Overview

rdio is easiest to deploy when you treat it as three concerns:

a web admin app
an API that owns station state and proxies the public stream
persistent radio data and audio services

The current production model bundles the API, Liquidsoap, and Icecast in one API container. The web app is deployed separately and talks to the API through /api.

rdio is not tied to a single hosting provider. The repository includes a Fly.io guide because that is the first maintained deployment path, but any platform can work if it can run the required services and expose the right ports.

What must persist

Production deployments need durable storage for station data and uploaded media.

API volume (`/media`)

Mount persistent storage at /media on the API container. rdio stores schedule state, playout pointers, fallback audio, and related radio files under this path.

Object storage (R2)

Uploaded media files live in Cloudflare R2, not on the API volume. Configure R2 before expecting media uploads to work. See Cloudflare R2.

Postgres

Auth, members, and application data live in Postgres.

Required services

A production deployment needs:

Postgres for auth and application data
the API container (API + Liquidsoap + Icecast)
the web container
persistent storage mounted into the API container at /media
Cloudflare R2 for media uploads
public HTTP access to the web app
public HTTP access to the API stream proxy at /live.mp3
reachable harbor ports for live source clients (8005 plain, 8443 TLS)

Required secrets

Set these for the API. See Environment variables for the full reference.

Secret	Purpose
`DATABASE_URL`	Postgres connection string
`BETTER_AUTH_SECRET`	Signs Better Auth cookies and tokens
`BETTER_AUTH_URL`	Public API origin
`WEB_ORIGIN`	Allowed web admin origins (comma-separated)
`ICECAST_SOURCE_PASSWORD`	Password Liquidsoap uses to publish to Icecast and harbor
`R2_ACCOUNT_ID`	Cloudflare account ID
`R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	R2 API token access key
`R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	R2 API token secret
`R2_BUCKET`	R2 bucket name
`R2_PUBLIC_URL`	Public base URL for media objects

For the web app, keep VITE_API_BASE_URL=/api when the web server proxies same-origin API traffic.

Update apps/web/nginx.conf to point at your API hostname if it differs from the default.

Hosting options

Choose hosting based on the parts you need to run.

API and radio services

The API container also runs Liquidsoap and Icecast. Host it somewhere that can:

run the API Dockerfile or an equivalent container image
attach persistent storage at /media
connect to Postgres
expose public HTTP for /api and /live.mp3
expose harbor ports for live source clients, especially 8005 and optionally 8443
store API secrets securely

Examples include Fly.io, Render, Railway, DigitalOcean App Platform, AWS ECS, or a VPS that runs Docker.

Web admin

The web app can be deployed with the API or hosted separately. It only needs to serve the built frontend and reach the API. Static or container-friendly hosts such as Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, Fly.io, Render, or a regular web server can work.

Media storage

Uploaded media currently uses Cloudflare R2. Keep the Cloudflare R2 setup even if the API and web app run somewhere else.

Deployment checklist

Before the first public launch:

create the production database
generate a strong BETTER_AUTH_SECRET
configure WEB_ORIGIN with your web admin URL
set up Cloudflare R2 and add R2_* secrets
mount persistent storage at /media
place fallback audio at /media/fallback/v1-tone.mp3
run database migrations
verify GET /api/health
verify the public stream at /live.mp3
verify harbor responds on port 8005
complete first-admin setup in the web UI

Next steps

Use the maintained Fly.io guide if you want to follow the repository's existing deployment config:

If something fails after deploy, see Troubleshooting.

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