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ADR 0003

Note: This is a documentation-site ADR about application hosting. It is a different record from evidence/decisions/ADR-003-database-host-connection-and-migrations.md, which covers the database host, connection method and migration tooling. The two share the number "003" by coincidence of separate sequences (docs/adr/ and evidence/decisions/); citations elsewhere in the documentation distinguish them as "ADR 0003" (this hosting record) and "ADR-003" (the database record).

Title

Use Azure App Service for application hosting.

Status

Superseded. Both original decisions below have since moved:

Backend hosting superseded (issue #563). The backend Express API moved from Azure App Service to Azure Container Apps. statsthegame-api-dev (App Service) is retained only as a manual rollback path during acceptance. See docs/deployment/azure-backend.md for the current backend hosting decision and deployment process.

Frontend hosting superseded, 19 September 2026 (issue #564). The frontend's Azure App Service decision below was superseded by a move to Cloudflare Pages: the built frontend is a static Vite bundle with no server-side runtime, so it does not need App Service compute, and hosting it there coupled its availability and cost to unnecessary compute. See docs/deployment/frontend-cloudflare-pages.md for the current frontend hosting decision and deployment process.

The "Alternatives" and "Consequences" sections below are retained as the historical record of the original Sprint 1 decision and are not current guidance.

Context

The project requires deployment, CI/CD and public hosting.

Azure provides free student resources, managed HTTPS and native Node.js support.

Decision

Backend

Azure App Service (Linux)

Frontend

Azure App Service (Linux)

Alternatives

Azure Container Apps

Pros

  • Containers
  • More scalable

Cons

  • More operational complexity

Azure Static Web Apps

Pros

  • Optimised for static sites

Cons

  • Separate deployment pipeline
  • Additional hosting service

Consequences

Azure App Service provides a simple deployment model for Sprint 1 while supporting future CI/CD automation.

AI Declaration

The preceding document was reviewed and edited with the assistance of ChatGPT-Web[GPT-5.6 Sol].