Traditional Server

Run Dune on any machine with Deno installed — a VPS, a dedicated server, or your own hardware.

Production setup

1. Install Deno

curl -fsSL https://deno.land/install.sh | sh

2. Clone and configure

git clone https://github.com/you/my-site.git
cd my-site

Set up production config:

config/env/production/system.yaml:

debug: false
cache:
  enabled: true
  driver: "filesystem"
  lifetime: 7200
  check: "file"

3. Build and serve

# Build the content index
DUNE_ENV=production dune build

# Start the server
DUNE_ENV=production dune serve --port 8000

4. Reverse proxy

Put Dune behind nginx or Caddy for HTTPS and static asset caching:

server {
    server_name example.com;
    listen 443 ssl;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }

    # Serve static files directly
    location /static/ {
        root /path/to/my-site;
        expires 30d;
    }
}

Process management

Use systemd or a process manager to keep Dune running:

# /etc/systemd/system/dune.service
[Unit]
Description=Dune CMS
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/my-site
Environment=DUNE_ENV=production
ExecStart=deno run -A main.ts serve
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

This is the main.ts entrypoint pattern — what dune new scaffolds and what dune migrate:entrypoint moves existing sites onto. Pass --frozen (or set DUNE_FROZEN=1) to make Dune refuse startup if deno.lock is incomplete, preventing silent lockfile drift on the server; run dune lockfile sync locally and commit the result before deploying either way. See Invocation Patterns for the full workflow, --frozen's current status, and the legacy JSR-URL/installed-binary patterns for sites that haven't migrated yet.

Updating content

On a traditional server, content lives on the filesystem. Update it however you like:

• Git pull: git pull origin main && dune cache:rebuild
• rsync: Sync from a local machine
• SFTP: Upload changed files
• Admin panel: Available at /admin — manage content, users, and settings through the browser

After updating content, rebuild the index:

dune cache:rebuild

Or run in dev mode which watches for changes automatically.