export const metadata = {
  title: `${pageNumber} Build Medusa Application`,
}

# {metadata.title}

In this chapter, you'll learn how to create a production build of your Medusa application to be deployed to a hosting provider.

Next chapters explain how to deploy the Medusa application.

## build Command

The Medusa CLI tool has a [build](!resources!/medusa-cli/commands/build) command which creates a standalone build of the Medusa application that:

- Doesn't rely on the source TypeScript files.
- Can be copied to a production server reliably.

So, to create the production build, run the following command in the root of your Medusa application:

```bash
npx medusa build
```

---

## Build Output

The `build` command outputs the production build in the `.medusa/server` directory, and the admin dashboard build in the `.medusa/server/public/admin`.

### Separate Admin Build

The `build` command accepts a `--admin-only` option that outputs the admin to the `.medusa/admin` directory. This is useful when deploying the admin dashboard separately, such as on Vercel:

```bash
npx medusa build --admin-only
```

---

## Start Built Medusa Application

To start the Medusa application after running the `build` command:

- Change to the `.medusa/server` directory and install the dependencies:

```bash npm2yarn
cd .medusa/server && npm install
```

- When running the application locally, make sure to copy the `.env` file from the root project's directory. In production, use system environment variables instead.

```bash title=".medusa/server"
cp ../../.env .env.production
```

<Note>

When `NODE_ENV=production`, the Medusa application loads the environment variables from `.env.production`. Learn more about environment variables in [this guide](../fundamentals/environment-variables/page.mdx).

</Note>

- Set `NODE_ENV` to `production` in the system environment variable, then start the Medusa application from `.medusa/server`:

```bash npm2yarn title=".medusa/server"
export NODE_ENV=production
npm run start
```

---

## Deploying Production Build

The next chapter covers how you generally deploy the production build.

You can also refer to the [deployment how-to guides](!resources!/deployment) for platform-specific how-to guides.