7 weeks solo: a CLI that deploys your Express/NestJS app to your own AWS or Azure — no IaC

I've been shipping Node backends for years and the deploy step never got better. Either I write infra config that duplicates what's already in my app, or I hand a platform standing keys to my AWS account.

So I built laranja (laranja.io) a CLI that reads your code and deploys it. No YAML, no CDK, no Terraform, no console clicking.

You mark what you already have:

export default http(app);            // your Express or NestJS app

export async refreshCache() { … }

export async sendEmails(job: EmailJob) { … }

cron(rate(1, 'hours'), refreshCache)
cron(rate(5, 'hours'), sendEmails)

Then laranja deploy. On AWS that's a Lambda behind a Function URL, EventBridge rules, SQS queues with DLQs. On Azure it's Function Apps and Storage Queues, same app code, one provider field.

Three things I decided early and haven't regretted:

It deploys into your account, from your machine. Your local AWS/Azure credentials, same as running the CLI yourself. My server never receives a key. It only ever sees a JSON description of your infra: 4 routes, 2 crons, 1 queue, never your source. The comparison that pushed me here: the official NestJS platform asks you to create a long-lived IAM user with ec2:*, rds:*, iam:CreateRole and secretsmanager:GetSecretValue, and paste those keys into their dashboard. That policy can read your secrets, forever.

Your code is the only spec. Nothing to keep in sync, so nothing to drift.

There's a way out. laranja eject writes you a real, editable CDK project you own outright. If the magic stops fitting, take the infrastructure and go.

Status: early, but real. Express and NestJS on AWS and Azure are live and deployed daily by me. Free tier is 1 project / 3 deploys a day.

What I'd genuinely like feedback on: is "deploy to your own account" a real selling point, or do most people just want someone else to hold the keys? I've been building on the assumption that the ownership matters. Tell me if I'm wrong before I build another month on it.

Docs: laranja.io/docs