deploy-and-check

Automating Django deployment requires pulling a specific git branch, installing dependencies, running migrations, optionally building frontend assets, then restarting gunicorn and huey via systemd before checking the /api/health/ endpoint.

The best way to deploy a specific git branch is using a config-driven pipeline that reads service names and environment details from projects.yml, checks out the branch, performs backend installs, and restarts Gunicorn via systemd.

Yes, you can include frontend builds and collectstatic in a Django deployment pipeline by toggling frontend presence and node version settings in your projects.yml configuration, allowing the pipeline to conditionally execute these steps.

A Django deployment can fail silently without health checks because service restarts via systemctl do not guarantee the application is responding, making it critical to verify systemctl is-active status and curl the /api/health/ endpoint.

Yes, this deployment approach works with Huey and Nginx by restarting the Huey systemd service alongside Gunicorn and verifying backend health, while Nginx typically routes traffic to the restarted Gunicorn socket.

To troubleshoot a failed Django deployment, run diagnostic log commands for Gunicorn and Huey, verify systemctl is-active status, and inspect the output of the post-deploy ops check script and /api/health/ curl response.