Build Strategies

Vessl supports multiple build strategies and deployment workflows to get your applications online. It auto-detects the best build strategy based on your project, but you can override it per deployment.

Dockerfile

If your repository contains a Dockerfile at the root, Vessl uses it by default.

FROM node:22-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
CMD ["node", "index.js"]

No additional configuration needed — just push and deploy.

Railpack

Railpack auto-detects your language and framework. Supported stacks:

• Node.js
• Go
• Python
• Rust
• PHP
• Ruby
• Static sites (HTML/CSS/JS)

Railpack generates an optimal Dockerfile for your project without you writing one.

Nixpacks

Nixpacks uses Nix expressions to build reproducible environments. It supports the same languages as Railpack plus additional ecosystem tools.

Buildpacks

Cloud Native Buildpacks support is available for OCI-compliant builds. Select Buildpacks in the deployment settings.