In Light Cloud, pushing a Git branch creates preview environments for all three Bean There apps—the catalog API, orders API, and web app. Later pushes redeploy only apps whose folders changed. To preview the feature across services, point the branch apps at one another and allow the branch web app’s origin in the APIs. First check where the branch APIs send database writes: this example still uses the production database. For an incident on main, Light Cloud can serve an earlier deployment without rebuilding, but that rollback does not revert the commit or undo database changes.
What you need before starting
This workflow continues the Bean There shop tutorial. It assumes Parts 1–4 are deployed from a fork, with a catalog API, orders API, and web app. You will also need Git and a terminal; the tutorial uses curl for an API check.
Create a branch preview in Light Cloud
Push the feature branch
The tutorial adds a stock_status field in catalog-api, creates a feature branch, and pushes it. In the demonstrated Light Cloud setup, that first branch push creates an environment for each of the three apps, including apps whose folders were not changed.
Each app receives a branch URL. Subsequent pushes to the same branch redeploy only apps whose folders changed. A command-line check of the catalog API can be enough to confirm that API’s behavior, but it does not prove that the whole web-to-API feature works: the branch services may still call production services or use production data.
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Connect the branch apps for a full preview
Set these values in the branch environments in Light Cloud, not the production environments. The values route the browser and API calls through the branch versions while leaving production configuration untouched.
| Branch app | Environment variable or setting | Value to use |
|---|---|---|
| Web app | Catalog API URL (VITE_* setting) |
The branch catalog API URL |
| Web app | Orders API URL (VITE_* setting) |
The branch orders API URL |
| Catalog API | WEB_ORIGIN |
The branch web app URL |
| Orders API | Catalog API URL | The branch catalog API URL |
| Orders API | WEB_ORIGIN |
The branch web app URL |
Use the exact variable names configured by your apps; the tutorial identifies the web app’s API settings as VITE_* URLs. Once the branch environment values are updated, redeploy or otherwise apply them as Light Cloud requires for the app so the running preview uses the new configuration.
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Check data targets before testing writes
Routing requests to branch URLs does not guarantee isolated data. In the tutorial’s example, the branch catalog API initially points to the production database, the branch orders API calls the production catalog API, and the web preview initially calls production APIs. The author warns readers to browse the preview but not place orders because it still shares production data.
Before exercising any action that writes data, verify the branch APIs’ database connection and the targets of other external services they use. If those targets remain production, treat the preview as read-only: changing an application URL does not isolate persistent data.
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Open a pull request for review
After opening a pull request, the tutorial says Light Cloud posts a preview link for each app and adds a readiness check per app. Reviewers can open those links without access to the Light Cloud console. This makes the PR itself a convenient place to find the app previews and see whether each app’s deployment check is ready.
After the branch is merged and deleted, the changed services redeploy and the three branch environments disappear in the described workflow.
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Troubleshoot the preview
“The preview shop shows production data, not my change”
The tutorial attributes this symptom to the branch web app retaining its default VITE_* URLs, which point to production. Set the branch web app’s catalog and orders API URLs to the corresponding branch API URLs, then confirm that the branch APIs themselves are configured for the intended dependencies.
“The preview shop shows a CORS error”
The branch APIs allow browser origins listed in their WEB_ORIGIN setting. Add the branch web app URL to WEB_ORIGIN in each branch API environment that serves browser requests, then apply the updated environment configuration.
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Roll back a bad production deployment
Serve the previous deployment
- In the Light Cloud dashboard, open the catalog API and go to Production > Deployments.
- Select the earlier known-good deployment and choose Roll back.
- Review the confirmation and confirm the rollback.
- Check the production app to verify the earlier code is being served.
In the documented behavior, rollback serves the selected deployment’s code without rebuilding. It keeps the current environment variables and does not undo database changes made since that deployment. It is therefore a code recovery mechanism, not a full restoration of the application’s previous state.
For the catalog API test in this tutorial, author Julia reported the rollback completed in 13 seconds, compared with about 70 seconds for a normal deploy in that example. Those are author-reported timings for that test, not an independent benchmark or a service-level guarantee.
Repair the branch after rollback
Rolling back the running deployment does not remove the faulty commit from main. In the tutorial, the author follows rollback by reverting the bad commit and pushing that revert. The rollback restores an earlier deployed version; the follow-up revert changes the branch history so a later deployment does not simply reintroduce the faulty change.
Quick Recap
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