Best place to run a startup script (ie Database migration)

[cedar ruin]

Hi,
I'm trying to execute a SQL migration script when my nuxt server starts but I'm not sure where the best place to do this is?

I've tried as a plugin but it seems to execute at every request so whilst it works, its not practical for obvious reasons:

plugins/migrate.server.ts:

import { migrateDb } from './database'

export default defineNuxtPlugin(async () => {
  const runtimeConfig = useRuntimeConfig()
  await migrateDb(runtimeConfig.databaseUrl)
})

Next up I've tried to execute it in a hook, but this doesnt seem to work as my database url is set as an env variable NUXT_DATABASE_URL in my .env file but it says its an empty string:

  runtimeConfig: {
    databaseUrl: ''
  },
  hooks: {
    async ready(nuxt) {
      console.log(nuxt.options.runtimeConfig) //runtimeConfig.databaseUrl === ''
      const runtimeConfig = nuxt.options.runtimeConfig
      await migrateDb(runtimeConfig.databaseUrl)
    },
  },

Any idea how I can resolve this? Thanks.

[cedar ruin]

Okay I think I've figured it out, I was close with the plugin approach, instead of having it in the plugins folder, I moved it to server/plugins folder, now it only runs once, and not on every request

[prime scaffold]

This help me a lot, but got confused because I was assuming that the pluging run on every request but I place a log in the hook from the nitro app lol

[runic mirage]

Question - does the plugin code execute after build and deployment?

In other words, on app start up?

What if the migration fails? Do you have a deployed application with DB that is behind on migrations?

[marsh kiln]

How about using nitro task and manually running it once?

[prime scaffold]

One of the issues that I'm currently facing is that the build from nuxt don't contain the migrations from my layer, so the only way that I manage to do it is to have ci pipeline that is trigger manually, to deploy to prod that will first run DB migrate then deploy the build to prod

I was looking for a way to do it automatically like with spring boot and flyway migrations run before application start

In the nuxt hub they have auto migrations, but it seems like it is at build time but I don't know tbh