diff --git a/backend/linkpulse/main.py b/backend/linkpulse/main.py
index 2368ec8..6ea32fc 100644
--- a/backend/linkpulse/main.py
+++ b/backend/linkpulse/main.py
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 from fastapi import FastAPI, Request
 from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware
 from datetime import datetime
+from dotenv import load_dotenv
+import os
+
+load_dotenv(dotenv_path="../.env")
+
+print(os.environ.get("ENVIRONMENT"))
 
 app = FastAPI()
 
@@ -19,7 +25,7 @@ app.add_middleware(
 
 
 
-@app.get("/")
+@app.get("/api/test")
 async def get_current_time(request: Request):
     current_time = datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
 
diff --git a/frontend/Caddyfile b/frontend/Caddyfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f8a2d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/Caddyfile
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+{
+	# global options
+	admin off # theres no need for the admin api in railway's environment
+	persist_config off # storage isn't persistent anyway
+	auto_https off # railway handles https for us, this would cause issues if left enabled
+	log {
+		# runtime logs
+		format json # set runtime log format to json mode 
+	}
+	servers {
+		# server options
+		trusted_proxies static private_ranges 100.0.0.0/8 # trust railway's proxy
+	}
+}
+
+# site block, listens on the $PORT environment variable, automatically assigned by railway
+:{$PORT} {
+	respond /health 200
+	encode gzip
+
+	log {
+		# access logs
+		format json # set access log format to json mode
+	}
+
+	handle /api/* {
+		reverse_proxy {$BACKEND_URL} # reverse proxy to the backend
+	}
+
+	handle {
+		root * dist
+		file_server
+		# if path doesn't exist, redirect it to 'index.html' for client side routing
+		try_files {path} /index.html
+	}
+}
diff --git a/frontend/nixpacks.toml b/frontend/nixpacks.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d8f40b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/nixpacks.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# https://nixpacks.com/docs/configuration/file
+
+# set up some variables to minimize annoyance
+[variables]
+    NPM_CONFIG_UPDATE_NOTIFIER = 'false' # the update notification is relatively useless in a production environment
+    NPM_CONFIG_FUND = 'false' # the fund notification is also pretty useless in a production environment
+
+# download caddy from nix
+[phases.caddy]
+    dependsOn = ['setup'] # make sure this phase runs after the default 'setup' phase
+    nixpkgsArchive = 'ba913eda2df8eb72147259189d55932012df6301' # Caddy v2.8.4 - https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/ba913eda2df8eb72147259189d55932012df6301
+    nixPkgs = ['caddy'] # install caddy as a nix package
+
+# format the Caddyfile with fmt
+[phases.fmt]
+    dependsOn = ['caddy'] # make sure this phase runs after the 'caddy' phase so that we know we have caddy downloaded
+    cmds = ['caddy fmt --overwrite Caddyfile'] # format the Caddyfile to fix any formatting inconsistencies
+
+# start the caddy web server
+[start]
+    cmd = 'exec caddy run --config Caddyfile --adapter caddyfile 2>&1' # start caddy using the Caddyfile config and caddyfile adapter
\ No newline at end of file