Certbot Service
Automated SSL renewals for Dockerized deployments
Backend service that automates Let's Encrypt certificate issuance and renewal to eliminate manual SSL ops and simplify CI/CD.
System focus
Follow the architecture, engineering decisions, data flow and operational workflow behind the service.
Overview
What shipped
Certbot Service is a container-friendly backend utility that automates certificate provisioning and renewal workflows. It’s designed to be dropped into a Dockerized stack so SSL management becomes a background task instead of a recurring operational risk.
The problem: Let's Encrypt certificates expire every 90 days. In real deployments, manual renewals are easy to miss and can cause outages when TLS expires. I built this service to standardize issuance + renewal so SSL stays valid without manual work, and so teams can integrate it into CI/CD like any other service.
What It Solves
Visit- Eliminates the recurring “renew cert every 90 days” operational burden
- Reduces downtime risk from expired certificates across multiple domains
- Creates a repeatable, auditable certificate workflow across environments
Architecture & Workflow
Visit- TypeScript Node.js service orchestrates Certbot commands and renewal flows
- Container-first: runs as a Docker service and integrates cleanly with Compose setups
- Uses shared volumes to persist generated certificates across container restarts
Layered architecture diagram (Client → API → OS → External → Storage)
High-level flowchart showing services, child process and storage
Sequence diagram for POST /api/certbot/issue-certificate
Sequence diagram for POST /api/nginx/create-config
Deployment & CI/CD
Visit- Build once, deploy anywhere: local, VPS, or cloud VMs via Docker
- Composable with reverse proxies (e.g., Nginx) and app containers in the same network
- Makes SSL maintenance part of the platform pipeline, not an ad-hoc server task
Reliability & Ops
Visit- Keeps renewal behavior deterministic and easy to reproduce in staging
- Simplifies rotation by centralizing cert generation and renewal configuration
- Designed to be monitored like a normal service (logs + health checks)
“Make SSL boring: fully automated renewals, predictable deployments, and fewer production surprises.”
— Project principle