Hosting

Hosting requirements, current setup, environment variables, and platform-specific configuration.

Requirements

The build process produces a standard WordPress installation in dist/. This can run on:

Any standard PHP/WordPress host (shared hosting, WP Engine, etc.) — just upload dist/ and point the domain at it
Docker-based platforms (Heroku, Railway, Render, Dokploy, etc.) — using the included Dockerfile

Minimum requirements:

PHP with a MySQL-compatible database
External media storage (S3, R2, or equivalent) if the host has ephemeral storage — the yax-offload-media plugin handles this automatically
Environment variables for configuration — see Environment Variables below

Supported When Available

The codebase supports these services, but they are not required:

Redis — enables the object cache via yax-performance. Without it, WordPress falls back to per-request caching.
Meilisearch — enables full-text search via yax-meilisearch. Without it, WordPress uses default MySQL LIKE queries.

Current Setup (Heroku)

Property	Production	Staging
App name	`womens-healthcare-associates`	`wha-staging`
Domain	whallc.com	staging.whallc.com, whallc.joeyyax.dev
Database	Amazon RDS (MySQL)	Amazon RDS (MySQL)
Media storage	Amazon S3	Amazon S3
SSL	Heroku ACM (auto-managed)	Heroku ACM
Deploy method	Docker build via `heroku.yml`	Docker build via `heroku.yml`

Heroku builds the Docker image from the Dockerfile on each git push. It's not using a buildpack — the heroku.yml file tells Heroku to build and run the container directly.

Heroku-Specific Files

File	Purpose
`heroku.yml`	Tells Heroku to build from `Dockerfile` instead of using a buildpack
`Dockerfile`	Multi-stage build that produces the production container
`tools/entrypoint-prod.sh`	Container entrypoint — starts PHP-FPM + Nginx, reads `PORT`

Heroku Limitations

Single process per dyno — PHP-FPM and Nginx must run in the same container. The entrypoint script handles this.
Ephemeral filesystem — files written at runtime are lost on restart. Media must go to S3. See Operations > Ephemeral Storage.
No Redis/Meilisearch without paid add-ons or external services.
30-second request timeout — long-running operations (imports, bulk updates) may time out.

Environment Variables

All WordPress configuration comes from environment variables. Nothing is hardcoded — the same container image runs in any environment by changing the env vars.

How They Work

wp-config.custom.php reads every setting via getenv_docker(), which checks environment variables with fallback defaults. This means:

Local dev: set in .env (loaded by Docker Compose)
Heroku: set via heroku config:set or the dashboard
Docker hosts: set in the compose file or container runtime

Core Variables

Variable	Example	Notes
`WORDPRESS_DB_HOST`	`db:3306`	Database host
`WORDPRESS_DB_NAME`	`wordpress`	Database name
`WORDPRESS_DB_USER`	`wordpress`	Database user
`WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD`	`(secret)`	Database password
`WORDPRESS_TABLE_PREFIX`	`wp_`	Table prefix
`WORDPRESS_DEBUG`	`false`	Never enable on production

Services

Variable	Example	Notes
`REDIS_HOST`	`redis`	Redis hostname (when available)
`REDIS_PORT`	`6379`	Redis port
`S3_UPLOADS_BUCKET`	`wha-media`	S3/R2 bucket name
`S3_UPLOADS_REGION`	`us-west-2`	AWS region (or `auto` for R2)
`S3_UPLOADS_KEY`	`(secret)`	Storage access key
`S3_UPLOADS_SECRET`	`(secret)`	Storage secret key
`S3_UPLOADS_ENDPOINT`	`https://...`	Custom endpoint (required for R2, optional for S3)
`MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN`	`pk.ey...`	Mapbox GL JS for maps

PHP Tuning

Variable	Example	Notes
`PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT`	`256M`	PHP memory limit
`PHP_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME`	`600`	Max execution time (seconds)
`PHP_UPLOAD_MAX_FILESIZE`	`64M`	Max upload file size
`PHP_POST_MAX_SIZE`	`64M`	Max POST body size

Operations

Variable	Example	Notes
`WORDPRESS_BLOCK_PLUGINS`	`debug-bar query-monitor`	Plugins to physically remove on container start
`WORDPRESS_DEBUG_LOG`	`false`	Write debug output to file (ephemeral on Heroku)

Deploying to Other Platforms

The dist/ output is a standard WordPress installation. It can be deployed to:

Standard PHP Hosts

Upload dist/ to any PHP host (shared hosting, WP Engine, managed WordPress, etc.). Set up the database, configure wp-config.php environment variables, and point the domain. No Docker required.

The included Dockerfile builds a production container. Point any Docker host (Railway, Render, Dokploy, Coolify, etc.) at the Git repo, set the environment variables, and map a domain. The container handles everything — Nginx listens on PORT, PHP-FPM starts automatically.

What Changes Between Platforms

The codebase doesn't change — only environment variables and infrastructure. Database, media storage, and optional services (Redis, Meilisearch) are configured entirely through env vars.