Blend

Deploy a Blendx standalone app to Azure Container Apps using Azure Container Registry (ACR).

Prerequisites

Azure CLI installed and configured
Docker installed locally
Access to the BLEND.APP resource group
Access to the blendappcr Azure Container Registry

Steps

az acr login --name blendappcr

Get the registry password (save this for step 4):

az acr credential show --name blendappcr --query "passwords[0].value" -o tsv

2. Create Container Environment

Skip this step if the environment already exists.

az containerapp env create \
  --name blendx-app-env \
  --resource-group BLEND.APP \
  --location eastus

3. Build and Push Docker Image

Build for Linux AMD64 (required for Azure):

docker build --platform linux/amd64 -t blendappcr.azurecr.io/blendx-app:latest .

Push to Azure Container Registry:

docker push blendappcr.azurecr.io/blendx-app:latest

4. Create Container App

Skip this step if updating an existing app. See "Updating an Existing App" section below.

az containerapp create \
  --name blendx-app \
  --resource-group BLEND.APP \
  --environment blendx-app-env \
  --image blendappcr.azurecr.io/blendx-app:latest \
  --target-port 3000 \
  --ingress external \
  --registry-server blendappcr.azurecr.io \
  --registry-username blendappcr \
  --registry-password "<password-from-step-1>" \
  --cpu 0.5 \
  --memory 1Gi \
  --min-replicas 0 \
  --max-replicas 1

5. Set Environment Variables

az containerapp update \
  --name blendx-app \
  --resource-group BLEND.APP \
  --set-env-vars \
    "SESSION_SECRET=<your-session-secret>" \
    "API_URL=<your-api-url>" \
    "API_KEY=<your-api-key>"

6. Get App URL

az containerapp show \
  --name blendx-app \
  --resource-group BLEND.APP \
  --query properties.configuration.ingress.fqdn \
  -o tsv

7. View Logs

az containerapp logs show \
  --name blendx-app \
  --resource-group BLEND.APP \
  --follow

Updating an Existing App

To deploy a new version of an existing app:

# Build and push new image
docker build --platform linux/amd64 -t blendappcr.azurecr.io/blendx-app:latest .
docker push blendappcr.azurecr.io/blendx-app:latest

# Update the container app to use the new image
az containerapp update \
  --name blendx-app \
  --resource-group BLEND.APP \
  --image blendappcr.azurecr.io/blendx-app:latest

Important Notes

Topic	Details
Platform	Always build with `--platform linux/amd64` to avoid exec format errors on Azure
Cold Starts	With `min-replicas 0`, the first request will be slower as the container spins up
Cost	~$20-30/month when mostly idle with the current configuration
Port	Ensure your Dockerfile exposes port 3000 (or update `--target-port` accordingly)

Troubleshooting

Container fails to start

Check the logs:

az containerapp logs show \
  --name blendx-app \
  --resource-group BLEND.APP \
  --type system

Exec format error

Rebuild with the correct platform:

docker build --platform linux/amd64 -t blendappcr.azurecr.io/blendx-app:latest .

Environment variables not working

Verify current env vars:

az containerapp show \
  --name blendx-app \
  --resource-group BLEND.APP \
  --query "properties.template.containers[0].env"

Deploy New App