6. Build Medusa Application

In this chapter, you'll learn how to create a production build of your Medusa application to be deployed to a hosting provider.

Next chapters explain how to deploy the Medusa application.

build Command#

The Medusa CLI tool has a build command which creates a standalone build of the Medusa application that:

• Doesn't rely on the source TypeScript files.
• Can be copied to a production server reliably.

So, to create the production build, run the following command in the root of your Medusa application:

Terminal
❯npx medusa build

Build Output#

The build command outputs the production build in the .medusa/server directory, and the admin dashboard build in the .medusa/server/public/admin.

Separate Admin Build#

The build command accepts a --admin-only option that outputs the admin to the .medusa/admin directory. This is useful when deploying the admin dashboard separately, such as on Vercel:

Terminal
❯npx medusa build --admin-only

Start Built Medusa Application#

To start the Medusa application after running the build command:

• Change to the .medusa/server directory and install the dependencies:

npm
yarn
pnpm

• When running the application locally, make sure to copy the .env file from the root project's directory. In production, use system environment variables instead.

.medusa/server
❯cp ../../.env .env.production

• In the system environment variables, set NODE_ENV to production:

Terminal
❯NODE_ENV=production

• Use the start command in the .medusa/server directory to run the application:

npm
yarn
pnpm

Deploying Production Build#

The next chapter covers how you generally deploy the production build.

You can also refer to the deployment how-to guides for platform-specific how-to guides.