Deploy Dart applications

A Dart web server runs on Sevalla as an application: Sevalla builds an image from the Dockerfile in your Git repository, which compiles your server ahead of time (AOT) into one native executable on the official dart image, and runs that executable as processes. The executable needs no Dart SDK, so the final image is Debian slim with the executable in it.

Framework guides

Dart Frog

Deploy a Dart Frog server, compiled with dart compile exe, that stops cleanly on SIGTERM.

How Dart applications run on Sevalla

Part	On Sevalla
Build	A Dockerfile in the repository, with the Dockerfile build strategy. Ingot, the default for new applications, has no Dart provider: its build stops with `Ingot couldn't tell what kind of application this is`. Choose the Dockerfile build strategy on the application’s Settings tab before the first deployment.
Package manager	pub. Commit `pubspec.lock`, and install with `dart pub get --enforce-lockfile`, which installs exactly the versions you tested and fails when the lock file is missing or doesn’t match `pubspec.yaml`. Some templates, Dart Frog’s among them, list `pubspec.lock` in `.gitignore`: remove that line.
Dart version	The tag of the image the Dockerfile builds on, such as `dart:3.13`. See Pin the Dart version.
What runs	The executable that `dart compile exe` builds from the server’s entry point, on `debian:trixie-slim`, the Debian release the `dart` image is built on
Start command	The Dockerfile’s `CMD`, such as `/app/server`
Port	Sevalla sets `PORT` to the web process’s port, `8080` by default. The server that Dart Frog generates reads it; read it with `Platform.environment['PORT']` in any other server.
Shutdown	The executable runs as process 1, and Linux ignores a signal that process 1 has no handler for. Handle `SIGTERM` with `ProcessSignal.sigterm.watch()`, or the instance runs until Sevalla stops it 30 seconds later. See Shut down gracefully.
Databases	PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis or Valkey on Sevalla, reached over an internal connection that adds `DB_URL` and the other connection variables
Files	The filesystem resets on every deployment. Keep uploads in object storage, or attach a disk.

Every process (web, worker, cron job and job) runs from the same image, each with its own start command. See Processes.

Pin the Dart version

The Dockerfile’s FROM line sets the Dart version: dart:3.13 compiles with the newest Dart 3.13 release. A line tag such as 3.13 moves to each 3.13 patch release and to Debian’s security fixes, so every new build picks them up. A full version, such as 3.13.7, stays on that release. The environment: sdk constraint in pubspec.yaml, such as ^3.11.0, is the range of Dart versions the package accepts, and must include the image’s version.

Build with a Dockerfile

A Dockerfile for a Dart server builds in one stage and runs in another. The build stage uses the official dart image, copies pubspec.yaml and pubspec.lock first and installs the packages in their own layer, then copies the code and compiles the entry point with dart compile exe. The final stage starts from debian:trixie-slim, which has /bin/sh for the web terminal and custom start commands, copies only the executable, owned by root, and runs it as user 1000:1000 with an exec-form CMD. Dart’s own image documentation copies the executable into an empty scratch image instead, which has no shell. The Dart Frog guide has a tested Dockerfile.

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Deploy Dart applications

Framework guides

Dart Frog

How Dart applications run on Sevalla

Pin the Dart version

Build with a Dockerfile

​Framework guides

Dart Frog

​How Dart applications run on Sevalla

​Pin the Dart version

​Build with a Dockerfile

Framework guides

How Dart applications run on Sevalla

Pin the Dart version

Build with a Dockerfile