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CI/CD for Next.js 15 on a VPS: GitHub Actions, PM2 reload and Caddy

Manual deployments were slow and error-prone. Today a git push is enough – no downtime and no PaaS.

Serge Zabolotny · 2026-10-18

• GitHub Actions
• CI/CD
• Next.js 15
• PM2
• Caddy
• pnpm
• VPS

Starting point

PflegeOasis runs on my own VPS (Next.js 15, PostgreSQL 16, Drizzle ORM). At first I logged in via SSH and ran the steps by hand. That costs time, and every forgotten step is a possible source of errors.

The flow

1. A push to the main branch triggers a GitHub Actions workflow.
2. The workflow connects to the server via SSH.
3. On the server git pull, pnpm install and pnpm build run.
4. pm2 reload restarts the Next.js app – without downtime.
5. Caddy sits in front as a reverse proxy and takes care of TLS certificates automatically.

Schematically (simplified), the server does the following during a deployment:

git pull
pnpm install
pnpm build
pm2 reload <app-name>

Why no PaaS?

• Control: database, backups and network are in my hands, hosting in Germany.
• Cost: one VPS carries several projects without limits or cold starts getting in the way.
• Understanding: whoever builds the operations themselves understands what happens during an outage.

Result

Deployment via git push: faster, repeatable and without manual work. The workflow is the documentation.

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