Serverless Framework Deployment Guide

Overview

The Serverless Framework deploys Lambda functions, API Gateway endpoints, and related resources to AWS. Superloom uses per-entity deployment - each entity has its own serverless.yml and is deployed independently.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24+ installed
• Serverless Framework installed globally: npm install -g serverless
• AWS IAM credentials configured (see identity-access guide)

AWS Credentials Configuration

Create a named profile for each environment:

serverless config credentials \
  --provider aws \
  --key [IAM_ACCESS_KEY] \
  --secret [IAM_ACCESS_SECRET] \
  --profile [project]-aws-[stage]

Deployment

Deploy All Functions for an Entity

cd _deploy/[entity-name]
serverless deploy --stage [stage]

Deploy a Single Function

cd _deploy/[entity-name]
serverless deploy function -f [function-name] --stage [stage]

SSM Parameter Integration

Serverless reads configuration from SSM Parameter Store at deploy time:

provider:
  environment:
    STAGE: ${ssm:/CFG_STAGE}
    DB_HOST: ${ssm:/CFG_DB_HOST}

Syntax: ${ssm:/parameter-name}

Per-Entity Architecture

Each entity is a separate Serverless service:

_deploy/
  user/
    serverless.yml          # User entity Lambda config
  order/
    serverless.yml          # Order entity Lambda config
  brand/
    serverless.yml          # Brand entity Lambda config

This allows independent deployment, scaling, and rollback per entity.

Custom Domains

API Gateway custom domains map paths to entity services. See the custom domains setup guide for configuration.

Lambda Layers

Pre-packaged dependencies that are shared across Lambda functions:

• Install layer dependencies in the layer directory
• Reference layers in serverless.yml
• Common layers: Puppeteer/Chromium, GraphicsMagick, monitoring agents

Maintenance

• Keep Serverless Framework updated: npm install -g serverless@latest
• Review deployment logs in CloudWatch
• Use serverless print to verify resolved configuration values

Alternatives

Approach	When to Use
Serverless Framework	Lambda + API Gateway, per-entity deployment
AWS SAM	AWS-native, CloudFormation-based
Docker + ECS/EKS	Container-based, long-running processes
Express on EC2/ECS	Traditional server deployment

Superloom supports both Serverless (Lambda) and Express (Docker) from the same codebase.