Rollin' on chrome

Roll Your Own Vercel: Git Push Deployments with Apache

Vercel and Netlify are great — until you realize you’re already paying for a VPS. Why not use it? Here’s how to set up automatic deployments for your Astro or Vite projects with nothing but git hooks and Apache.

The Setup

On your VPS, create a bare repository for your project:

mkdir -p /var/repos/mysite.git
cd /var/repos/mysite.git
git init --bare

Now add a post-receive hook at hooks/post-receive:

#!/bin/bash
SITE_NAME="mysite.com"
REPO_DIR="/var/repos/mysite.git"
WORK_DIR="/tmp/deploy-$SITE_NAME"
WEB_DIR="/var/www/$SITE_NAME"

# Clone to temp location
git clone $REPO_DIR $WORK_DIR
cd $WORK_DIR

# Build (Astro/Vite)
npm install
npm run build

# Move built files
rm -rf $WEB_DIR
mv dist $WEB_DIR

# Cleanup
rm -rf $WORK_DIR

# Create/update Apache vhost if needed
if [ ! -f "/etc/apache2/sites-available/$SITE_NAME.conf" ]; then
  cat > /etc/apache2/sites-available/$SITE_NAME.conf <<EOF
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName $SITE_NAME
    DocumentRoot $WEB_DIR
    <Directory $WEB_DIR>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
EOF
  a2ensite $SITE_NAME
  systemctl reload apache2
fi

Make it executable:

chmod +x hooks/post-receive

On Your Local Machine

Add the VPS as a remote and push:

git remote add vps ssh://user@your-vps:/var/repos/mysite.git
git push vps main

That’s it. Every push builds, deploys, and configures Apache automatically. No webhooks, no third-party services, just git doing what it does best.

You already have the hardware. Might as well use it.

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Sprites vs exe.dev vs shellbox — Lalit Maganti’s Comparison

Three new cloud VM services launched within weeks of each other, all pitching the same thing: instant Linux environments optimized for AI coding agents like Claude Code. Lalit tried all three for a real project and breaks down the differences. exe.dev wins for solo devs—$20/month flat rate, fantastic UX, Ubuntu 24.04, Claude pre-installed, built-in web shell, and their custom Shelley agent that can screenshot your running app. Sprites is the corporate choice—burst to 8 CPUs, usage-based pricing, slick but impersonal. Shellbox does everything via SSH (even billing!) which is cool, but ships Ubuntu 18.04 (EOL since 2023), forces you to prepay, and stops your VM when you disconnect.

The real insight: these aren’t competing on specs or price. They’re selling speed—zero to working environment in under 2 minutes, with reverse proxy, TLS, and DNS already sorted. Traditional VPS providers make you wait 20-30 minutes and figure out the annoying bits yourself. It’s “cattle not pets” thinking finally reaching dev environments.

https://lalitm.com/trying-sprites-exedev-shellbox/

AntiRender: See Through The Architectural BS

A satirical look at the gap between glossy architectural renders and the reality that gets built. All those pristine 3D visualizations with their perfect lighting, diverse crowds of beautiful people, and lush greenery — versus the actual concrete plaza with dead trees and a single confused pigeon. The project cuts through the marketing fantasy to show what we actually get. Pairs perfectly with today’s hero image: retro-futurist dreams that aged into abandoned reality.

https://antirender.com/