Seeding production DB with Next.js standalone build (no Payload CLI available)

[tariwiencke]

I want to seed the production database with some data like brands, categories. I do this directly from the terminal and not from within the docker container since it is in standalone output and does not have the payload executable.

The seeding works but now the production container opens this interactive prompt: ? It looks like you've run Payload in dev mode, meaning you've dynamically pushed changes to your database.

So I can't do it from the shell nor from within the docker container. What options do I have?

Here is my payload config:

...
  db: postgresAdapter({
    prodMigrations: migrations,
    pool: {
      connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL || '',
    },
  }),
...

Here is the package.json script:

"seed-brands": "cross-env NODE_OPTIONS=--no-deprecation payload run seed/brands.ts",

Here is the seeding function:

import { getPayload, Payload } from 'payload'
import config from '@payload-config'
import fs from 'fs'
import path from 'path'
import { fileURLToPath } from 'url'
import { authenticateUser } from './authenticateUser'

const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)
const __dirname = path.dirname(__filename)

// --- 2. Main Seed Logic ---
const seed = async () => {
  // Initialize Payload first so we can pass it to the auth function
  const payload = await getPayload({ config })

  // Call the separated auth process
  const superadminUser = await authenticateUser(payload)

  // Exit early if auth failed or was cancelled
  if (!superadminUser) return

  // Proceed with the import process
  const filePath = path.resolve(__dirname, 'brands.csv')

  if (!fs.existsSync(filePath)) {
    payload.logger.error(`File not found: ${filePath}`)
    return
  }

  const fileData = fs.readFileSync(filePath)
  const stats = fs.statSync(filePath)

  try {
    const importJob = await payload.create({
      collection: 'imports',
      user: superadminUser,
      data: {
        collectionSlug: 'brands',
        importMode: 'upsert',
      },
      file: {
        data: fileData,
        mimetype: 'text/csv',
        name: 'brands.csv',
        size: stats.size,
      },
    })
    payload.logger.info(`Import created successfully with ID: ${importJob.id}`)
  } catch (error) {
    payload.logger.error('Failed to create import:')
    payload.logger.error(error)
  }
}

await seed()

Here is my Dockerfile:

# To use this Dockerfile, you have to set `output: 'standalone'` in your next.config.mjs file.
# From https://github.com/vercel/next.js/blob/canary/examples/with-docker/Dockerfile

FROM node:22.17.0-alpine AS base

# Install dependencies only when needed
FROM base AS deps
# Check https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/tree/b4117f9333da4138b03a546ec926ef50a31506c3#nodealpine to understand why libc6-compat might be needed.
RUN apk add --no-cache libc6-compat
WORKDIR /app

# Install dependencies based on the preferred package manager
COPY package.json yarn.lock* package-lock.json* pnpm-lock.yaml* ./
RUN \
  if [ -f yarn.lock ]; then yarn --frozen-lockfile; \
  elif [ -f package-lock.json ]; then npm ci; \
  elif [ -f pnpm-lock.yaml ]; then corepack enable pnpm && pnpm i --frozen-lockfile; \
  else echo "Lockfile not found." && exit 1; \
  fi


# Rebuild the source code only when needed
FROM base AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=deps /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY . .

# Next.js collects completely anonymous telemetry data about general usage.
# Learn more here: https://nextjs.org/telemetry
# Uncomment the following line in case you want to disable telemetry during the build.
# ENV NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED 1

RUN \
  if [ -f yarn.lock ]; then yarn run build; \
  elif [ -f package-lock.json ]; then npm run build; \
  elif [ -f pnpm-lock.yaml ]; then corepack enable pnpm && pnpm next build --experimental-build-mode compile; \
  else echo "Lockfile not found." && exit 1; \
  fi

# Production image, copy all the files and run next
FROM base AS runner
WORKDIR /app

ENV NODE_ENV production
# Uncomment the following line in case you want to disable telemetry during runtime.
# ENV NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED 1

RUN addgroup --system --gid 1001 nodejs
RUN adduser --system --uid 1001 nextjs

# Remove this line if you do not have this folder
COPY --from=builder /app/public ./public

# Set the correct permission for prerender cache
RUN mkdir .next
RUN chown nextjs:nodejs .next

# Automatically leverage output traces to reduce image size
# https://nextjs.org/docs/advanced-features/output-file-tracing
COPY --from=builder --chown=nextjs:nodejs /app/.next/standalone ./
COPY --from=builder --chown=nextjs:nodejs /app/.next/static ./.next/static

USER nextjs

EXPOSE 3000

ENV PORT 3000

# server.js is created by next build from the standalone output
# https://nextjs.org/docs/pages/api-reference/next-config-js/output
CMD HOSTNAME="0.0.0.0" node server.js

Here is my docker-compose:

  prod:
    container_name: prod
    image: ghcr.io/...
    ports:
      - '3000:3000'
    env_file:
      - .env
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
      minio:
        condition: service_started

[tariwiencke]

Running the script with node_env production did the trick for me. NODE_ENV=production pnpm run seed-images

But I wonder what would happen if I accidentally run payload in development mode on the production server. There must be a cleaner way.