Deploy kwai backend

This page will describe how you can deploy the backend of kwai.

Step 1: Build

First you need to get the latest version. The repository is a monorepo. This means the backend code and the frontend code are in the same repository. We only need the backend. Set up the development environment for kwai and build the wheel file.

cd backend
poetry build

This command creates a dist folder where you find two files: a tar.gz with the source code and a .whl file that can used to install kwai. Transfer the .whl file to your host.

Step 2: Python Environment

Kwai needs a Python environment. It is recommended to create a separate environment for kwai. Run the following command on your host:

mkdir backend
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install kwai-x.x.x-py3-none-any.whl

Step 3: Configuration

Kwai needs a configuration file. When this is the first time, we need to create it.

cd backend
cp kwai.dist.toml .kwai.toml

Use an editor to change the configuration. Set the environment variable KWAI_SETTINGS_FILE with the full path of this configuration file.

Step 4: Templates

kwai requires jinja2 templates. Copy the templates to a folder on the server and update the path setting in the template section of the configuration file.

Step 5: Migration

When there are database changes required, a migration must run before starting the backend. Copy the migrations folder to your server and use dbmate to upgrade.

dbmate is used for database migrations. Make sure it is available.

cd <your_folder_on_the_server>/migrations
dbmate -d . -u "<database_uri>" up

Step 6: Frontend

The frontend is also served by the FastAPI backend.

To build the frontend you need Node.

cd frontend
npm install
npm run build

Note

You can also use Task to build the frontend. Run the following command from the kwai root folder: task frontend:build

This will result in a folder dist in all the frontend applications. FastAPI will be used to render the frontend. Add all applications to the .kwai.toml configuration file:

[frontend]
path = "/home/kwai/frontend"
root_app = "portal"

[frontend.apps]

[frontend.apps.portal]
base="/apps/portal"
entries="/src/index.ts"

In this example there should be a /home/kwai/frontend/apps/portal/dist folder that contains the result of the build command.

Step 7: Run

To start the backend application use the following command:

cd backend

source .venv/bin/activate
python -m kwai

This python script will start an uvicorn server. The host and port arguments can be used to configure this server.