Deploy to production

Ailu is a library: it runs inside your own Node.js service. There is no Ailu server to deploy.

The usual shape

1. Your API starts runs with the catalog runner and stores the returned state in your database, keyed by runId.
2. Your UI shows suspended runs to the people who approve them.
3. On approval (or on a webhook, or at a date), your API or a queue worker loads the state and calls resumeCatalogGraph.

Because the state is plain JSON in your database, any instance can resume any run, and a deploy or a crash loses nothing that was checkpointed. See Long-running runs.

app.run() / app.resume() keep suspended runs in the memory of one CompiledGraph. They suit runs that finish within one request or one worker, and single-instance services.

Platform

• Node.js 22 or later.
• Linux with glibc (x64 or arm64), macOS or Windows x64. In Docker, use a Debian- or Ubuntu-based image such as node:22-slim, not Alpine.
• Call rustEngineAvailable() at startup and fail fast if it returns false.

Checklist

Check	Why
API keys come from your secret manager, as environment variables	Keys never appear in code or in graph definitions.
AILU_LLM_MOCK is not set	It answers with a mock instead of failing when a key is missing.
resolvedBy comes from your authenticated session	It is the approver of record. See Tools and approval.
AILU_PII_REDACTOR_URL and AILU_PII_REDACTOR_FAIL_CLOSED=1, if you handle personal data	Personal data is redacted before it reaches a model, and nothing is sent if the redactor is down. See Governance.
AILU_SECRETS_POLICY=block for strict environments	A prompt containing a secret fails instead of being masked.
An ApprovalEngine backed by your database, passed to runCatalogGraph and resumeCatalogGraph	Approval requests and decisions survive restarts, and a resume refuses to continue until they are approved.
AILU_LLM_RECORD=1 for runs you may have to justify	You can replay them later.
Tracing: exportTracesToOtlp(app) for app.run(); the onEvent option of the catalog runner otherwise	Traces and cost for every run. See Observability.
AILU_HTTP_READ_TIMEOUT_SECS	Timeout for model calls (default 600 s).

Every variable is listed in Environment variables.

Test before you ship

Run your graphs in CI with AILU_LLM_MOCK=1: agents answer from the deterministic mock (each tool is called once, then the agent answers done), so tests are fast, free and repeatable. Test the wiring: the gates suspend, approvals resume, the right channels get written.