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Deploy a Flask app from your AI agent, over MCP

Your Flask app runs locally. Connected to while over MCP, your AI agent deploys it in France, served by gunicorn rather than the development server, with its PostgreSQL database backed up every day.

By Aloïs Oddon, co-founder of Nextmap. Facts checked on November 2, 2026.

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Prerequisites

  • A Flask 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:

Instructions
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:

while.yaml
apiVersion: while/v1
project: mon-appli
services:
  - name: web
    port: 8000
    health:
      path: /

Then it adds gunicorn to requirements.txt1, and a Procfile that starts it on the port received in PORT. The name app:app follows your file, and your agent adapts it:

Procfile
web: gunicorn app:app --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT

Your app is installed, your pytest tests run, and then it starts.

Add a database

You, to your agent: Add a PostgreSQL database.

Your agent declares the database in while.yaml, and its address reaches your code in DATABASE_URL. It is backed up every day, and it can go back to a precise moment if needed.

Run a job every night

You, to your agent: Run the data import every night at 3 am.

Your agent declares a scheduled job, which starts at that time with the same code and the same variables. If it fails, your agent is notified.

Restrict your app to your colleagues

You, to your agent: Restrict the app to people in the company.

Your agent adds two lines to the service:

while.yaml
    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

You, to your agent: Put the app on app.acme.com.

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

Fix a vulnerability in your dependencies

You, to your agent: Fix the vulnerabilities in our 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

You, to your agent: 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, Versions and rollback and Dependency vulnerabilities.

Next steps

Sources

  1. Flask, serving the app with gunicorn, accessed November 2, 2026

Questions

Do I need to write a Dockerfile?

No. Your Python app is detected, installed from requirements.txt and started by the web line of the Procfile.

Why not flask run?

That’s the development server: once deployed, gunicorn serves your pages, as Flask recommends1.

Do my tests run?

Yes, pytest runs at every deployment, and a version that fails doesn’t replace the previous one.

Where is my app hosted?

In France, by Nextmap, a French company.

Connect your agent, it takes care of the rest

To paste into your agent

Read while.sh/agents, then deploy my app with while.

Copy the instructions

No account needed to try: your app is live right away. To keep it, sign in.

A project for your company? Talk to the team: hello@while.sh