Supported Frameworks

Node.js on Altis Cloud only officially supports the Next.js framework at this time.

We're constantly evaluating additional frameworks to add support for - if you have any suggestions, let us know via the roadmap. You can additionally run other frameworks via a compatible npm start command, but please note this is not officially supported.

Next.js

Altis natively supports the Next.js framework with out-of-the-box integration.

We recommend starting with the Altis Node.js Skeleton project, which includes all the pieces you'll need to get started with Next.js.

We recommend disabling link pre-fetching for less frequently used links in Next.js.

<Link
    href="/blog"
    prefetch={ false }
>
    Latest News
</Link>

Link pre-fetching causes unnecessary network requests for many users, and each pre-fetch request will count towards your billable page views. Consider carefully whether pre-fetching is necessary for the user experience, and enable it only on a case-by-case basis rather than as your default.

Other Frameworks

Support: Please note that other frameworks are not supported by Altis at this time. Only use other frameworks if you are willing to maintain and debug the solution yourself.

Node.js on Altis Cloud is designed to support standard Node.js behaviours, and many tools will work out of the box. Here's the key facts to be aware of:

  • Self-contained builds: Your build pipeline needs to produce a fully-complete, standalone directory with no other dependencies. This build is packaged as a Docker container with minimal system packages and tools.
  • Immutable builds: Just like our other infrastructure, once created, builds are immutable, and your project will not be able to write or modify files while it is running.
  • Node add-ons: We strongly recommend against using Node add-ons (native dependencies) built with node-gyp, as the underlying server architecture is not part of our stable API. We also cannot guarantee that builds are run on the same architecture as the app servers.
  • Execution: Altis runs your project inside Docker containers, with the entry point set to npm run start. Your server should run on this command and expose an HTTP server on port 3000. No other ports are exposed or available.