CI/CD for FastAPI with GitHub Actions and Docker (Self-Hosted Deployment)

✅ CI/CD for FastAPI with GitHub Actions and Docker (Self-Hosted Deployment)

this instruction was generated by Chat-GPT-4O

📁 Project Structure (Example)

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/my-project
├── frontend/               # Your Next.js app (deployed via Vercel)
├── backend/                # Your FastAPI app
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── app/
│   └── requirements.txt
└── .github/
    └── workflows/
        └── deploy-backend.yml

🐳 1. FastAPI Dockerfile Example (backend/Dockerfile)

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FROM python:3.11-slim

WORKDIR /app

COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

COPY ./app /app

CMD ["uvicorn", "main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]

⚙️ 2. GitHub Actions Workflow (.github/workflows/deploy-backend.yml)

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name: Deploy FastAPI Backend

on:
  push:
    paths:
      - 'backend/**'
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v3

    - name: Set up SSH
      uses: webfactory/ssh-agent@v0.9.0
      with:
        ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}

    - name: Copy backend files to server
      run: |
        rsync -avz -e "ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no" backend/ ${{ secrets.SERVER_USER }}@${{ secrets.SERVER_HOST }}:/home/${{ secrets.SERVER_USER }}/fastapi-app/

    - name: SSH and rebuild Docker container
      run: |
        ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no ${{ secrets.SERVER_USER }}@${{ secrets.SERVER_HOST }} << 'EOF'
          cd ~/fastapi-app
          docker stop fastapi-app || true
          docker rm fastapi-app || true
          docker build -t fastapi-app .
          docker run -d --name fastapi-app -p 8000:8000 fastapi-app
        EOF

🔐 3. GitHub Secrets Required

Go to your GitHub repo → Settings → Secrets → Actions → New repository secret:

Name Description
SSH_PRIVATE_KEY Your local server’s SSH private key (for GitHub to connect)
SERVER_USER Your username on the server/computer
SERVER_HOST IP or hostname of your computer

You can generate a key pair via:

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ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "ci-cd-key"
# Add the public key (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on your computer

🚀 4. Deployment Process Summary

  1. On git push to main, GitHub Actions:

    • Syncs backend/ files to your computer via rsync + SSH.
    • Connects via SSH and rebuilds the FastAPI Docker image.
    • Restarts the container.

🧪 (Optional) Improve With:

  • .dockerignore to avoid copying unnecessary files.
  • Add tests/ and run pytest before deployment.
  • Use docker-compose if you also run a database or Redis locally.
  • Watchdog tools like Watchtower to auto-update containers on image changes.

Would you like a template for a docker-compose.yml setup too, in case your FastAPI app depends on other services like PostgreSQL or Redis?