.ts startup +
drizzle-kit CLI in CI) with a one-shot migrate service in Docker Compose
that the app depends on via condition: service_completed_successfully.

- Add scripts/migrate.mjs: programmatic drizzle-orm migration (uses
  production deps, not drizzle-kit which is devOnly and absent from image)
- Dockerfile: copy scripts/ into image, remove drizzle.config.ts (only
  needed by drizzle-kit CLI)
- server.ts: remove runMigrations() entirely; migrations are now handled
  by the migrate container before the app starts
- deploy.yml: remove explicit docker run migration step; replace sleep 10
  health check with a poll loop and explicit migrate exit-code check

Production server's docker-compose.yaml needs a one-time manual update
to add the migrate service — see plan for exact config.

https://claude.ai/code/session_01ReaqH3o9NVH4QU4qE9WMMQ

* Move drizzle-kit to devDependencies; use docker compose wait in deploy

drizzle-kit is a dev-only tool (schema generation and local migrations).
Now that production migrations run via the programmatic drizzle-orm API
in the migrate init container, drizzle-kit has no runtime role.

Also replaces the polling health check loop with docker compose wait,
which blocks until the migrate service exits and returns its exit code
cleanly — no sleep or manual status inspection needed.

https://claude.ai/code/session_01ReaqH3o9NVH4QU4qE9WMMQ

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

.github/workflows/deploy.yml

@@ -138,24 +138,21 @@ jobs:
                   REGISTRY_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_USERNAME }}
                   REGISTRY_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_PASSWORD }}
                   CONTAINER_REGISTRY: ${{ vars.CONTAINER_REGISTRY }}
-                  PROD_DATABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.PROD_DATABASE_URL }}
               with:
                   host: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_HOST }}
                   port: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_PORT }}
                   username: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_USER }}
                   key: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_KEY }}
-                  envs: REGISTRY_USERNAME,REGISTRY_PASSWORD,CONTAINER_REGISTRY,PROD_DATABASE_URL
+                  envs: REGISTRY_USERNAME,REGISTRY_PASSWORD,CONTAINER_REGISTRY
                   script: |
                       set -e
-                      IMAGE="$CONTAINER_REGISTRY/brackt:latest"
                       docker login $CONTAINER_REGISTRY -u $REGISTRY_USERNAME -p $REGISTRY_PASSWORD
                       cd brackt
                       docker compose pull
-                      docker run --rm -e DATABASE_URL="$PROD_DATABASE_URL" "$IMAGE" npx drizzle-kit migrate
+                      docker compose up -d migrate
-                      docker compose up -d
+                      if ! docker compose wait migrate | grep -qx "0"; then
-                      sleep 10
+                        echo "Migration failed:"
-                      if docker compose ps | grep -qE "Exit|exited"; then
+                        docker compose logs migrate
-                        echo "One or more containers failed to start:"
-                        docker compose logs --tail=50
                         exit 1
                       fi
+                      docker compose up -d --remove-orphans

Dockerfile

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ COPY --from=production-dependencies-env /app/node_modules /app/node_modules
 COPY --from=build-env /app/build /app/build
 COPY --from=build-env /app/dist /app/dist
 COPY ./drizzle /app/drizzle
-COPY ./drizzle.config.ts /app/drizzle.config.ts
+COPY ./scripts /app/scripts
 COPY ./instrument.server.mjs /app/instrument.server.mjs
 WORKDIR /app
 CMD ["npm", "run", "start"]

package.json

@@ -56,7 +56,6 @@
     "clsx": "^2.1.1",
     "compression": "^1.8.0",
     "date-fns": "^4.1.0",
-    "drizzle-kit": "~0.28.1",
     "drizzle-orm": "~0.36.3",
     "express": "^5.1.0",
     "isbot": "^5.1.27",
@@ -103,6 +102,7 @@
     "@vitest/ui": "^3.2.4",
     "cypress": "^14.5.4",
     "dotenv-cli": "^8.0.0",
+    "drizzle-kit": "~0.28.1",
     "esbuild": "^0.25.11",
     "jsdom": "^27.0.1",
     "oxlint": "^1.56.0",

scripts/migrate.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/postgres-js";
+import { migrate } from "drizzle-orm/postgres-js/migrator";
+import postgres from "postgres";
+import { fileURLToPath } from "url";
+import path from "path";
+
+const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
+const __dirname = path.dirname(__filename);
+
+if (!process.env.DATABASE_URL) {
+  console.error("ERROR: DATABASE_URL is required");
+  process.exit(1);
+}
+
+console.log("Running database migrations...");
+const client = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL, { max: 1 });
+try {
+  const db = drizzle(client);
+  await migrate(db, { migrationsFolder: path.resolve(__dirname, "../drizzle") });
+  console.log("Migrations completed successfully");
+} catch (err) {
+  console.error("Migration failed:", err);
+  process.exit(1);
+} finally {
+  await client.end();
+}

server.ts

@@ -6,9 +6,6 @@ import { createServer } from "http";
 import type { ViteDevServer } from "vite";
 import path from "path";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "url";
-import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/postgres-js";
-import { migrate } from "drizzle-orm/postgres-js/migrator";
-import postgres from "postgres";
 import { logger } from "./server/logger";
 
 // ESM module resolution helpers
@@ -24,20 +21,6 @@ const CLIENT_ASSETS_PATH = path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, "build/client/assets");
 const DEVELOPMENT = process.env.NODE_ENV === "development";
 const PORT = Number.parseInt(process.env.PORT || "3000", 10);
 
-async function runMigrations(): Promise<void> {
-  if (!process.env.DATABASE_URL) {
-    throw new Error("DATABASE_URL is required");
-  }
-  const client = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL);
-  try {
-    const db = drizzle(client);
-    await migrate(db, { migrationsFolder: path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, "drizzle") });
-    logger.log("Migrations complete");
-  } finally {
-    await client.end();
-  }
-}
-
 async function createAppServer(): Promise<void> {
   const app: Express = express();
   
@@ -100,9 +83,7 @@ async function createAppServer(): Promise<void> {
 }
 
 // Start the server with error handling
-(DEVELOPMENT ? Promise.resolve() : runMigrations())
+createAppServer().catch((error) => {
-  .then(createAppServer)
-  .catch((error) => {
   logger.error("Failed to start server:", error);
   process.exit(1);
-  });
+});