Phase

An Alchemy app can run in one of three phases:

1. "up" - resources should be created, updated and deleted as necessary.
2. "destroy" - all resources in the stage should be deleted and the program should not proceed
3. "read" - run the program end-to-end but do not create, update or delete any resources

"up"

The Up phase creates, updates and deletes resources. This is the default mode and the most common. It's how you deploy your app (synchronize resources).

const app = await alchemy("my-app", {
  phase: "up"
});

const worker = await Worker("my-app", { .. }); // <- will be created or updated

await app.finalize(); // <- will delete orphaned resources

"destroy"

The Destroy phase deletes all resources and scopes within the my-app.${stage} (e.g. prod below).

const app = await alchemy("my-app", {
  phase: "destroy",
  stage: "prod", // <- this stage will be destroyed
});

// execution will not proceed to the following lines

const worker = await Worker("my-app", { .. }); // <- never executed

"read"

The Read phase runs the program but never creates, updates or deletes any resources. It is useful for building shell scripts that need access to infrastructure properties (e.g. the )

const app = await alchemy("my-app", {
  phase: "read"
});

// will reconstruct itself from state and error if it does not exist
const worker = await Worker("my-app", { .. });

worker.url; // <- populated from `.alchemy/` state

await app.finalize() // <- will not delete any orphaned resources

TIP

You can write your own scripts that run commands and pass infrstructure properties as environment variables with a very simple node script.

1. Set the phase to "read", e.g. using an env variable:

// ./alchemy.run.ts
const app = await alchemy({
  phase: process.env.PHASE ?? "up"    
});

// export your infrastructure
export const website = await Worker(..);

2. Import the website from your alchemy.run.ts module and execute a shell command. alchemy/os exposes a convenient async exec command that inherits stdio by default, but you can use anything.

// ./scripts/build.ts
import { exec } from "alchemy/os";
import { website } from "./alchemy.run";

await exec("astro build", {
  BACKEND_URL: website.url    
})

3. Finally, execute your command bash:

PHASE=read bun ./scripts/build.ts