Render Deploy Diff

Detect config drift between required local env keys and a Render service before deploy; fails when required keys are missing remotely.

Use this skill before deploy to compare required environment keys with what is currently configured on a Render service.

What this skill does

• Resolves a target Render service by RENDER_SERVICE_ID or RENDER_SERVICE_NAME
• Reads required env keys from REQUIRED_ENV_KEYS or local env template files
• Fetches configured env keys from Render API
• Prints two drift sets:
  • required but missing on Render
  • present on Render but not required locally
• Exits non-zero when required keys are missing on Render

Inputs

• RENDER_API_KEY (required unless using mock JSON)
• one of:
  • RENDER_SERVICE_ID
  • RENDER_SERVICE_NAME
• optional:
  • RENDER_API_BASE_URL (default https://api.render.com/v1)
  • REQUIRED_ENV_KEYS (comma-separated explicit required keys)
  • REQUIRED_ENV_FILES (comma-separated files to parse, default .env.example,.env.production)
  • RENDER_ENV_VARS_JSON_PATH (path to saved Render env-var API JSON for offline testing)

Run

bash scripts/render-deploy-diff.sh

With explicit required keys:

RENDER_SERVICE_NAME=my-service \
REQUIRED_ENV_KEYS="DATABASE_URL,DIRECT_URL,SHADOW_DATABASE_URL,NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL" \
bash scripts/render-deploy-diff.sh

Offline test with saved API response:

REQUIRED_ENV_KEYS="DATABASE_URL,NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL" \
RENDER_ENV_VARS_JSON_PATH=./fixtures/render-env-vars.json \
bash scripts/render-deploy-diff.sh

Output contract

• Prints service identity, required key count, remote key count, and drift summary
• Returns exit code 0 when all required keys exist on Render
• Returns exit code 1 when required keys are missing or inputs are invalid