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Deployment

Running with PM2​

PM2 keeps all three services alive, restarts them on crash, and manages log files. The repository includes a pre-configured ecosystem.config.cjs that covers all three processes.

Start all services​

pm2 start ecosystem.config.cjs

Check status​

pm2 status

View logs​

pm2 logs          # all services
pm2 logs api      # API only
pm2 logs bot      # bot only
pm2 logs web      # web only

Persist across reboots​

pm2 save
pm2 startup
# Follow the printed instruction — it will give you a command to run as root

Restart after a rebuild​

After rebuilding any package, restart the affected service:

pnpm --filter @arkenbot/api build && pm2 restart api
pnpm --filter @arkenbot/bot build && pm2 restart bot
pnpm --filter @arkenbot/web build && pm2 restart web
Running PM2 as a different user

If PM2 was started by a specific system user (e.g. bot), always prefix commands with sudo -u bot pm2 .... Running PM2 as the wrong user will not find the running processes.

Nginx Reverse Proxy​

Nginx lets you expose the dashboard and API on standard ports (80/443) behind a domain name.

sudo apt-get install -y nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/arkenbot:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    # Web dashboard (Next.js on port 3000)
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }

    # REST API (Fastify on port 4000)
    location /api/ {
        rewrite ^/api/(.*) /$1 break;
        proxy_pass http://localhost:4000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }

    # WebSocket endpoint
    location /socket.io/ {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:4000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}

Enable the site and reload Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/arkenbot /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t        # verify configuration
sudo systemctl reload nginx

HTTPS with Let's Encrypt​

sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com

Certbot configures HTTPS automatically and sets up auto-renewal. After running it, update your .env to use https:// and wss:// URLs, then rebuild the web package and restart the web PM2 process.

Music Support​

Music playback is handled directly by the bot via yt-dlp piped through ffmpeg — there is no separate server to run (no Lavalink, nothing to connect to). If you don't need music, skip this section.

Install both binaries on the same host the bot process runs on:

sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg

# yt-dlp changes frequently to keep up with YouTube — install the standalone
# binary rather than an apt package, which is usually far out of date:
sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

# Verify both are on PATH
yt-dlp --version
ffmpeg -version
Keep yt-dlp updated

YouTube changes frequently break older yt-dlp releases. If music suddenly stops working, re-run the download command above to grab the latest release before looking for other causes.

No .env variables are required for basic music playback. Two optional ones help if your server's outbound IP gets throttled or blocked by YouTube (common on datacenter/VPS IPs):

# SOCKS proxy yt-dlp routes through (e.g. a residential SOCKS5 tunnel)
YTDLP_PROXY=socks5://127.0.0.1:1080

# Netscape-format cookies file, bypasses bot-detection on server IPs — export
# from your browser using the "Get cookies.txt LOCALLY" Chrome extension
# while signed into YouTube
YOUTUBE_COOKIES_FILE=/path/to/youtube-cookies.txt

See YouTube Music Proxy for a full walkthrough of setting up YTDLP_PROXY.

Updating​

Pull the latest code, rebuild, and restart:

git pull
pnpm install          # pick up any new or changed dependencies
pnpm db:push          # apply any schema changes (safe to run with no changes)
pnpm build            # rebuild all packages
pm2 restart all

If the Prisma schema changed, also regenerate the client:

pnpm db:generate

Quick Reference​

# Start all services
pm2 start ecosystem.config.cjs

# Rebuild and restart one service
pnpm --filter @arkenbot/api build && pm2 restart api
pnpm --filter @arkenbot/bot build && pm2 restart bot
pnpm --filter @arkenbot/web build && pm2 restart web

# Apply a schema change
pnpm db:push && pnpm db:generate && pm2 restart all

# Deploy slash commands
pnpm deploy:commands

# Grant staff access to a Discord user
pnpm grant-staff <discord-user-id>