A Brancher node is a real Hypernode. Not a container, not a simulation. Full systemd, Nginx templates and SSL out of the box. If it works on Brancher, it works in production.
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A fresh production clone in under 10 minutes. Use it, throw it away. No manual syncing, no cleanup, no data drift.
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The first 400 minutes per month per Hypernode are free. After that: a flat €0.01/min, regardless of plan size. Lifecycle reminders ensure forgotten nodes don’t run up costs.
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Combine Deploy and Brancher. Launch a Brancher node, deploy your feature branch with Deploy, conduct thorough testing, and automatically remove the Brancher if all tests are successful.
Hypernode CLI. To simplify the use of Hypernode Brancher, we have incorporated a user-friendly interface into the Hypernode CLI. This interface can be accessed using 'hypernode-systemctl brancher'.
Hypernode API. Brancher is fully integrated with our API, allowing you to automate creation or deletion of temporary Hypernodes using API tokens. Use your favorite deployment/automation tool, like Github and Bitbucket.
Control Panel. Create or terminate Brancher nodes with just one click. In your Control Panel account you can also find all information on total time used, amount spent on Brancher nodes, and previously used Brancher nodes.
Public URLs. Every Brancher node is instantly reachable via a public appname.hypernode.io URL. Share a working feature with a client in seconds – no VPN, no screen share, no deploy to production.
Per-client billing, handled by Hypernode. Usage is metered per minute and billed directly to the merchant’s Hypernode subscription. No manual billing reconciliation for agencies.
Brancher Install Hook. Define post-provisioning scripts (DB host remapping, URL adjustments, Nginx tweaks) once. Brancher runs them automatically on boot. The node is ready to use immediately.
Programmable auto-termination. A provided Bash script lets you build TTL-based cleanup into your pipelines. Environments remove themselves after PR merge – no runaway costs.
Metadata tagging. Attach a PR number or client name to each node at creation. Parallel environments for multiple clients stay organised.
Proper testing is crucial before upgrading MySQL on your Hypernode because downgrading isn’t possible. Development Hypernodes can help, but may not have the same state as your production environment. Brancher resolves this by creating an identical copy of your production Hypernode for testing. Once successful, you can simply terminate the Brancher node.
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A separate acceptance server per pull request lets colleagues or customers test changes before they merge. Fully isolated–no shared staging, no collisions between developers. Achieve this with a GitHub Actions workflow that creates a Brancher node based on the pull request and automatically leaves a comment with its public URL. This way, you can easily test changes in a real environment and clean up the node when you’re done.
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Some upgrades can’t be undone–like a database upgrade, which hits production with 100% impact. Test the upgrade on a Brancher clone first. It is either confirmed safe or caught as a problem, without any risk to the live shop. While a staging node may be behind production, a Brancher never is.
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Share a live, fully functioning version of a new feature via a public URL – no VPN, no screen share, no staging conflicts. Your client gets a URL and a login, reviews in their own browser, on their own time, and approves before anything touches production.
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Some bugs only show up under production conditions. An exact clone of production makes them straightforward to reproduce: isolate, fix, confirm–without risking the live environment.
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Every Hypernode on a Falcon plan includes 400 free Brancher minutes per month. Beyond that, you pay a flat €0.01 per minute, regardless of your production plan size, from Falcon XS to 5XL.
Unlike a development node, there is no fixed monthly subscription. Brancher is billed by the minute and can be switched off anytime. After deletion, you receive an overview of the minutes used; active and past runs are visible in the Control Panel, and the total appears as one line on your monthly Hypernode invoice.
Every Hypernode on a Falcon plan includes 400 free Brancher minutes per month. Beyond that, you pay a flat €0.01 per minute, regardless of your production plan size, from Falcon XS to 5XL.
Unlike a development node, there is no fixed monthly subscription. Brancher is billed by the minute and can be switched off anytime. After deletion, you receive an overview of the minutes used; active and past runs are visible in the Control Panel, and the total appears as one line on your monthly Hypernode invoice.
A development node is a persistent server: it accumulates stale data, is billed as a fixed monthly subscription, and can be commits, versions or features behind production. A Brancher is the opposite: an exact copy of production as it is right now, fully isolated per branch or client, billed by the minute, and disposable when you’re done.
Well, of course you can do this and nobody is stopping you. But there won’t be backups. Also settings you change in the control panel won’t be reflected as well on these nodes. If your use-case is production, you need a normal Hypernode. Want advice? We can help.
You are allowed to test your software with personal data from your production database, as long as you throw it all away when you’re done [Arrest C-77/21] [link] But if you still like to anonymize, we do install software like masquerade on Hypernode by default so you can make this part of your deployment strategy.
Yes, this is possible. By default, a Brancher node is configured with the same settings and a copy of the data from the original node. However, you can easily opt out of copying the database (or other assets) by simply selecting “don’t copy the database” when you start your Brancher node.
Brancher nodes are designed and conceived with the idea of running short tests. This could, for instance, be testing out a new version of PHP or MySQL. But also, for example, to run a temporary release on a separate brancher node in combination with Deployments. For example, we also use this when we make changes to our support documentation. The change is temporarily run on a Brancher node.
The fact that the timer starts running immediately is indeed intended. We also pay directly for the space reserved with the Cloud Provider. To prevent forgotten nodes and control costs, you can utilise our lifecycle reminders and auto-termination Bash script to easily manage and clean up your active environments.
Brancher is available on Falcon (Combell OpenStack) plans only.