Before submitting
Problem statement
The CodeLens project currently lacks a publicly accessible live deployment link. Potential contributors, maintainers, and GSSoC reviewers cannot preview user interface transitions, test real-time API routes, or evaluate feature updates without cloning the codebase and executing it locally. This slows down the review cycle for pull requests.
Proposed solution
Establish a continuous deployment pipeline to automate production builds and host the platform online.
- GitHub Actions Workflow: Create a pipeline in .github/workflows/deploy.yml that triggers on merges to the primary branch (main or master).
- Frontend Hosting: Connect the pipeline to a free-tier hosting provider suited for single-page React apps (such as Vercel or Netlify) to serve the static Vite assets.
- Backend Hosting: Deploy the Express server and configure environment variables on a cloud platform supporting Node.js/Docker runtimes (such as Render or Railway).
- Database Integration: Connect the live backend to a hosted MongoDB Atlas cluster.
Alternative solutions considered
- Manual Deployments: Manually pushing builds from a local terminal whenever features are added. This was rejected because manual deployments are prone to human error, credentials leaks, and easily fall out of sync with the repository's source code.
- Hosting Frontend and Backend Together on a Single Instance: Running both layers on a single virtual machine. This was rejected because separating the frontend static hosting from the dynamic API server improves scaling and guarantees maximum availability for the user interface.
Use case or motivation
A live link allows reviewers to immediately verify that code additions do not break the production ecosystem. It also gives the project a public-facing landing page, which helps market the platform to the open-source community during GSSoC 2026.
References or mockups
Additional context
- Dependencies: This issue depends on the implementation of the environment configuration values handled in the startup validation scripts (config/env.js).
- Prerequisites: This deployment sequence is designed to build cleanly on top of the containerization framework submitted in the Docker issue. The production environment secrets (such as MONGO_URI, JWT_SECRET, and GEMINI_API_KEY) will need to be configured as Repository Secrets in GitHub by the project maintainers.
Before submitting
Problem statement
The CodeLens project currently lacks a publicly accessible live deployment link. Potential contributors, maintainers, and GSSoC reviewers cannot preview user interface transitions, test real-time API routes, or evaluate feature updates without cloning the codebase and executing it locally. This slows down the review cycle for pull requests.
Proposed solution
Establish a continuous deployment pipeline to automate production builds and host the platform online.
Alternative solutions considered
Use case or motivation
A live link allows reviewers to immediately verify that code additions do not break the production ecosystem. It also gives the project a public-facing landing page, which helps market the platform to the open-source community during GSSoC 2026.
References or mockups
Additional context