# Lite deployment (/deployments/lite-deployment)



## When to use it [#when-to-use-it]

Use a lite deployment when the audience is small: a demo, an internal review, a customer walkthrough, or an early project that needs to be live quickly. Project admins and Basic Access members can create one.

* **Fast to create**: Crucible starts the branch on a managed runtime, with no cloud environment to provision or approve.
* **Branch-backed**: The deployment follows its branch and releases each new commit, which fits review loops and early experiments.
* **Debuggable**: The **Logs** and **Terminal** tabs show output from the running deployment and open a shell into it.

<Accordions>
  <Accordion title="Under the hood: what a lite deployment runs on">
    - **Docker Compose runtime**: Starts the selected branch through the repository's Docker Compose contract, the same startup contract workspaces use. It does not create a dedicated cloud environment or run the full Terraform path.
    - **Branch sync**: Creates the branch if it does not exist, and redeploys on each push while **Auto-release on commit** is on (the default).
    - **[Resolved configuration](/environment-variables/)**: Reads project and deployment variables and the managed integrations that support lite deployments from Crucible before starting the runtime. Lite deployments use sandbox sign-in by default.
    - **Lifecycle record**: Tracks the service id, creator, source, status, errors, expiration, and URLs behind the status Crucible shows.
    - **Not the production path**: Skips the full deployment's dedicated cloud environment, isolated Terraform state, artifact storage, DNS workflow, and customer-approved observability setup.
  </Accordion>
</Accordions>

## Create a lite deployment [#create-a-lite-deployment]

Open the project's **Deployments** tab, select **New deployment**, keep **Lite** as the type, enter a name and branch, then select **Create**. Crucible opens the new deployment and shows **Setting up** until it is **Healthy**.