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Deploying Panther Applications#

Panther is an ASGI-compatible web framework, which means you can deploy your Panther app using any ASGI server, such as Uvicorn, Granian, Daphne, or others. This guide covers best practices and options for deploying your Panther application in production.

1. Production-Ready ASGI Servers#

While Panther comes with a convenient CLI, you are not limited to it. You can use any ASGI server to run your app:

  • Uvicorn (default, recommended)
  • Granian
  • Daphne
  • Hypercorn
  • Any other ASGI-compliant server

Example: Using Uvicorn Directly#

uvicorn main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --workers 4
  • main:app refers to your application instance (e.g., app = Panther(...) in main.py).
  • Adjust --workers for your server's CPU count.

Example: Using Gunicorn with Uvicorn Workers#

For robust process management and multiple workers:

gunicorn -w 4 -k uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker main:app

2. Using the Panther CLI#

Panther provides a built-in CLI for development and deployment. The command:

panther run main:app --reload

is an alias for running Uvicorn with your Panther app. You can use all Uvicorn options with this command.

  • --reload is for development (auto-reloads on code changes).
  • Omit --reload for production.

Note: For advanced deployment, prefer running Uvicorn (or another ASGI server) directly, as shown above.

3. Environment Variables & Configuration#

  • Set environment variables (e.g., PORT, HOST, DATABASE_URL) as needed for your deployment environment.
  • Use a process manager (e.g., systemd, supervisor, pm2, or Docker (recomended)) to keep your app running and restart on failure.

4. Static Files & Reverse Proxy#

Panther does not serve static files in production. Use a reverse proxy (like Nginx or Caddy) to:

  • Serve static files (JS, CSS, images)
  • Forward requests to your ASGI server (Uvicorn, etc.)
  • Handle HTTPS/SSL termination

Example Nginx config: 

location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
}

5. WebSocket & Multiple Workers#

If your app uses WebSockets and you want to run multiple workers, configure Redis for pub/sub support (see Redis Integration).
Alternatively, use the --preload flag with Gunicorn for basic multi-worker support (see WebSocket docs).

6. Example: Docker Deployment#

Panther can be efficiently containerized using a multi-stage Docker build and the uv package manager, which is significantly faster and more reliable than pip. This approach results in smaller, more secure images and faster build times.

Advantages of Multi-Stage & uv#

  • Smaller final image size: Only production dependencies and app code are included.
  • Faster dependency installation: uv is much faster than pip and supports modern lockfiles.
  • Better security: Build tools and caches are left behind in the builder stage.
  • Cleaner builds: No unnecessary files in the final image.

Example Multi-Stage Dockerfile with uv#

FROM python:3.12 AS builder
WORKDIR /app
RUN python -m venv /opt/venv
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir uv
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN /opt/venv/bin/uv pip install -r requirements.txt --system

FROM python:3.12-slim AS production
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
ENV PATH="/opt/venv/bin:$PATH"
COPY --from=builder /opt/venv /opt/venv
WORKDIR /app
COPY . /app

CMD ["uvicorn", "main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]