Waymaker
Apps

Preview Environments

Learn about Preview Environments in WaymakerOS.

PreviewsPromoteRollback

Deploy any branch of your app to its own isolated URL — test a change on a real, live copy before it reaches production. When you're happy, promote it. If a deploy goes wrong, roll back in one step.

Previews: one URL per branch

Push a branch, and Host can deploy it to a preview — a separate live version at its own address, so you can share work-in-progress or test a change without touching production.

  • Each preview gets its own URL: your-app--yourorg--branch-name.waymakerapp.com.
  • Production keeps running untouched at its normal address.
  • Redeploying the same branch updates the same preview — the URL is stable.

Manage previews from the app's Previews view, or with the Waymaker tools from your editor.

Previews get their own database

If your app has a database, each preview automatically gets its own isolated copy — a branch database. Your preview reads and writes that copy; production data is never touched. Migrations you add on the branch apply to the branch copy only, so you can test a schema change safely.

If a preview's database can't be created for any reason, the preview still deploys (against no database) rather than failing — so a preview is never blocked.

Promoting a preview to production

Happy with a preview? Promote it. Host runs a production deploy built from that branch, so exactly what you tested becomes what's live.

One thing to know about the database: if your preview added migrations that production doesn't have yet, promoting surfaces those pending migrations for you to apply — it never runs them against production automatically. You review them, then apply them deliberately. Your schema is never changed behind your back.

Rolling back

If a deployment causes a problem, you don't need to hunt through git or craft a revert. Roll back to a previous version and Host redeploys it directly — production is restored in one step, no new commit required.

Roll back from the app's Deployment History, or with the Waymaker tools.

Cleaning up

Previews are torn down automatically so they don't linger or keep costing you:

  • Remove a preview yourself from the Previews view.
  • When the branch's pull request is closed or merged, its preview and branch database are removed.
  • A nightly cleanup catches any that were missed.

Each active preview with a branch database adds a small daily amount to the database's cost while it exists, and stops the moment it's torn down — see Database Billing.

Next Steps