Store your app’s files in an S3 bucket, from your AI agent

Prerequisites

• A Node.js, Python or Go app.
• 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.

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 “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 adds two lines to while.yaml:

apiVersion: while/v1
project: mon-appli
services:
  - name: web
    port: 3000
    health:
      path: /health
buckets:
  - name: uploads

The bucket’s name reaches your app in S3_BUCKET_UPLOADS, the storage address in S3_ENDPOINT and its region in S3_REGION. Its key arrives where the AWS SDK looks for it on its own¹:

import { S3Client } from '@aws-sdk/client-s3';

const s3 = new S3Client({
  endpoint: process.env.S3_ENDPOINT,
  region: process.env.S3_REGION,
  forcePathStyle: true,
});

Recover a file deleted by mistake

The bucket keeps the old content of a replaced or deleted file for 30 days, and your agent puts it back.

Keep the bucket’s key secret

Your agent never sees it: the key reaches only your app, in its variables.

Add a 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 can go back to a precise moment if needed.

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 connected 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.

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: Object storage (S3), PostgreSQL databases, Valkey cache (Redis), Internal access, Custom domain and Versions and rollback.

Next steps

• Deploy a Node.js API and its PostgreSQL database
• Add a Redis-compatible cache
• Compare the hosts that have an MCP server