Sim

Why deploy sim on render on Render?

Sim on Render is a deployment template for running the Sim AI workflow builder on Render's cloud platform. It provisions the Sim application, a Socket.IO realtime server, and a managed PostgreSQL database with automatic migrations, eliminating the need to manually configure Docker Compose or wire service connections.

This template pre-wires the Sim Next.js app, Socket.IO realtime server, and Postgres database with all service URLs and database connections configured automatically—plus it runs database migrations on every deploy via a pre-deploy hook. Instead of manually coordinating Docker Compose, generating encryption keys, and copying connection strings between services, you get a working Sim workspace from a single Blueprint deploy. Render's managed Postgres handles backups and the DATABASE_URL injection, while the separate realtime service gets its own health checks and can scale independently.

Architecture

What you can build

After deploying, you'll have a self-hosted Sim instance running on Render—a visual workflow builder for AI automations with its own Postgres database and realtime collaboration server. You can immediately start building agent workflows, uploading documents for RAG pipelines, and connecting external APIs and models in a private workspace. The setup handles database migrations automatically on each deploy and costs $38/month across the three services.

Key features

• Managed Postgres wiring: Render provisions PostgreSQL 17 and automatically injects DATABASE_URL into all services without manual configuration.
• Separate realtime service: Socket.IO runs as an independent web service with its own health checks, enabling horizontal scaling with Redis when needed.
• Pre-deploy migrations: Database migrations execute automatically via a Docker wrapper before the app starts on each deploy.
• Auto-generated secrets: Render generates and stores BETTER_AUTH_SECRET and INTERNAL_API_SECRET on first deploy for session signing and inter-service authentication.
• Blueprint service linking: All inter-service URLs (app, realtime, database) are wired automatically through Render's RENDER_EXTERNAL_URL references.

Use cases

• Platform team deploys self-hosted AI workflow builder without managing Docker infrastructure
• ML engineer prototypes RAG pipelines by uploading documents to private workspace
• DevOps lead connects internal APIs and models for automated ops workflows
• Technical evaluator tests Sim capabilities before committing to enterprise deployment

What's included

Prerequisites

• Encryption Key: A 64-character hex string used to encrypt stored workflow credentials and other sensitive values in Sim.
• API Encryption Key: A 64-character hex string used to encrypt API keys stored by Sim.
• Copilot API Key: Optional key that enables Sim-managed Copilot features for self-hosted installs.

Next steps

1. Open the simstudio *.onrender.com URL and create your first account — You should see the Sim workspace dashboard with an empty workflow list after signing up
2. Create a new workflow, add a simple block like an HTTP request or text transform, and click Run — You should see the execution complete with a green success indicator and output data in the results panel
3. Test the realtime connection by opening the same workflow in two browser tabs and editing a block name in one — You should see the name update in the other tab within 2 seconds

Resources

• Sim official site