Deploying to digitalocean droplet

[putt-t]

Greptile Overview

Updated On: 2025-10-20 20:35:52 UTC

Greptile Summary

This PR adds comprehensive documentation for deploying HelixDB to DigitalOcean Droplets. The changes include (1) adding a new guide file guides/deploy-digitalocean.mdx with step-by-step deployment instructions covering infrastructure setup, container deployment, and persistent storage configuration, and (2) registering this guide in the Mintlify navigation structure via docs.json. The guide provides two deployment paths: a direct build approach for simpler setups and a container registry workflow for scalable production deployments. This extends the existing deployment documentation (which includes Fly.io, ECR, and Helix Cloud workflows) to cover DigitalOcean as an additional cloud provider option.

PR Description Notes:

• The PR title "Deploying to digitalocean droplet" should be capitalized as "DigitalOcean Droplet"
• The PR has no description; consider adding context about the deployment methods covered

Important Files Changed

Changed Files

Filename	Score	Overview
docs.json	5/5	Reformatted entire file with 2-space indentation and added guides/deploy-digitalocean to navigation structure
guides/deploy-digitalocean.mdx	3/5	Added comprehensive DigitalOcean deployment guide with two deployment methods, infrastructure setup, and persistent storage configuration

Potential Issues

guides/deploy-digitalocean.mdx

1. Firewall rule syntax error (lines 173-178): The --inbound-rules parameter appears to be missing proper spacing or delimiters between rule entries. The command concatenates two rules without a comma separator:

   --inbound-rules "protocol:tcp,ports:22,address:0.0.0.0/0,address:::/0 protocol:tcp,ports:6969,address:0.0.0.0/0,address:::/0"

   Should likely be:

   --inbound-rules "protocol:tcp,ports:22,address:0.0.0.0/0,address:::/0,protocol:tcp,ports:6969,address:0.0.0.0/0,address:::/0"

   or use multiple --inbound-rules flags. This will cause the doctl command to fail.

2. Unverified volume mount assumption (lines 119-123): The guide states "The volume will be automatically mounted at /mnt/helix-prod-data" without providing verification steps or acknowledging that DigitalOcean volumes may require manual mounting or fstab configuration after attachment. Users may experience data loss if the volume isn't actually mounted when Docker starts.

3. Missing error handling: The Docker commands throughout (lines 150-158, 239-246) don't include checks for whether containers are already running with the same name, which will cause redeployment commands to fail silently.

4. Security consideration: The guide opens SSH (port 22) to all IPs (0.0.0.0/0). While common for initial setup, production deployments should restrict this to specific IP ranges. Consider adding a warning or best practice note.

Confidence Score: 3/5

The documentation is well-structured and comprehensive, but the firewall command syntax error is critical and will block users from completing the deployment. The volume mounting assumption could lead to data loss scenarios. Once these issues are addressed, this will be a valuable addition to the deployment documentation.

Sequence Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant "doctl CLI" as CLI
    participant "DigitalOcean API" as API
    participant "Local Machine" as Local
    participant "Droplet (VM)" as Droplet
    participant "Block Storage" as Volume
    participant "Container Registry" as Registry
    participant Docker

    User->>CLI: "doctl auth init"
    CLI->>API: "Authenticate with API token"
    API-->>CLI: "Authentication confirmed"
    
    User->>CLI: "ssh-keygen & doctl compute ssh-key import"
    CLI->>API: "Import SSH public key"
    API-->>CLI: "Return SSH key ID"
    
    User->>CLI: "doctl compute volume create"
    CLI->>API: "Create block storage volume"
    API->>Volume: "Provision 10GiB volume"
    API-->>CLI: "Return volume ID"
    
    User->>CLI: "doctl compute droplet create"
    CLI->>API: "Create droplet with Docker image"
    API->>Droplet: "Provision droplet (4vCPU, 8GB RAM)"
    API-->>CLI: "Return droplet ID & IP"
    
    User->>CLI: "doctl compute volume-action attach"
    CLI->>API: "Attach volume to droplet"
    API->>Droplet: "Mount volume at /mnt/helix-prod-data"
    
    alt Method 1: Direct Build
        User->>Local: "helix push dev"
        Local-->>User: "Build ready in .helix/dev/"
        User->>Local: "rsync .helix/dev/ to droplet"
        Local->>Droplet: "Transfer build files via SSH"
        
        User->>Droplet: "docker build -t helix:latest"
        Droplet->>Docker: "Build image from Dockerfile"
        Docker-->>Droplet: "Image built"
        
        User->>Droplet: "docker run with volume mount"
        Droplet->>Docker: "Start container with persistent storage"
        Docker->>Volume: "Mount /mnt/helix-prod-data to /data"
        Docker-->>Droplet: "Container running on port 6969"
    else Method 2: Container Registry
        User->>Registry: "doctl registry create"
        API->>Registry: "Provision container registry"
        
        User->>Local: "helix push dev & docker build"
        Local->>Docker: "Build image for linux/amd64"
        Docker-->>Local: "Image built"
        
        User->>Registry: "docker push helix:latest"
        Local->>Registry: "Upload Docker image"
        
        User->>Droplet: "docker login registry.digitalocean.com"
        Droplet->>Registry: "Authenticate"
        
        User->>Droplet: "docker pull & docker run"
        Droplet->>Registry: "Pull image"
        Registry-->>Droplet: "Image downloaded"
        Droplet->>Docker: "Start container with volume mount"
        Docker->>Volume: "Mount /mnt/helix-prod-data to /data"
        Docker-->>Droplet: "Container running on port 6969"
    end
    
    User->>CLI: "doctl compute firewall create"
    CLI->>API: "Create firewall rules (ports 22, 6969)"
    API->>Droplet: "Apply firewall rules"
    
    User->>Droplet: "curl POST http://droplet-ip:6969/createUser"
    Droplet->>Docker: "Route request to Helix container"
    Docker->>Volume: "Persist user data"
    Docker-->>User: "User created response"

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[greptile-apps]

_{2 files reviewed, 4 comments}

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[greptile-apps]

style: missing trailing newline at end of file

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: docs.json
Line: 298:298

Comment:
**style:** missing trailing newline at end of file

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

[greptile-apps]

style: prerequisite lists doctl as already installed, but step 1 shows how to install it - consider moving installation to prerequisites or clarifying that step 1 covers this

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: guides/deploy-digitalocean.mdx
Line: 20:20

Comment:
**style:** prerequisite lists `doctl` as already installed, but step 1 shows how to install it - consider moving installation to prerequisites or clarifying that step 1 covers this

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

[greptile-apps]

syntax: firewall rules missing space separator between the two protocol entries - should be protocol:tcp,ports:22,address:0.0.0.0/0,address:::/0 followed by space then protocol:tcp,ports:6969...

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: guides/deploy-digitalocean.mdx
Line: 175:175

Comment:
**syntax:** firewall rules missing space separator between the two protocol entries - should be `protocol:tcp,ports:22,address:0.0.0.0/0,address:::/0` followed by space then `protocol:tcp,ports:6969...`

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

[greptile-apps]

style: refers to 'Steps 3-5' but Method 1 has steps 3, 4, and 5 separately (volume, droplet, attach) - the reference is correct but could be clearer as 'Steps 3, 4, and 5'

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: guides/deploy-digitalocean.mdx
Line: 258:258

Comment:
**style:** refers to 'Steps 3-5' but Method 1 has steps 3, 4, and 5 separately (volume, droplet, attach) - the reference is correct but could be clearer as 'Steps 3, 4, and 5'

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.