Limits and roadmap

shipzy is an early preview. Everything below is as accurate as we can make it, including the parts that are less flattering.

What it does not do yet#

• Static sites only. Vite, Create React App and static Next.js exports. Server-rendered Next.js (API routes, middleware, per-request rendering), servers and long-running processes are not supported.
• No hosted dashboard. The dashboard runs on your own computer. A hosted one that connects to your AWS account is planned.
• One cloud. shipzy targets AWS only.

Limits#

• A new project's first deploy takes about five minutes longer while CloudFront creates its address. Later deploys do not.
• Project addresses are random CloudFront names (dxxxx.cloudfront.net). Add a custom domain for a readable one.
• Routing changes take about 30 seconds to reach every edge location, not zero.
• Remote builds are slow to start (about 1.5 minutes before your build begins). A local deploy is the fast choice.
• Rollback reaches back 10 deploys by default (--keep changes that).
• Custom domains are one CloudFront distribution each, so they count against your account's CloudFront quota.
• One preview domain is used per stack, and a preview name is <project>-pr-<number>, so the project name plus that must fit in 63 characters.
• A GitHub token is required to connect a repository, even a public one: it registers the webhook and is sent when cloning. One token serves a whole stack.
• Preview comments need a token with pull request access. Without it the preview still works; only the comment is missing.
• AWS has no hard spending cap. shipzy init --budget 25 --budget-email you@example.com sets an alert that emails you, and shipzy cost shows the month so far. Neither stops spending.

Known gaps#

• shipzy's main features have been verified by running them against a real AWS account, including failure cases and a full create and destroy of a throwaway stack. It does not yet have an automated test suite, and it has not had an independent security audit.
• Not yet exercised for real: replacing a hostname that another distribution already holds, updating an existing domain stack in place, and registering the webhook on a repository owned by a GitHub organization (which may need an owner to approve the token).

Roadmap#

Roughly in this order:

1. A first public release.
2. Server-rendered Next.js, running in your account on Lambda, with the cost and trade-offs written down first.
3. Generic servers: a Node or Express app as a function, then containers for anything else (Python, Go, WebSockets).
4. A hosted dashboard that connects to your AWS account through a cross-account role, with a GitHub App for one-click repository access.
5. Other static frameworks (Vue, Svelte, Astro static).

Dates are not promised. If something here matters to you, tell us.