Elixir/Phoenix Deployment Reference

Quick reference for deploying Elixir/Phoenix applications.

Iron Laws — Never Violate These

1. Config at runtime, not compile time — Secrets in config.exs get baked into the release binary. Use runtime.exs with env vars so secrets are resolved at boot
2. Graceful shutdown ≥ 60 seconds — Shorter timeouts kill in-flight requests and WebSocket connections mid-operation, causing data loss for users
3. Health checks required — Without startup/liveness/readiness endpoints, orchestrators can't distinguish a booting node from a dead one, leading to cascading restarts
4. SSL verification for database — Skipping verify: :verify_peer allows MITM attacks between your app and database; production data traverses the connection
5. No CPU limits — The BEAM scheduler assumes it owns all cores; cgroups CPU limits cause scheduler collapse where the VM thinks it has more cores than it can use, leading to latency spikes
6. Guard optional service credentials — runtime.exs runs whenever a release boots, including eval-based migration commands. Only require S3, Redis, and similar credentials when that integration is enabled

Quick Configuration

runtime.exs (Essential)

if config_env() == :prod do
  database_url = System.get_env("DATABASE_URL") || raise "DATABASE_URL is required"
  secret_key_base = System.get_env("SECRET_KEY_BASE") || raise "SECRET_KEY_BASE is required"
  host = System.get_env("PHX_HOST") || raise "PHX_HOST is required"

  config :my_app, MyApp.Repo,
    url: database_url,
    pool_size: String.to_integer(System.get_env("POOL_SIZE") || "10"),
    ssl: true,
    ssl_opts: [verify: :verify_peer]

  config :my_app, MyAppWeb.Endpoint,
    url: [host: host, port: 443, scheme: "https"],
    http: [ip: {0, 0, 0, 0}, port: String.to_integer(System.get_env("PORT") || "4000")],
    secret_key_base: secret_key_base,
    server: true
end

Guard Optional Services

Keep core boot secrets such as DATABASE_URL and SECRET_KEY_BASE required. Gate credentials for optional integrations behind the same feature switch that enables the integration:

s3_config =
  if System.get_env("STORAGE_BACKEND") == "s3" do
    [
      access_key_id:
        System.get_env("S3_ACCESS_KEY") ||
          raise("S3_ACCESS_KEY is required when STORAGE_BACKEND=s3"),
      secret_access_key:
        System.get_env("S3_SECRET_KEY") ||
          raise("S3_SECRET_KEY is required when STORAGE_BACKEND=s3")
    ]
  else
    []
  end

config :my_app, :s3_config, s3_config

This lets release tasks that do not use S3 start without S3 credentials while still failing fast when S3 is selected.

Health Check Plug

def call(%{path_info: ["health", "readiness"]} = conn, _opts) do
  case Ecto.Adapters.SQL.query(MyApp.Repo, "SELECT 1", []) do
    {:ok, _} -> send_resp(conn, 200, ~s({"status":"ok"})) |> halt()
    {:error, _} -> send_resp(conn, 503, ~s({"status":"error"})) |> halt()
  end
end

Quick Decisions

Platform Choice

Need	Use
Simple, managed	Fly.io
Enterprise, existing K8s	Kubernetes
Custom infrastructure	Docker + your orchestrator

Resource Limits

Resource	Recommendation
CPU	NO LIMITS (BEAM scheduler issues)
Memory	Set limits (256Mi-512Mi typical)
Graceful shutdown	≥ 60 seconds

Deployment Checklist

• All secrets from environment variables in runtime.exs
• Optional service credentials required only when their integration is enabled
• server: true in endpoint config
• SSL verification for database connections
• Health endpoints: /health/startup, /health/liveness, /health/readiness
• Graceful shutdown period ≥ 60 seconds
• No CPU limits (memory limits only)
• Migrations in deploy process

Asset Pipeline Notes

Phoenix 1.8 uses esbuild + tailwind (no Node.js required):

• Config in config/config.exs under :esbuild and :tailwind
• mix assets.deploy builds for production
• mix assets.setup installs binaries on first run
• Custom JS bundlers: configure in config/config.exs

References

For detailed patterns, see:

• references/docker-config.md - Multi-stage Dockerfile, best practices
• references/flyio-config.md - fly.toml, clustering, commands