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Render Deployment

Deploy Rivet Engine to Render with managed PostgreSQL and automatic HTTPS, using the experimental PostgreSQL backend.

PostgreSQL is the recommended backend for multi-node self-hosted deployments today, but it remains experimental. For a production-ready single-node Rivet deployment, use the file system backend (RocksDB-based). Enterprise teams can contact enterprise support about FoundationDB for the most scalable production-ready deployment.

Prerequisites

  1. A Render account
  2. A GitHub repository

Deploy Rivet Engine

Create the Blueprint Files

Add these three files to the root of your GitHub repository:

render.yaml

databases:
  - name: rivet-db
    plan: basic-256mb
    databaseName: rivet
    user: rivet

services:
  - type: web
    name: rivet-engine
    runtime: docker
    dockerfilePath: ./Dockerfile.render
    plan: starter
    healthCheckPath: /health
    envVars:
      - key: DATABASE_URL
        fromDatabase:
          name: rivet-db
          property: connectionString
      - key: RIVET__AUTH__ADMIN_TOKEN
        generateValue: true

Dockerfile.render

FROM rivetdev/engine:latest

COPY entrypoint.render.sh /entrypoint.render.sh
RUN chmod +x /entrypoint.render.sh

ENTRYPOINT ["/entrypoint.render.sh"]

entrypoint.render.sh

#!/bin/sh

if [ -n "$DATABASE_URL" ]; then
    export RIVET__POSTGRES__URL="${DATABASE_URL}?sslmode=disable"
fi

exec /usr/bin/rivet-engine start

Commit and push these files to your repository.

Deploy to Render

  1. Go to the Render Dashboard
  2. Click Blueprints in the left sidebar
  3. Click New Blueprint Instance
  4. Connect your GitHub account if you haven’t already
  5. Select the repository containing the files from the previous step
  6. Click Apply

Render will automatically create the PostgreSQL database and deploy the Rivet Engine.

Get Your Admin Token

  1. Once deployed, go to your rivet-engine service in the Render Dashboard
  2. Click the Environment tab
  3. Find RIVET__AUTH__ADMIN_TOKEN and click the eye icon to reveal the value
  4. Copy this token — you’ll need it to access the dashboard

Access the Rivet Dashboard

Open your service URL in a browser:

https://rivet-engine-xxxx.onrender.com/ui/

Replace rivet-engine-xxxx with your actual service name from the Render Dashboard.

Enter the admin token from the previous step to log in.

WebSocket Timeouts

Rivet uses long-lived WebSocket connections for both client traffic (browsers, SDKs) and envoy traffic (actor hosts connecting back to the engine). Render’s HTTP proxy supports WebSockets, but its default idle timeout will close connections that have no traffic for too long.

If you front the engine with your own reverse proxy (NGINX, Caddy, etc.) on Render, raise its idle / read timeout to at least 1 hour (3600 seconds). The same guidance applies to the Render service hosting your RivetKit app, since envoys connect to it over WebSocket.

Connecting Your Application

To connect a RivetKit application to your self-hosted engine, set these environment variables in your app:

RIVET_ENDPOINT=https://<namespace>:<admin-token>@rivet-engine-xxxx.onrender.com
RIVET_PUBLIC_ENDPOINT=https://<namespace>@rivet-engine-xxxx.onrender.com

See the Connect guide for more details on connecting your application.

Next Steps

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