Deploying a Rust App to Rustfinity Cloud

Rustfinity Cloud makes deploying Rust apps ridiculously simple. In this guide, we'll walk through deploying an Axum web server from scratch — from creating the project to having it live on the internet.

Before we begin, make sure you have:

• Rust installed (rustup.rs)
• Rustfinity CLI installed: cargo install rustfinity
• A Rustfinity Cloud account at cloud.rustfinity.com

Log in to the CLI once you have your account:

rustfinity login

Let's create a simple Axum web server to deploy. Start by creating a new project:

cargo init my-axum-app
cd my-axum-app

Add the dependencies to Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
axum = "0.8"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["full"] }

Replace the contents of src/main.rs:

use axum::{routing::get, Router};
 
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    let app = Router::new()
        .route("/", get(|| async { "Hello from Rustfinity Cloud!" }))
        .route("/health", get(|| async { "ok" }));
 
    let port = std::env::var("PORT").unwrap_or_else(|_| "3000".to_string());
    let addr = format!("0.0.0.0:{port}");
 
    let listener = tokio::net::TcpListener::bind(&addr).await.unwrap();
    println!("Listening on {addr}");
    axum::serve(listener, app).await.unwrap();
}

Notice that we read the port from the PORT environment variable. This is required — Rustfinity Cloud assigns a port dynamically and your app must listen on it.

Test it locally:

cargo run
# Visit http://localhost:3000

Rustfinity Cloud uses a Rustfinity.toml file at the root of your project for configuration. Create one:

[app]
name = "my-axum-app"
 
[build]
command = "cargo build --release"
binary = "target/release/my-axum-app"
 
[health]
path = "/health"
interval = 30

The health.path tells Rustfinity Cloud where to send health check requests. If the health check fails, your app will be automatically restarted.

With everything in place, deploy your app:

rustfinity deploy

You'll see output like this:

🔍 Detecting project...
📦 Building my-axum-app...
   Compiling my-axum-app v0.1.0
    Finished release [optimized] target(s)
📤 Uploading binary (4.2 MB)...
🚀 Deploying to Rustfinity Cloud...
✅ Live at https://my-axum-app.rustfinity.app

Health check passed ✓

Your app is now live! Visit the URL shown in the output.

Most apps need environment variables for database URLs, API keys, and other configuration. Set them with the CLI:

# Set a single variable
rustfinity env set DATABASE_URL "postgres://user:pass@host/db"
 
 
<InlineCarbonAd />
 
# Set multiple at once
rustfinity env set API_KEY "sk-123" SECRET_KEY "my-secret"
 
# List current variables
rustfinity env list
 
# Remove a variable
rustfinity env unset API_KEY

Environment variables are encrypted at rest and injected into your app at runtime. After changing env vars, redeploy for them to take effect:

rustfinity deploy

Rustfinity Cloud pings your health check endpoint at the configured interval. If it receives a non-200 response three times in a row, your app is automatically restarted.

We recommend a dedicated /health route that returns a simple 200 OK:

.route("/health", get(|| async { "ok" }))

For more advanced checks, you can verify database connectivity or other dependencies:

async fn health_check(State(pool): State<PgPool>) -> impl IntoResponse {
    match sqlx::query("SELECT 1").execute(&pool).await {
        Ok(_) => (StatusCode::OK, "ok"),
        Err(_) => (StatusCode::SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE, "unhealthy"),
    }
}

View your app's logs in real time:

rustfinity logs

Or tail them continuously:

rustfinity logs --follow

You can also view logs and basic metrics from the Rustfinity Cloud dashboard.

Redeploying is the same command:

rustfinity deploy

Rustfinity Cloud performs zero-downtime deployments by default — the new version starts up and passes health checks before traffic is switched over.

To roll back to a previous deployment:

rustfinity rollback

That's all it takes to go from an empty directory to a live Rust app on the internet. Rustfinity Cloud handles the infrastructure so you can focus on writing code.

Here's what to explore next:

• Axum Learning Path — Our 15-module guide to building web apps with Axum
• Rustfinity Cloud Dashboard — Manage your deployments, view logs, and configure settings
• Introducing Rustfinity Cloud — Read the announcement post for more background

Happy deploying! 🦀