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Move an app to Astris

Your coding agent can move an app from your current host to Astris. This page lists the steps, then gives you one prompt that runs them through the Astris MCP.

First connect your coding tool to Astris. See the quickstart for Claude Code, Cursor or Codex.

What Astris cannot take

The pre-flight check refuses two things: a secret key committed in your files, and a backend locked to the tool that built the app, with no way to export it. Code that runs only on an edge runtime gets a fixable result that asks you to rewrite it.

Astris databases are Postgres and Redis. An app that needs another kind of database cannot move to Astris yet.

Your data

Astris cannot load a database dump yet. A new Astris database starts empty, or with what your app's own migrations create. If the app holds data it still needs, keep the app at your current host for now. Whatever you do, make a full dump first and keep it as your own copy.

Redis data does not move. A new Redis database starts empty, which suits a cache.

Before you start

  • Keep the old app running until the last step.
  • Lower the time to live of your DNS records a day before the move.
  • While DNS changes, some visitors can still reach the old app, or see a short gap.

The checklist

  1. Run preflight, then make the fixes it names once you agree.
  2. Read the environment variables at your current host and list their names.
  3. Decide if the app's data must move. If it must, stop here and keep the app where it is.
  4. Stop writes to the app at your current host.
  5. Make a full dump of the current database and keep the file as your own copy.
  6. Create a Postgres or Redis database with database.
  7. Set every variable with one env call, with the new database's address and password.
  8. Deploy with deploy, then check the app on its astris.live address with domains, status and logs.
  9. Add your domain with domains, set the two DNS records, and verify until the domain is active.
  10. Check the app on your domain, then switch off the old app.

The prompt

Copy this prompt into Claude Code, Cursor or Codex, in the folder of your app:

Move this app to Astris with the Astris MCP. Do the steps in order. If a step fails, stop and tell me what failed.

1. Run the preflight tool on this repository. If the verdict is refuse, stop and tell me why. If it is fixable, show me the changes it names, and make them only after I say yes.
2. Read the environment variables the app uses at its current host. Show me only their names. Never print a value, never write one to a file in the repository, and never commit one.
3. If the app uses a database, ask me if its data must move. If I say yes, stop and tell me that Astris cannot load a dump yet, so the app stays at its current host for now.
4. Ask me to stop writes to the app at its current host. Wait for my yes.
5. Ask me to make a full dump of the current database and to keep the file outside the repository as my own copy.
6. If the app uses Postgres or Redis, create the same kind of database with the database tool. It starts empty.
7. Send every variable in one env call: the values from the current host, with the new database's host, port, user and password in place of the old ones. Send the values only in this call. One env call replaces the whole set.
8. Deploy with the deploy tool, with wait set to true. Read the status and the logs. Give the app its astris.live address with the domains tool, and tell me the address so that I can check the app.
9. When I say the app works, add my domain with the domains tool. Show me the two DNS records to set, then verify until the status is active.
10. Tell me when the domain is active. Do not switch off or delete anything at the current host. I switch off the old app myself, after I check the app on my domain.

Files in storage

If your app keeps files in S3-compatible storage, create a bucket with storage and copy the files with any S3-compatible tool. See Storage.

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