Deploy to Any Platform

You can deploy Genkit flows as web services using any platform that can host a Dart executable. This page walks you through the general process of deploying the default sample flow.

1. Create a directory for the Genkit sample project:

mkdir -p ~/tmp/genkit-any-project
cd ~/tmp/genkit-any-project

2. Initialize a Dart project:

dart create -t console-simple .

3. Add Genkit dependencies:

dart pub add genkit genkit_shelf shelf shelf_router genkit_google_genai

4. Create a sample app using Genkit and Shelf:

bin/server.dart

import 'dart:io';
import 'package:genkit/genkit.dart';
import 'package:genkit_shelf/genkit_shelf.dart';
import 'package:genkit_google_genai/genkit_google_genai.dart';
import 'package:shelf/shelf.dart';
import 'package:shelf/shelf_io.dart' as io;
import 'package:shelf_router/shelf_router.dart';
import 'package:schemantic/schemantic.dart';

void main() async {
  final ai = Genkit(
    plugins: [googleAI(apiKey: Platform.environment['GOOGLE_API_KEY'])],
    model: googleAI.gemini('gemini-2.5-flash'),
  );

  final flow = ai.defineFlow(
    name: 'flow',
    fn: (String input, _) async => 'Processed $input',
    inputSchema: .string(),
    outputSchema: .string(),
  );

  final router = Router();
  // Mount the flow handler
  router.post('/flow', shelfHandler(flow));

  // Create a handler pipeline (e.g., adding logging)
  final handler = const Pipeline()
      .addMiddleware(logRequests())
      .addHandler(router.call);

  // Start the server
  final port = int.parse(Platform.environment['PORT'] ?? '8080');
  final server = await io.serve(handler, InternetAddress.anyIPv4, port);
  print('Server running on port ${server.port}');
}

5. Compile for Deployment:

   Dart applications can be compiled into self-contained executables (AOT compilation), which makes them easy to deploy without needing the full Dart SDK on the target server.

dart compile exe bin/server.dart -o server

The resulting server file is a standalone executable (on the same architecture).

6. Deploy:

   Upload the server executable to your hosting provider and configure it to run. Ensure you set the necessary environment variables:

   • PORT: The port your server should listen on (defaults to 8080 in the code above).
   • GOOGLE_API_KEY: Your Google GenAI API key.