Services Configuration

The services section defines your application services that will be deployed and managed by FTL.

Required Fields

services:
  - name: web
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    port: 3000
    routes:
      - path: /

Field	Description
name	Unique identifier for the service
build	Docker build configuration for the service
port	Port that the service listens on
routes	HTTP route configuration for the Nginx reverse proxy

Build Configuration

You can specify how to build your service's Docker image in two ways:

Direct SSH Transfer

When no image field is specified, FTL will build and transfer the image directly:

services:
  - name: web
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile

Registry-based Deployment

When using a Docker registry:

services:
  - name: web
    image: registry.example.com/my-app:latest
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile

Health Checks

Configure health checks to ensure reliable deployments:

services:
  - name: web
    health_check:
      path: /
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 3

Field	Description
path	HTTP endpoint to check
interval	Time between checks
timeout	Maximum time to wait for response
retries	Number of failed checks before marking as unhealthy

Routes Configuration

Define how HTTP traffic is routed to your service:

services:
  - name: web
    routes:
      - path: /
        strip_prefix: false

Field	Description
path	URL path to match
strip_prefix	Whether to remove the path prefix when proxying

Environment Variables

Services support environment variable substitution:

services:
  - name: web
    port: ${PORT}
    image: ${IMAGE_NAME}

All environment variables must be set in the environment before running FTL commands.

Complete Example

services:
  - name: my-app
    image: my-app:latest
    port: 80
    health_check:
      path: /
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 3
    routes:
      - path: /
        strip_prefix: false