.gitea/workflows/ci-cd.yml

@@ -45,10 +45,24 @@ jobs:
           find /home/erp/core/publish -type f -exec chmod 644 {} +
           chmod +x /home/erp/core/publish/ERPCore
       - name: Restart service
+        # ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection is supplied by the systemd unit on the host
+        # (Environment= or EnvironmentFile=), deliberately not committed: appsettings.json ships
+        # the key empty and appsettings.Production.json carries no ConnectionStrings section at
+        # all. If the unit does not set it, startup throws before serving and the Verify step
+        # below fails the job.
         run: systemctl restart erpcore.service
       - name: Verify
         run: |
-          systemctl is-active erpcore.service && echo "✅ Service running" || echo "❌ Service failed"
+          # `is-active ... || echo` always exited 0, so a crashed service still reported success.
+          # Wait a few seconds first: a startup failure (bad or missing connection string) happens
+          # during MigrateAsync, after systemctl restart has already returned.
+          sleep 5
+          if ! systemctl is-active --quiet erpcore.service; then
+            echo "❌ erpcore.service is not running:"
+            journalctl -u erpcore.service -n 50 --no-pager
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "✅ Service running"
 
   build-and-deploy-frontend:
     name: Build & Deploy Frontend

Backend/ERPCore/Program.cs

@@ -36,8 +36,14 @@ builder.Services.AddControllers()
 // commands (`dotnet ef migrations add`) and startup depend on the database being reachable.
 // MariaDbServerVersion — not MySqlServerVersion — because the target is MariaDB 10.11, and
 // Pomelo changes its SQL translation based on which it is given.
-var connectionString = builder.Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")
-    ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("ConnectionStrings:DefaultConnection is not configured.");
+// IsNullOrWhiteSpace, not just null: appsettings.json ships the key with an empty value so the
+// shape is self-documenting, and each environment supplies the real one. A blank must fail here
+// with this message rather than reaching UseMySql, which would report an opaque parse error.
+var connectionString = builder.Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection");
+if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(connectionString))
+    throw new InvalidOperationException(
+        "ConnectionStrings:DefaultConnection is not configured. Set it in appsettings.<Environment>.json "
+        + "or as the ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection environment variable.");
 
 builder.Services.AddDbContext<ErpDbContext>(o =>
 {

Backend/ERPCore/appsettings.json

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
     }
   },
   "ConnectionStrings": {
-    "DefaultConnection": "Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=ERPCoreTest;Username=postgres;Password=post@hexdive"
+    "DefaultConnection": "server=localhost;port=3306;database=erpcore;user=poojathmi;password=poojathmi@hexdive.com"
   },
   "Urls": "http://0.0.0.0:6701",
   "Auth": {