ZeroShift Engine — Zero-Downtime Deployments

// how it works

Push. Build. Switch. Done.

Every deploy targets the idle container slot. The live app is never touched until the new one is healthy.

Deploy pipeline

Blue / Green

Rollback

1

Acquire lock

Per-project in-memory lock prevents concurrent deploys on the same project. Other projects deploy in parallel.

DeploymentService.locks.set(projectId, true)

2

Pull source

Git clone or fetch + reset to branch HEAD. Auto-generates a Dockerfile if one isn't present (detects Node, Bun, Python).

git fetch origin && git reset --hard origin/main

3

Build image

Runs docker build with the project's build context. Full stdout/stderr captured — build errors surface directly in the dashboard.

docker build -t zeroshift-myapp:1740000000 ./myapp

4

Start container

Pre-cleans stale containers by name and frees the target port before starting. Injects project env vars.

docker run -d --name myapp-green -p 3101:3000 zeroshift-myapp:...

5

Switch traffic

Rewrites the Nginx upstream config to point to the new container's port. Reloads Nginx with zero dropped connections.

nginx -s reload # upstream localhost:3101

6

Retire old slot

Previous ACTIVE deployment is stopped, removed, and marked ROLLED_BACK — ready for the next rollback.

docker stop myapp-blue && docker rm myapp-blue

Each project has two container slots — BLUE on basePort and GREEN on basePort+1. One is always live. Every deploy targets the idle one. Click the buttons to simulate.

BLUE LIVE

port:3100

containermyapp-blue

statusACTIVE

GREEN LIVE

port:3101

containermyapp-green

statusidle

nginx upstream → localhost:3100 (blue)

1

Find previous deployment

Queries the most recent deployment with status ROLLED_BACK and a lower version number than current.

2

Re-run old container

Starts the previous image on its original port. If the image was pruned, rollback is aborted safely — the current deployment stays live.

docker run -d --name myapp-blue -p 3100:3000 zeroshift-myapp:prev

3

Verify health

Health check runs before switching traffic. If it fails, the restarted container is cleaned up and the current deployment stays active.

4

Switch traffic & swap statuses

Nginx is reloaded to the old container. The old deployment becomes ACTIVE, the current one becomes ROLLED_BACK.

// features

Everything you need.
Nothing you don't.

Built for real deployments on real hardware, not abstract cloud primitives.

⬡

Blue-green deployments

Two container slots per project. Traffic switches in milliseconds via Nginx upstream reload. Zero dropped connections.

⎇

Git-native workflow

Webhook triggers on push. ZeroShift clones or fetches your repo, checks out the configured branch, and deploys.

⟳

One-click rollback

Every previous deployment is stored. Roll back to any ROLLED_BACK version instantly — health-checked before traffic switches.

✕

Cancel mid-deploy

Stuck on a long build? Hit Stop. The pipeline is interrupted at the next checkpoint, the container stopped, and the lock released.

📄

Auto Dockerfile

No Dockerfile? ZeroShift generates one — detects Node.js, Bun, Python. Scans subdirectories. Regenerated each deploy, never overwrites yours.

⚡

Crash recovery

On startup, reconciliation scans for DEPLOYING records (process died mid-deploy), marks them FAILED, and cleans up orphaned containers.

⚙

Per-project env vars

Inject environment variables per project via the dashboard. Applied to the next deploy — no restart required.

◈

Server monitoring

Live CPU, memory, disk, and network stats for the host server. Per-container metrics — CPU %, memory used, net I/O, block I/O, PIDs. All polled in real-time from the dashboard.

✦

Automatic CI pipeline

AI-generates a production GitHub Actions workflow for your project — detects runtime, caches deps, runs build & test, then fires the ZeroShift webhook to deploy on every push.

// why zeroshift

Simple, self-hosted, yours.

No vendor lock-in. No monthly bill for a deployment tool. Just your server, running your code.

Feature	ZeroShift	Heroku / Render	Kubernetes	Raw Docker
Zero-downtime deploys	✓	✓	✓	✗
Self-hosted	✓	✗	✓	✓
No cloud fees	✓	✗	depends	✓
Dashboard UI	✓	✓	3rd party	✗
One-click rollback	✓	limited	✓	✗
Git-native workflow	✓	✓	via CI	✗
AI CI pipeline gen	✓	✗	✗	✗
Setup complexity	Low	Low	High	Medium
Open source	✓	✗	✓	✓

// setup

Local setup in 6 steps.

Requires Bun, Docker, Nginx, and a PostgreSQL database (Neon free tier works).

1

Clone & install

Clone the repo and install dependencies with Bun.

bash

git clone https://github.com/dinexh/ZeroShift-Engine
cd ZeroShift-Engine
bun install

2

Configure .env

Create a .env file at the repo root. Only DATABASE_URL is required.

.env

# Required
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@host/db

# Optional
PORT=9090
DOCKER_NETWORK=bridge
NGINX_CONFIG_PATH=/etc/nginx/conf.d/upstream.conf
PROJECTS_ROOT_PATH=/var/zeroshift/projects
GEMINI_API_KEY=           # for AI pipeline generation

3

Push database schema

Creates the Project and Deployment tables. Re-run after any schema change.

bash

bunx prisma db push

4

Build the dashboard

Next.js static export. Fastify serves it automatically from dashboard/out/.

bash

cd dashboard && bun install && bun run build && cd ..

5

Start the engine

Dev mode with watch, or production via PM2.

bash — dev

bun --watch src/server.ts

bash — production

pm2 start ecosystem.config.cjs
pm2 save                 # persist across reboots

Engine + dashboard available at http://localhost:9090

6

Create a project & deploy

basePort is auto-assigned. webhookSecret is auto-generated — copy the URL from the dashboard after creation.

bash

# Create project
curl -X POST http://localhost:9090/api/v1/projects \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{ "name": "myapp", "repoUrl": "https://github.com/you/myapp",
       "branch": "main", "appPort": 3000 }'

# Trigger first deploy
curl -X POST http://localhost:9090/api/v1/deploy \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{ "projectId": "<id>" }'

Environment variables

    
      
          Variable
          Default
          Description
        

      DATABASE_URL required—PostgreSQL connection string
PORT9090API + dashboard port
DOCKER_NETWORKbridgeDocker network for containers
NGINX_CONFIG_PATH/etc/nginx/conf.d/upstream.confNginx upstream file
PROJECTS_ROOT_PATH/var/zeroshift/projectsRoot dir for cloned repos
GEMINI_API_KEY—Google AI Studio key (optional)
GEMINI_MODELgemini-2.5-proGemini model ID
LOG_LEVELinfoPino log level

    
  

Variable	Default	Description
DATABASE_URL required	—	PostgreSQL connection string
PORT	9090	API + dashboard port
DOCKER_NETWORK	bridge	Docker network for containers
NGINX_CONFIG_PATH	/etc/nginx/conf.d/upstream.conf	Nginx upstream file
PROJECTS_ROOT_PATH	/var/zeroshift/projects	Root dir for cloned repos
GEMINI_API_KEY	—	Google AI Studio key (optional)
GEMINI_MODEL	gemini-2.5-pro	Gemini model ID
LOG_LEVEL	info	Pino log level

// api reference

REST API

All endpoints are prefixed with /api/v1. Responses are JSON.

Projects

Method	Path	Description
POST	/projects	Create project
GET	/projects	List all projects
GET	/projects/:id	Get project
PATCH	/projects/:id	Update branch / ports / build context
PATCH	/projects/:id/env	Update env vars
DELETE	/projects/:id	Delete project
POST	/projects/:id/rollback	Rollback to previous deployment
POST	/projects/:id/cancel-deploy	Cancel in-progress deployment

Deployments

Method	Path	Description
POST	/deploy	Trigger deployment { projectId }
GET	/deployments	List all deployments
GET	/status	Current active deployment

Webhooks & System

Method	Path	Description
POST	/webhooks/:secret	GitHub push webhook — triggers auto-deploy
GET	/system/server-stats	Host CPU / memory / disk / network
POST	/system/reconcile	Manual crash recovery
GET	/health	Engine health check

Deploy with zero downtime.
Own your infra.

Everything in one view.

Push. Build. Switch. Done.

Everything you need.
Nothing you don't.

Simple, self-hosted, yours.

Local setup in 6 steps.

Environment variables

REST API

Projects

Deployments

Webhooks & System

Deploy with zero downtime.Own your infra.

Everything in one view.

Push. Build. Switch. Done.

Everything you need.Nothing you don't.

Simple, self-hosted, yours.

Local setup in 6 steps.

Environment variables

REST API

Projects

Deployments

Webhooks & System

Deploy with zero downtime.
Own your infra.

Everything you need.
Nothing you don't.