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Tutorial: Deploy Directus to PandaStack (npm/Node + managed PostgreSQL) #809

Description

@ajaysourcedigital

Summary

I'd like to contribute a new self-hosting tutorial — Deploy Directus to PandaStack — under content/tutorials/6.self-hosting/.

PandaStack is a Firecracker-microVM application platform with managed PostgreSQL. It deploys apps straight from a Git repository (install + start commands), so Directus runs as a plain Node application pointed at a managed Postgres — no Docker required.

Why

The existing self-hosting tutorials in this folder (Railway, Render, AWS, Azure, GCP, DigitalOcean, Ubuntu) are all Docker/blueprint or raw-VM based. There isn't a pure npm/Node PaaS deploy guide yet. This tutorial fills that gap, and the flow is close in shape to the Railway and Render guides.

What it covers

  • Creating a managed PostgreSQL database
  • A minimal repo: package.json, pandastack.json, mise.toml
  • Environment variables (DB_* with DB_SSL=true, KEY, SECRET, ADMIN_*, HOST, PORT, PUBLIC_URL)
  • Deploy and verify (admin login against the managed database)
  • Optional: S3 storage for durable uploads, custom domain + TLS, importing an existing database

The whole flow was verified end to end on Directus 12.2.0, with admin login working against the managed PostgreSQL.

Notes

Per CONTRIBUTING.md I'm opening this issue first for the core team's input — happy to adjust scope, tone, placement, or the example. One deploy detail worth surfacing: Directus's isolated-vm dependency relies on Node 22's prebuilt binary, so the tutorial pins Node 22 via mise.toml.

I've opened a PR with the tutorial and I'm glad to iterate on review.

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