Sim IDX streamlines your development and deployment lifecycle by integrating directly with your Git branching strategy. This allows you to build, test, and ship changes using isolated environments.

Every Sim IDX app operates in one of two environments: Production or Preview.

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Production Environment

When you push a new commit to the main branch of your connected repo, a new production deployment is automatically created.

A new, dedicated PostgreSQL database is provisioned for every deployment. A new base URL for your APIs is also created.

If you’re using these values during development, make sure you update them after every push.

The Current Deployment section of your App Page represents your latest production deployment.

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Preview Environments

When you push a new commit to any branch that is not main, Sim IDX automatically spins up a completely separate environment for it. Each preview deployment will get its own isolated database and unique API URL.

The Other Deployments section of your App Page is where you can find preview deployments.

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PR Flow

For a more structured development process, you can use PRs on GitHub to trigger preview deployments. This allows for code review and collaborative testing before merging changes into the main branch.

To start, create a new branch in your local repo and push it to GitHub. Then, open a pull request from your new branch to the main branch.

Open a new pull request on GitHub

Once the pull request is created, Sim IDX automatically builds a new preview deployment. You can find this build in the “Other Deployments” section of your App Page in the Sim dashboard.

The deployment is linked to the pull request, allowing you and your team to easily access the PR on GitHub to review changes and test the isolated deployment.

The PR link in the deployment details.

After the pull request is approved and merged, a new production deployment will be created from the main branch.