diff --git a/bin/render-build.sh b/bin/render-build.sh
index fa0a212009..6db7c98f4f 100644
--- a/bin/render-build.sh
+++ b/bin/render-build.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 set -euxo pipefail
 
 npm i -g pnpm@8.7.0
-pnpm install; pnpm build --filter "$1"...
\ No newline at end of file
+pnpm install
+pnpm p:build
+pnpm --filter "$1" build
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/render.yaml b/render.yaml
index 4147275440..a3fa18c9bb 100644
--- a/render.yaml
+++ b/render.yaml
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ services:
       runtime: node
       rootDir: .
       buildCommand: ./bin/render-build.sh core
-      startCommand: pnpm start --filter core
+      startCommand: pnpm --filter core start
+      preDeployCommand: pnpm --filter core migrate-deploy
       envVars:
           - fromGroup: pubpub-core-prod-env
     # integration-instances