Deploy a Django app and its PostgreSQL database from your AI agent, over MCP

Prerequisites

• A Django app, with a requirements.txt file.
• An AI agent that works in a terminal: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or Gemini CLI.

Step 1: Give your agent these instructions

Open your agent in your app’s folder, and paste these instructions into it:

Connect to while with my account (while.sh/agents), then deploy my app.

Without an account, your agent deploys your app as a trial, in one request. To keep it, open the link it gives you and create your account.

With your account, your agent adds while’s MCP server itself. If it asks you to, restart it. On the first call to while, a page opens in your browser. In Claude Code, if it doesn’t open, type /mcp, choose while, then Authenticate. On that page, choose your app, or “A new app”, then click Authorize.

Step 2: Open your app

Your agent gives you your app’s address, for example https://mon-appli.while.cloud, over HTTPS.

What your agent does

It writes while.yaml at the root of your app:

apiVersion: while/v1
project: mon-appli
services:
  - name: web
    port: 8000
databases:
  - name: main

Then it adds gunicorn and WhiteNoise to requirements.txt, a /health route that returns 200, and a Procfile that applies the migrations before each start:

web: python manage.py migrate --noinput && python manage.py collectstatic --noinput && gunicorn monsite.wsgi --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT

It sets up settings.py for production, following Django’s deployment checklist¹: DEBUG turned off, the secret key and ALLOWED_HOSTS read from the environment, the database read from DATABASE_URL, your app’s address in CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS, and your static files served by WhiteNoise. Your app is installed, your pytest tests run, and then it starts.

Set up Django behind PgBouncer

DATABASE_URL goes through PgBouncer in transaction mode. Your agent turns off server-side cursors, as Django recommends²:

DATABASES["default"]["DISABLE_SERVER_SIDE_CURSORS"] = True

Run a management command every night

Your agent declares a scheduled job that runs python manage.py clearsessions at that time, with the same code and the same database. If it fails, your agent is notified.

Query your database from your agent

Your agent reads your database in SQL through while’s MCP server, with your permissions on the data, and it can’t write to it.

Restrict your app to your colleagues

Your agent adds two lines to the service:

    access: internal
    email_domains: [acme.com]

Once your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 is linked to while, on the Pro plan, your colleagues open it with their usual account, and your code receives their name and email address, with no sign-in page to write.

Move to your own domain

Your agent declares the domain, you add the DNS records it gives you, and the HTTPS certificate follows.

See a new version before you deploy it

Your agent opens a preview, at its own address, with its own data. You look at it, and then your agent puts it into production.

Fix a vulnerability in your dependencies

Your app’s dependencies are checked against known vulnerabilities at every deployment, then every day. Your agent is warned of a serious vulnerability, and it updates the package involved.

Go back to the previous version

In the 30 minutes after a deployment, the previous version comes back in a second. After that, it takes a few seconds. Once the previous version is back, your agent reads what broke in while’s logs, fixes it and deploys again.

In the docs: PostgreSQL databases, Scheduled jobs, Internal access, Custom domain, Previews and Versions and rollback.

Next steps

• Deploy a FastAPI API
• Compare Python API hosting
• Choose a French PaaS