I have setup a pipiline on Gitlab to automatically deploy my node.js + express.js app, it uses docker-compose to create 4 containers (the app, mariadb, redis and phpmyadmin)

Now when the app container shuts down upon creation becuase express is not found, i had to do npm install in the deployment server then docker build.

Now after adding Redis, I got the same problem Error: Cannot find module 'redis'

Both Express and Redis are explicitly mentioned in package.json and package-lock.json but they are not installed.

Here is my gitlab-ci.yml:

# Define the pipeline stages
stages:
  - install
  - test
  - sast
  - deploy

# Global Variables
variables:
  NODE_ENV: production
  SAST_EXCLUDED_PATHS: "node_modules,tests"

# Install dependencies
install_dependencies:
  stage: install
  image: node:22.13
  script:
    - echo "Installing dependencies..."
    - npm install --frozen-lockfile
  cache:
    key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
    paths:
      - node_modules/
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - node_modules/

# Run tests
run_tests:
  stage: test
  image: node:22.13
  script:
    - echo "Running tests..."
    - npm test
  allow_failure: false
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"'  # Run tests only on the main branch

# Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
include:
  - template: Security/SAST.gitlab-ci.yml

# Deploy the application to the VPS
deploy:
  stage: deploy
  image: node:22.13
  before_script:
    - echo "Setting up SSH..."
    - mkdir -p ~/.ssh
    - echo "$DEPLOY_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY_B64" | base64 -d > ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    - chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    - ssh-keyscan -H ******** >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
  script:
    - ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa ******** "
        cd ~/******** &&
        git pull origin main &&
        sudo docker compose down &&
        sudo docker compose pull &&
        sudo docker compose up -d"
  environment:
    name: production
    url: ********
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"'  # Deploy only on the main branch

Here is my Dockerfile:

# Use official Node.js image from Docker Hub
FROM node:22

# Set working directory in the container
WORKDIR /usr/src/app

# Copy package.json and package-lock.json first (to leverage Docker cache)
COPY package*.json ./

# Install dependencies using frozen lockfile to ensure consistent versions
RUN npm ci

# Copy the rest of the app's code
COPY . .

# Expose the port the app will run on
EXPOSE 3000

# Command to start the app
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Now because the project uses Gitlab CI/CD for automatic code deployment this could be a problem to manually execute npm install on the server. Any suggestions?

I have setup a pipiline on Gitlab to automatically deploy my node.js + express.js app, it uses docker-compose to create 4 containers (the app, mariadb, redis and phpmyadmin)

Now when the app container shuts down upon creation becuase express is not found, i had to do npm install in the deployment server then docker build.

Now after adding Redis, I got the same problem Error: Cannot find module 'redis'

Both Express and Redis are explicitly mentioned in package.json and package-lock.json but they are not installed.

Here is my gitlab-ci.yml:

# Define the pipeline stages
stages:
  - install
  - test
  - sast
  - deploy

# Global Variables
variables:
  NODE_ENV: production
  SAST_EXCLUDED_PATHS: "node_modules,tests"

# Install dependencies
install_dependencies:
  stage: install
  image: node:22.13
  script:
    - echo "Installing dependencies..."
    - npm install --frozen-lockfile
  cache:
    key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
    paths:
      - node_modules/
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - node_modules/

# Run tests
run_tests:
  stage: test
  image: node:22.13
  script:
    - echo "Running tests..."
    - npm test
  allow_failure: false
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"'  # Run tests only on the main branch

# Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
include:
  - template: Security/SAST.gitlab-ci.yml

# Deploy the application to the VPS
deploy:
  stage: deploy
  image: node:22.13
  before_script:
    - echo "Setting up SSH..."
    - mkdir -p ~/.ssh
    - echo "$DEPLOY_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY_B64" | base64 -d > ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    - chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    - ssh-keyscan -H ******** >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
  script:
    - ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa ******** "
        cd ~/******** &&
        git pull origin main &&
        sudo docker compose down &&
        sudo docker compose pull &&
        sudo docker compose up -d"
  environment:
    name: production
    url: ********
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"'  # Deploy only on the main branch

Here is my Dockerfile:

# Use official Node.js image from Docker Hub
FROM node:22

# Set working directory in the container
WORKDIR /usr/src/app

# Copy package.json and package-lock.json first (to leverage Docker cache)
COPY package*.json ./

# Install dependencies using frozen lockfile to ensure consistent versions
RUN npm ci

# Copy the rest of the app's code
COPY . .

# Expose the port the app will run on
EXPOSE 3000

# Command to start the app
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Now because the project uses Gitlab CI/CD for automatic code deployment this could be a problem to manually execute npm install on the server. Any suggestions?

• node.js
• docker
• express
• redis
• gitlab-ci

• What is in your Compose file? There seems to be a common setup for Node applications that mounts an anonymous volume over the node_modules directory, and if you do that, changes in package.json will be completely ignored even if you change the image – the volume content will take precedence. – David Maze Commented 2 days ago

1 Answer 1

If you have node_modules anonymous volume among your volumes in docker-compose.yml the problem might appear because of it being used instead of installed dependencies. Try to remove it and after this dependencies should install correctly.

services:
  app:
    build: .
    volumes:
      - .:/usr/src/app
      # Remove next line or the similar one in your code
      - /usr/src/app/node_modules
    command: sh -c "npm install && node server.js"

This article might also be helpful in you still want to mount node_modules for some reason.