How AI Builds Work in Openship

When you run openship deploy, a lot happens before your app goes live. Here's how the AI build system works.

Step 1: Framework detection

Openship scans your project for signals:

• package.json scripts and dependencies
• Config files (next.config.js, nuxt.config.ts, Cargo.toml, etc.)
• Dockerfile presence
• Directory structure patterns

This produces a confidence-scored framework match. If Openship detects Next.js with 95% confidence, it uses the Next.js build pipeline. If there's a Dockerfile, it uses that directly.

Step 2: Config generation

Based on the detected framework, Openship generates:

• Build command — npm run build, go build, etc.
• Start command — npm start, ./server, etc.
• Port mapping — Detects which port your app listens on
• Environment variables — Suggests required vars based on framework conventions

You can override any of these in openship.json.

Step 3: Build optimization

The AI layer optimizes the build:

• Layer caching — Dependency layers are cached separately from source code
• Multi-stage builds — Production images exclude dev dependencies
• Parallel builds — Multi-service projects build concurrently

Step 4: Health checks

After deployment, Openship verifies:

• The container starts successfully
• The health check endpoint responds
• SSL is provisioned and valid

If any check fails, the deployment is rolled back automatically.

What's next

We're working on AI-powered diagnostics — when a build fails, Openship will analyze the error and suggest fixes. Stay tuned.