Workers

A backend can run additional long-running processes alongside the web server. PM2 supervises all of them under one deployment.

export default shipnode
  .backend()
  .ssh({ host: '203.0.113.10', user: 'deploy' })
  .deployTo('/var/www/api')
  .pm2('api', { instances: 2 })
  .port(3000)
  .worker({ name: 'mailer', command: 'node dist/worker.js' })
  .worker({ name: 'cron',   command: 'node dist/cron.js', env: { JOB: 'cleanup' } })
  .build();

Targeting one process

By default logs, restart, stop operate on the whole deployment. Use --process <name> to target one (use the short name from your config):

npx shipnode logs    --process mailer
npx shipnode restart --process cron

PM2 naming

PM2 has a flat global namespace, so two deployments with a worker named mailer on the same host would collide. ShipNode prefixes worker names with the deployment namespace when registering with PM2.

A config with .pm2('api') + .worker({ name: 'mailer' }) appears in pm2 list as api and api-mailer. You always use the short name (mailer) in shipnode commands.

Worker-only deployments

Omit .port() and .domain() to deploy a worker-only app — useful for queue consumers or cron runners:

export default shipnode
  .backend()
  .ssh({ host: '203.0.113.10', user: 'deploy' })
  .deployTo('/var/www/queue-runner')
  .worker({ name: 'jobs', command: 'node dist/worker.js' })
  .build();