Deployment

nSelf uses environment switching and the promote command to move between environments. There is no separate nself staging or nself prod top-level command — these were documented in error in earlier versions of these docs.

Source of truth: SPORT F02-COMMAND-INVENTORY.md.

Deployment workflow

The standard nSelf deployment pattern is:

# 1. Switch to target environment
nself env use staging

# 2. Rebuild configs for that environment
nself build

# 3. Start / restart services
nself start

# Verify health
nself status
nself doctor

nself promote

Promote one environment to another. This copies config forward and optionally runs a database migration.

nself promote staging prod          # Promote staging to prod
nself promote local staging          # Promote local to staging
nself promote prod staging rollback  # Roll back a promotion

Environment switching

Full documentation: Environment Commands

nself env use staging               # Switch active environment
nself env diff staging prod         # Compare environments before deploying

Security hardening before production

Before going to production, run the security hardening suite. All security checks are free (Security-Always-Free doctrine).

nself security setup                # Apply hardening
nself security audit                # Full security audit
nself security scan                 # Baseline scan (runs free, no license)
nself doctor --deep                 # Full diagnostics

SSL for production

nself ssl setup                     # Set up Let's Encrypt for your domain
nself ssl status                    # Check certificate status and expiry
nself ssl renew                     # Renew all certificates
nself ssl add example.com           # Add a custom domain

See also

• Environment Commands — nself env (use, list, show, diff, copy)
• Production Operations — security hardening, SSL, backup
• Status — verify deployment health
• Security Guide — full security hardening