What is SnakeBytes?

I have a long history of code tutoring (for fun and work) with peers and younger students. I started SnakeBytes to teach more kids coding, as I find it fun and also a valuable skill worth sharing.

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Table of Contents

• Tech Stack for the Website
  • Frontend
  • Backend
  • Other / DevOps
  • For the Future? (TODO)
• SnakeBytes EC2 Deployment Guide (for Future Me)
  • Prerequisites
  • Step-by-Step Deployment
    • 1. SSH into EC2 and Install Requirements
    • 2. Push Your Code to EC2 with rsync
    • 3. Rebuild/Restart App
    • 4. Alternative Deployment: Quick Redeploy SHELL Script

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Tech Stack for the Website

Frontend

• React (via Next.js)
• Next.js (App Router)
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS (via PostCSS)
• urql (GraphQL client)
• NextAuth.js (authentication)
• Stripe.js (payments)
• Lucide React (icons)

Backend

• Node.js
• TypeScript
• Apollo Server (GraphQL server)
• type-graphql (GraphQL schema and resolvers)
• TypeORM (ORM for database)
• PostgreSQL (database)
• jsonwebtoken (JWT handling)
• Express.js (API server)
• Stripe (payments)
• dotenv (environment variable management)
• Caddy (web server/reverse proxy)

Other / DevOps

• Docker (Dockerfiles for frontend and backend)
• Cloudflare (DNS/proxy)
• AWS EC2 (deployment)
• TurboRepo (monorepo management)
• Yarn/NPM workspaces

For the Future? (TODO)

• Redis (Caching content & not soley relying on Supabase)

SnakeBytes EC2 Deployment Guide (for Future Me)

This guide walks you through how to deploy your local SnakeBytes project to your AWS EC2 instance using rsync, Docker Compose, and Caddy.

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Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following installed and configured:

• AWS EC2 instance (Ubuntu-based)
• Docker & Docker Compose installed on EC2
• Caddy installed and set up as a reverse proxy (optional HTTPS)
• SSH key added to ~/.ssh on your local machine
• Your EC2 instance’s public IP or hostname
• CHECK THIS PLEASE: Local project is fully working (Are all files there? Certs?)

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Step-by-Step Deployment

1. SSH into EC2 and install what is needed (Node, Docker, Caddy, etc.)

ssh -i ~/.ssh/calgary-bryan-arch.pem ubuntu@ec2-35-183-184-18.ca-central-1.compute.amazonaws.com

From your local project root (snakebyte/), run:

2. Push Your Code to EC2 with rsync

From your local project root (snakebyte/), run:

rsync -avz \
  --exclude 'deploy-snakebytes.sh' \
  --exclude 'node_modules' \
  --exclude '.next' \
  --exclude '.git' \
  --exclude '.env' \
  --exclude '.env.local' \
  --exclude '*/.env' \
  --exclude '*/.env.local' \
  --exclude 'build' \
  --exclude 'dist' \
  --exclude '.turbo' \
  --exclude '.DS_Store' \
  --exclude '*.log' \
  --exclude '.vercel' \
  --exclude 'coverage' \
  --exclude '*.tsbuildinfo' \
  --exclude 'packages/shared' \
  -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/calgary-bryan-arch.pem" \
  . ubuntu@ec2-35-183-184-18.ca-central-1.compute.amazonaws.com:~/snakebyte

3. Rebuild/Restart App

Inside the ~/snakebyte (cd ~/snakebyte) directory in the EC2 instance, run:

sudo docker-compose down
sudo docker-compose up -d --build

Then start/restart Caddy for reverse proxy/SSL to access from the web. If first time running Caddy on instance: sudo systemctl start caddy If not: sudo systemctl restart caddy

4. Alternative Deployment: Quick Redeploy SHELL Script?

Create a script (deploy-snakebytes.sh) in snakebyte @ local:

#!/bin/bash

if [ ! -f "docker-compose.yml" ]; then
  echo "Please run this script from your snakebyte project root."
  exit 1
fi

rsync -avz \
  --exclude 'deploy-snakebytes.sh' \
  --exclude 'node_modules' \
  --exclude '.next' \
  --exclude '.git' \
  --exclude '.env' \
  --exclude '.env.local' \
  --exclude '*/.env' \
  --exclude '*/.env.local' \
  --exclude 'build' \
  --exclude 'dist' \
  --exclude '.turbo' \
  --exclude '.DS_Store' \
  --exclude '*.log' \
  --exclude '.vercel' \
  --exclude 'coverage' \
  --exclude '*.tsbuildinfo' \
  --exclude 'packages/shared' \
  -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/calgary-bryan-arch.pem" \
  . ubuntu@ec2-35-183-184-18.ca-central-1.compute.amazonaws.com:~/snakebyte

ssh -i ~/.ssh/calgary-bryan-arch.pem ubuntu@ec2-35-183-184-18.ca-central-1.compute.amazonaws.com << 'EOF'
  cd ~/snakebyte
  sudo docker compose down
  sudo docker compose up -d --build
  sudo systemctl restart caddy
EOF

Make it an executable with chmod +x deploy-snakebytes.sh and then run it with ./deploy-snakebytes.sh.