Deploy: Configure

Goal

Set up the deploy section in arena.yaml to target a cloud provider.

Prerequisites

An adapter installed (see Install Adapters)
An existing arena.yaml file

Basic Configuration

Add a deploy section to your arena.yaml:

deploy:
  provider: agentcore
  config:
    region: us-west-2

Field	Required	Description
`provider`	Yes	Adapter name (matches the binary `promptarena-deploy-{provider}`)
`config`	No	Provider-specific configuration (passed as JSON to the adapter)
`environments`	No	Per-environment config overrides

Provider Config

The config section is opaque to the CLI — its contents are defined by each adapter. Check your adapter’s documentation for supported fields.

Example for the agentcore adapter:

deploy:
  provider: agentcore
  config:
    region: us-west-2
    account_id: "123456789012"
    instance_type: t3.medium
    timeout: 300

Environment Overrides

Add environment-specific configuration that merges with the base config:

deploy:
  provider: agentcore
  config:
    region: us-west-2
    instance_type: t3.medium
  environments:
    dev:
      config:
        instance_type: t3.small
    staging:
      config:
        instance_type: t3.medium
    production:
      config:
        region: us-east-1
        instance_type: c5.large
        enable_autoscaling: true

How Merging Works

When you deploy with --env production, the CLI:

Starts with the base config
Merges in environments.production.config
Later values override earlier ones
New keys are added

Effective config for --env production:

{
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "instance_type": "c5.large",
  "enable_autoscaling": true
}

Effective config for --env dev:

{
  "region": "us-west-2",
  "instance_type": "t3.small"
}

Validate Configuration

Test that your configuration is valid:

# Plan will validate config through the adapter
promptarena deploy plan

If the adapter supports config validation, it will report errors before planning:

Error: invalid config: region "invalid-region" not supported

Specifying the Pack File

By default, the CLI auto-detects *.pack.json files in your project directory. To specify explicitly:

promptarena deploy --pack dist/app.pack.json

Specifying the Config File

By default, the CLI looks for arena.yaml. To use a different file:

promptarena deploy --config deploy.yaml

Minimal Example

The simplest possible deploy configuration:

deploy:
  provider: agentcore

This uses the adapter’s defaults with no custom config and the "default" environment.

Complete Example

A full configuration with multiple environments:

# arena.yaml
prompt_configs:
  - id: greeting
    file: prompts/greeting.yaml

deploy:
  provider: agentcore
  config:
    region: us-west-2
    account_id: "123456789012"
    instance_type: t3.medium
    timeout: 300
  environments:
    dev:
      config:
        instance_type: t3.small
        timeout: 60
    staging:
      config:
        timeout: 300
    production:
      config:
        region: us-east-1
        instance_type: c5.large
        timeout: 600
        enable_autoscaling: true

Troubleshooting

Error: deploy section not found

Ensure your arena.yaml has a deploy key at the top level:

deploy:
  provider: agentcore

Error: provider required

The provider field is mandatory. Add it to your deploy config.

Error: adapter not found for provider

The CLI can’t find a binary named promptarena-deploy-{provider}. Install the adapter:

promptarena deploy adapter install agentcore