Deploy qhook to Render

1. Create a Web Service

  1. In the Render dashboard, select New > Web Service
  2. Connect your GitHub repository and select the qhook repo
  3. Configure:
    • Environment: Docker (Dockerfile is auto-detected)
    • Region: Closest to your users
    • Instance Type: Starter or above

2. Environment Variables

Set in the Environment tab:

Variable Value Notes
PORT 8888 Render may auto-set this
DATABASE_URL postgres://... or sqlite:///data/qhook.db See below
RUST_LOG info Use debug for verbose logs

PORT Mapping

Render specifies the port via the PORT environment variable. Reference it in qhook.yaml:

server:
  port: ${PORT}

Keep the Dockerfile EXPOSE consistent:

EXPOSE 8888

3. Postgres Add-on

  1. In the Render dashboard, create New > PostgreSQL
  2. Copy the Internal Database URL
  3. Set it as DATABASE_URL in the Web Service environment variables

Traffic goes through Render’s internal network – no external exposure needed.

4. Disk (for SQLite)

Render’s filesystem resets on every deploy, so SQLite requires a Disk:

  1. Go to the Web Service Disks tab and click Add Disk
  2. Configure:
    • Mount Path: /data
    • Size: 1 GB (increase as needed)

qhook.yaml and the SQLite DB are persisted under /data.

Note: Starter plan does not support Disks. Standard plan or above is required for SQLite.

5. Health Check

Set the Health Check Path in the Settings tab:

/health

Render periodically calls this endpoint and auto-restarts on failure.

6. Custom Domain

  1. Go to Settings > Custom Domains and click Add Custom Domain
  2. Enter your domain (e.g., hooks.example.com)
  3. Add the displayed CNAME record to your DNS: 
    hooks.example.com  CNAME  xxx.onrender.com
  4. SSL certificates are auto-provisioned (Let’s Encrypt)

Deploys trigger automatically on push to GitHub. For manual deploys, use Manual Deploy > Deploy latest commit.