Render

What the Blueprint creates#

render.yaml at the repo root describes four resources. Render creates them together and wires their URLs and shared secrets.

Each service has a build filter, so a push that only touches api/ doesn't rebuild the dashboard, and the reverse.

Deploy#

Use the one-click deploy link, or choose New → Blueprint in Render and pick your fork. On the first deploy Render asks for the values marked sync: false:

Deploy on Render walks through the whole deploy, including seeding the demo workspace, and Environment variables lists every variable.

Private networking#

The Blueprint keeps traffic between services off the public internet where it can:

• The API reads DATABASE_URL from the database's internal connection string.
• The dashboard gets OFFER_API_INTERNAL_URL from the API service's hostport. Its server calls the API at that address, and a bare host:port is treated as http. OFFER_API_URL is still the public address shown in snippets and the API reference.
• ADMIN_API_KEY is set once on the API and copied to the dashboard (as OFFER_API_ADMIN_KEY) and to the Workflows service with fromService, so the three always share one value.

The Workflows service calls the API at its public OFFER_API_URL, with the admin key.

The API also reads RENDER_EXTERNAL_URL, which Render sets on every web service to its onrender.com address. When an app connects PayPal, the API registers PayPal's webhook there, so billing events reach it with nothing to configure. PUBLIC_API_URL overrides it.

Pauses on Render Workflows#

When a customer accepts a pause in a cancel flow, billing is suspended in PayPal and the account moves to the free plan for a number of months. A pause can last longer than a task is allowed to run (24 hours), so no task sleeps. The resume date is stored on the account, and the API checks for pauses that are due.

The tasks hold no billing logic. They call the API's admin-only /pauses routes, and the API talks to PayPal, updates the account and sends subscription.paused or subscription.resumed. A 404 or 409 from the API (already paused, already resumed, account gone) ends the run as skipped. Any other failure throws, and Render retries the task.

• GET/pauses/due?limit=100
  Accounts whose pause has reached its resume date, across all apps.Admin key
• POST/pauses/apply
  Body { app_id, account_id, months, session_id?, reason? }. Suspends in PayPal and moves the account to the free plan.Admin key
• POST/pauses/resume
  Body { app_id, account_id }. Reactivates billing and restores the paused plan.Admin key

How the API starts runs#

The API uses Render's SDK (@renderinc/sdk) to start tasks by name. Workflow mode is on when both variables are set on the API:

render ??= new Render();
const run = await render.workflows.startTask(`${process.env.RENDER_WORKFLOW_SLUG}/${name}`, args);
return run.taskRunId;

When a cancel flow's pause is accepted, the session's result includes mode: "workflow" and the task_run_id. A timer in the API checks for due pauses every 60 minutes in workflow mode and starts one resume-due-pauses run when any exist.

Without Render Workflows#

If either variable is missing (local development, tests, or a deploy without RENDER_API_KEY), the API applies a pause in the request itself and records mode: "inline". The same timer resumes due pauses in-process every 10 minutes. Nothing else changes for the customer.

A pause made directly with POST /apps/:appId/namespaces/:namespaceId/subscription/pause always applies inline. Only pauses accepted in a cancel flow go through the workflow. See PayPal for the PayPal side of pausing.