default build location when using a remote deploy server #4234

Hi @bouajilaProg! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the dokploy team.

By default, the build happens on the same server where the application is deployed. So if your application is assigned to your PROD server, the build runs on PROD. If it's assigned to your dev/staging server, the build runs there [1].

To separate build and deployment servers, go to your application's Advanced tab and look for the Build Server section. There you can select a different server to handle the build [2]. This requires two things:

1. A server configured with the "build" server type [3].
2. A Docker registry — since the build and deploy happen on different machines, the built image needs to be pushed to a registry so the deployment server can pull it [4].

A couple of things to keep in mind:

• This build server separation is only available for Applications, not Docker Compose deployments [5].
• This feature was introduced in v0.26.0 [6].

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To directly answer: the build runs on whichever server the application is assigned to — so if the app is assigned to your PROD server, the build happens there; assign it to your dev/staging server and the build happens there instead. There's no separate "default" — it's just the assigned deploy target.

If you want builds to run somewhere other than either deploy target (so PROD/staging never take the build load at all), Dokploy added a Build Server feature (v0.26.0+): in the app's Advanced tab, there's a "Build Server" section letting you pick a dedicated server just for builds, separate from where it deploys.

Two things worth knowing before you rely on it for your PROD/staging split:

• It requires a Docker registry — since build and deploy happen on different machines, the built image has to be pushed somewhere the deploy server can pull it from, rather than just existing locally.
• It only works for Applications, not Docker Compose deployments — if your stack is Compose-based, this separation isn't available yet, and builds will run on the deploy target either way.