Deploy Parse Server on Pethost in one click

What happens

1. You sign in to Pethost or make an account, with a passkey, GitHub or Google.
2. No machine yet? You pick a plan, and we prepare one for you. The link waits in your browser until it is ready.
3. New project opens at the app. You fill in what it asks for and click Create project: Admin password.
4. In a minute or two the app is live at its own address with HTTPS. Its secrets are made for it at random, and its data is in the nightly backup.
5. It is a project like any other: its compose.yaml, its .env, its logs and a terminal are in the panel, and your agent can change it, roll it back or restore it.

First steps

The dashboard is at https://parse-server.sam.pethost.app: sign in as admin with the admin password you gave. Apps use https://parse-server.sam.pethost.app/parse as the server URL, with the APP_ID from the project’s .env; the MASTER_KEY there is for servers only. MongoDB is part of the project.

What it runs

The template is this compose.yaml and the variables it writes into the project’s .env. Pethost runs the file as it is written.

services:
  # One address for both: the API under /parse, the dashboard at the root, as the dashboard calls
  # the API from the browser.
  proxy:
    image: nginx:1-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    configs:
      - source: nginx
        target: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

  parse-server:
    image: parseplatform/parse-server:9.10.4
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      PARSE_SERVER_APPLICATION_ID: ${APP_ID}
      PARSE_SERVER_MASTER_KEY: ${MASTER_KEY}
      PARSE_SERVER_DATABASE_URI: mongodb://parse:${MONGO_PASSWORD}@mongo:27017/parse?authSource=admin
      PARSE_SERVER_MOUNT_PATH: /parse
      PARSE_SERVER_URL: http://localhost:1337/parse
      PARSE_PUBLIC_SERVER_URL: ${URL}/parse
      # The dashboard sends the master key from the person's browser, so it is let in from any
      # address; it is shown only after the dashboard's sign-in.
      PARSE_SERVER_MASTER_KEY_IPS: 0.0.0.0/0,::0
    # The image's own volumes: Cloud Code (cloud/main.js) and the configuration.
    volumes:
      - cloud:/parse-server/cloud
      - config:/parse-server/config
    depends_on:
      mongo:
        condition: service_healthy

  dashboard:
    image: parseplatform/parse-dashboard:9.2.0
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      PARSE_DASHBOARD_SERVER_URL: ${URL}/parse
      PARSE_DASHBOARD_APP_ID: ${APP_ID}
      PARSE_DASHBOARD_MASTER_KEY: ${MASTER_KEY}
      PARSE_DASHBOARD_APP_NAME: Parse
      PARSE_DASHBOARD_USER_ID: admin
      PARSE_DASHBOARD_USER_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
      PARSE_DASHBOARD_COOKIE_SESSION_SECRET: ${SESSION_SECRET}
      # HTTPS ends at the machine's proxy; the dashboard signs in only over it.
      PARSE_DASHBOARD_TRUST_PROXY: "1"

  mongo:
    image: mongo:8.0
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME: parse
      MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${MONGO_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - db:/data/db
      - configdb:/data/configdb
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "mongosh", "--quiet", "--eval", "db.adminCommand('ping').ok"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 10
      start_period: 30s

configs:
  nginx:
    content: |
      events {}
      http {
        client_max_body_size 50m;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Host $$host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $$proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $$http_x_forwarded_proto;
        # Names are looked up per request, so the proxy starts before the other two answer.
        resolver 127.0.0.11 valid=5s;
        server {
          listen 80;
          set $$api parse-server:1337;
          set $$dashboard dashboard:4040;
          location /parse {
            proxy_pass http://$$api;
          }
          location / {
            proxy_pass http://$$dashboard;
          }
        }
      }

volumes:
  cloud:
  config:
  db:
  configdb:

compose.yamlSee it on GitHub