Windows Server Deploy

Use this skill to package the TermLink Node.js server into a portable zip and deploy it as a Windows background service.

Why Not Docker

node-pty requires native Windows conpty access for PowerShell/CMD terminals. Docker runs Linux containers and cannot provide Windows PTY, so the Win server must be deployed natively.

Prerequisites

• Build machine (this machine): Node.js 20+, npm install already done
• Target machine: Node.js 20 LTS only (no build tools needed)

Pack

Create a self-contained zip with pruned node_modules (excludes @capacitor, xterm, nodemon — not needed on server):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./skills/win-server-deploy/scripts/pack-win-server.ps1

Output: dist/termlink-win-<timestamp>.zip (~22 MB)

The zip contains:

• src/ — server source
• public/ — web frontend assets
• node_modules/ — pruned production dependencies (with pre-built node-pty)
• ecosystem.config.js — pm2 process config
• .env.example — environment configuration template
• deploy-scripts/ — install/uninstall/start scripts
• data/, logs/ — empty runtime directories

Deploy on Target Machine

1. Extract

# Right-click zip → Extract All, or:
Expand-Archive termlink-win-*.zip -DestinationPath C:\TermLink

2. Configure

cd C:\TermLink
Copy-Item .env.example .env
notepad .env

Must change for production:

3. Install Service (as Administrator)

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\deploy-scripts\install-service.ps1

This automatically:

• Installs pm2 globally
• Registers pm2 auto-start on Windows boot
• Starts TermLink
• Verifies /api/health

4. Verify

pm2 status
pm2 logs termlink
curl http://localhost:3000/api/health

Daily Management

pm2 restart termlink    # Restart
pm2 stop termlink       # Stop
pm2 start termlink      # Start
pm2 logs termlink       # View logs
pm2 monit               # Real-time monitoring dashboard

Uninstall

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\deploy-scripts\uninstall-service.ps1

Quick Test (No Service Install)

For local testing without pm2, just run directly:

cd C:\TermLink
node src/server.js

Rules

• Always exclude @capacitor/* from server packages (contains Android DEX files with paths exceeding Windows MAX_PATH 260 limit).
• Use robocopy (not Copy-Item) when copying node_modules to handle any remaining long paths.
• The zip includes pre-compiled node-pty native bindings — the target machine does not need Python, Visual C++ Build Tools, or node-gyp.
• pm2 must run in fork mode (not cluster) because node-pty does not support cluster mode.