How to deploy laravel application using github action

Question

I am trying to deploy my laravel application to my server using Github actions for build and test and then deploy via ssh.

I have a master repository that I use for development and then I have a production repo that is attached to actions script.

I tried following this tutorial for github actions deployment.

My build works fine but at the time of deployment it is not able to find my deployment script i.e server_deploy.sh

here's my main.yml file

name: CD

on:
  push:
    branches: [ production ]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      with:
        token: ${{ secrets.PUSH_TOKEN }}
    - name: Set up Node
      uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      with:
        node-version: '12.x'
    - run: npm install
    - run: npm run production
    - name: Commit built assets
      run: |
        git config --local user.email "[email protected]"
        git config --local user.name "GitHub Action"
        git checkout -B deploy
        git add -f public/
        git commit -m "Build front-end assets"
        git push -f origin deploy
    - name: Deploy to production
      uses: appleboy/ssh-action@master
      with:
        username: ${{ secrets.SSH_USERNAME }}
        host: ${{ secrets.SSH_HOST }}
        password: ${{ secrets.SSH_PASSWORD }}
        script: 'cd /home/admin/web/case4.example.co/public_html/ && ls && sh server_deploy.sh'

and here's my server_deploy.sh

#!/bin/sh
set -e

echo "Deploying application ..."

# Enter maintenance mode
(php artisan down --message 'The app is being (quickly!) updated. Please try again in a minute.') || true
    # Update codebase
    git fetch origin deploy
    git reset --hard origin/deploy

    # Install dependencies based on lock file
    composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader

# Exit maintenance mode
php artisan up

echo "Application deployed!"

However, when I execute this workflow, it cannot find the server_deploy.sh file.

I tried ls to see if even my repo checks out but it doesn't.

Please help.

riQQ · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-15 08:06:34Z

1

You didn't setup your server according to the tutorial

Note that the server is always on the deploy branch.

With all this set up, install your Laravel application into /var/www/html and checkout the deploy branch. If it doesn’t exist yet, you can do git checkout production && git checkout -b deploy to create it.

You have to run this once on your server and checkout the deploy branch that contains the deploy script server_deploy.sh

answered Jul 15, 2020 at 8:06

riQQ

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2 Comments

Pankaj Jha Over a year ago

so should I clone the repository in public_html directory and then check out the deploy branch? I thought it will be created automatically, also won't it become a security concern if I put .git directory in public_html?

riQQ Over a year ago

You have to setup your server in a way that the .git directory isn't served / accessible from the outside. The deploy script depends on you having a git repository there, because the git commands it uses require an existing checked out repository.

Adelodun Damilare · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-12 19:43:57Z

1

You'll need to login first to your server and then upload the server_deploy.sh to your root folder; e.g: /var/www/html

answered Sep 12, 2020 at 19:43

Adelodun Damilare

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Comments

Frizzant · Accepted Answer · 2025-10-20 08:03:07Z

I have a quite elaborate script that does quite a lot of things. It does require you to setup the correct ownerships like every laravel/webserver project does.

The ownerships in a nutshell are something like this (these are not exact steps, just some helpers):

Development Server Setup Instructions

Setting up on a new server you might encounter premission issues. The folders /database/ and /storage/ must belong to the user:group www-data:www-dat or the webserver will have issues. Also the /database/database.sqlite file must be writable by the webserver! Furthermore chmod 775 ... is advisable.

Examples:

# add database owner (webserver)
sudo chown www-data:www-data database/database.sqlite
# make database writeable
sudo chmod 775 database/database.sqlite

# make executable recursively
sudo find storage/ -type d -exec chmod 775 {};
# make editable by user group and not just for the user (recursively)
sudo find storage/ -type d -exec chmod g+s {};
# do the same for database (recursively)
sudo find database/ -type d -exec chmod g+s {};

The Github Workflow Action:

name: 🥭 Build and Deploy to Hetzner 🙌

# your credentials (requires ssh key setup on server/github for RSync)
env:
  SERVER_HOST: 'YOUR_IP'
  SERVER_USERNAME: 'YOUR_USER'
  SERVER_PATH: '/var/www/YOUR_FOLDER/'

# which branch should trigger the action
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: 🚙 Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: 🐘 Setup PHP
        uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: '8.4'
          extensions: mbstring, pdo_mysql, ctype, iconv, zip

      - name: 💾🎶 Cache Composer dependencies
        id: cache-composer
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: vendor
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-php-${{ hashFiles('**/composer.lock') }}
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.os }}-php-

        # --no-dev will make sure no developer dependencies are installed. So you can't run "php artisan migrate" on the webserver, since the package is installed in the dev packages.
      - name: 🎶 Install Composer dependencies
        run: composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

      # adjust to desired version
      - name: 🥗 Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '23.11.1'

      - name: 💾🚛 Cache Node.js modules
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: ~/.npm
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.os }}-node-

      - name: 🚛 Install NPM dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: 👷🏾🏗️ Build assets
        run: npm run build

      - name: 🎛️ Prepare production artifact
        run: |
          mkdir -p deployment
          rsync -av --progress --exclude='deployment' . ./deployment/
          rm -rf deployment/node_modules deployment/.git deployment/.github

      # optionally make a backup of your SQLite to some location
      - name: 💾 Backup SQLite Database
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{ env.SERVER_HOST }}
          username: ${{ env.SERVER_USERNAME }}
          key: ${{ secrets.SERVER_SSH_KEY }}
          script: |
            cd ${{ env.SERVER_PATH }}
            BACKUP_DIR="BACKUP"
            TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
            DB_FILE="database/database.sqlite"
            
            mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR
            
            if [ -f $DB_FILE ]; then
              cp $DB_FILE $BACKUP_DIR/${TIMESTAMP}_database.sqlite
              echo "Backup created: $BACKUP_DIR/${TIMESTAMP}_database.sqlite"
            else
              echo "Database file $DB_FILE not found. Skipping backup."
            fi

      # make sure static files or backups etc are not being overwritten by rsync (it would delete them if they aren't in your github repository otherwise
      - name: 🔃 Deploy with rsync
        uses: burnett01/[email protected]
        with:
          remote_host: ${{ env.SERVER_HOST }}
          remote_user: ${{ env.SERVER_USERNAME }}
          remote_key: ${{ secrets.SERVER_SSH_KEY }}
          remote_path: ${{ env.SERVER_PATH }}
          path: './deployment/'
          switches: -vzr --delete --exclude '.env' --exclude 'database/database.sqlite' --exclude 'storage/' --exclude 'BACKUP'

      - name: 🛄 Run post-deployment commands via SSH
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{ env.SERVER_HOST }}
          username: ${{ env.SERVER_USERNAME }}
          key: ${{ secrets.SERVER_SSH_KEY }}
          script: |
            cd ${{ env.SERVER_PATH }}
            php artisan storage:link
            php artisan migrate --force
            php artisan filament:cache-components
            php artisan optimize

Note: the laravel application is being built on the github machine, then deployed. I think this keeps a more consistent outcome, than building on the deployment server.

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