Migrating Astro Applications to Ampt

Astro is a web framework designed for content-driven websites that enables Server-Side Rendering (SSR) capabilities for serving dynamic HTML and types of content. It is UI library agnostic (works with React, Vue, SvelteKit, and more) and is highly extensible with a rich integration ecosystem featuring MDX, Tailwind, and of course, Ampt. This guide will walk you through migrating an existing Astro application using the Ampt integration.

Prerequisites

• An existing Astro application (or create a new one with the Astro CLI)
• Basic understanding of Node.js and full stack apps
• An Ampt account (sign up here)
• The Ampt CLI installed (run npm i @ampt/cli -g in your terminal)

Install the @ampt/astro adapter #

Navigate to the project folder and add @ampt/astro to your project using npm. This dependency is used to make the application compatible with AWS.

terminalCopy code
npm install @ampt/astro

Change the entry point of the application #

We need to change the entrypoint of the application to make it compatible with Ampt. Add the following line to the package.json

package.jsonCopy code
{
  ...
  "main": "entry/dist",
  ...
}

Add Ampt to Astro configuration #

Add the @ampt/astro integration to your astro.config.mjs file as follows:

astro.config.mjsCopy code
import { defineConfig } from "astro/config";
import ampt from "@ampt/astro";

export default defineConfig({
  output: "hybrid", // or "server" or "static"
  integrations: [ampt() /* other integrations */],
});

Add scripts for dev mode and build step #

Ampt allows you to run the Astro dev server within the "Ampt context", giving you local access to remote resources in your developer sandbox. To enable this, add a ampt:dev script in your package.json as follows:

package.jsonCopy code
"scripts": {
   …
   "ampt:dev": "astro dev"
 }

This will let you start the local Astro development server by running dev in the Ampt shell or with the ampt dev command when starting the shell.

You also need to define an ampt:build script to run the astro build step. This script will be automatically run when you deploy the application to a permanent stage or to create a short-lived preview environment. It will also ensure access to remote resources during the build process.

package.jsonCopy code
"scripts": {
   …
   "ampt:build ": "astro check && astro build"
 }

Start building with Ampt #

That's it! We have completed all the steps necessary to migrate an existing Astro application to Ampt. You can start working on this application by running ampt in your project folder.

This will prompt you for an app name, and then create a new application in your Ampt account. You'll be connected to your dedicated developer sandbox with a unique URL. You must run build in the Ampt Shell to build the application and make it available via your developer sandbox's URL.

To start the local Astro development server, run dev within the Ampt Shell (or ampt dev). The Astro dev server will start up and display a localhost URL. You can now iterate on your Astro app and test locally, including accessing resources like params, events, data, and more in your developer sandbox. Remember to run build any time you want to update the Astro build and view it on the remote URL.

Note that the URL for your developer sandbox goes offline when you're not connected via the CLI. You need to deploy your application to a permanent stage to share your app with the world. Simply run deploy prod to deploy your application to a stage named prod. This command will automatically provision an isolated Ampt Environment on AWS and then build and deploy your Astro application.

Next steps #

Congratulations! You can now use Ampt to leverage the full power of AWS and host your Astro application without complex configurations or managing infrastructure. Be sure to check out our docs to learn more about what's possible with Ampt. And be sure to join our discord to connect with other Ampt users.