Configuration / Auto-Deploy
Auto-Deploy
With auto-deploy on, every push to your deploy branch rebuilds and redeploys your app automatically. No dashboard, no manual step — just git push and your changes go live.
What auto-deploy does
Once your service is connected to GitHub, auto-deploy watches your repo. When you push new commits to the branch your service deploys from, Riven picks it up and starts a fresh deploy on its own.
This is on by default. It's the fastest way to ship — write code, push it, and watch it go live a moment later.
How it works
Behind the scenes, the flow is simple:
- You push commits to GitHub.
- GitHub notifies Riven that your repo changed.
- Riven checks if the push was to your deploy branch.
- If it was, Riven queues a new deploy — clone, build, and go live.
You can follow the whole thing live in your service's Logs, the same as any deploy.
Which branch deploys
Each service deploys from one branch — usually main. Only pushes to that branch trigger an auto-deploy. Pushing to other branches does nothing, so you can work on a feature branch freely and only ship when you merge.
You can change the deploy branch in your service's Settings → Build → Branch. After changing it, redeploy so Riven builds from the new branch.
Auto-deploy triggers on the exact branch your service is set to. If you deploy from main but push to dev, nothing happens — that's intended.
Turning it on or off
Auto-deploy is on by default. To change it, go to your service's Settings → Deploy and toggle Auto Deploy.
- On — every push to your deploy branch ships automatically.
- Off — pushes are ignored. Your app only updates when you deploy manually from the dashboard.
Turn it off when you want full control over when things go live — for example, on a production service where you'd rather deploy at a chosen moment.
Deploying manually
Whether auto-deploy is on or off, you can always trigger a deploy yourself. Open your service and choose Redeploy —Riven rebuilds from the latest commit on your deploy branch.
This is handy for redeploying after changing environment variables or settings, or just to rebuild without pushing new code.
Troubleshooting
I pushed but nothing deployed.
Check three things: auto-deploy is on (Settings → Deploy), you pushed to the branch your service deploys from, and GitHub is still connected (Settings → Integrations). Most missed deploys are a push to the wrong branch.
Auto-deploy stopped working after it worked before.
This usually means GitHub got disconnected. Reconnect it from Integrations and pushes will start triggering deploys again.
I want to skip a deploy.
Turn auto-deploy off before pushing, then turn it back on whenyou're ready to resume automatic deploys.