GitHub Actions: Auto-Deploy Your App to Your Server

Automated Deployment with GitHub Actions

GitHub Actions makes every push to main automatically result in an updated application on the server, after passing tests.

Complete Laravel Workflow

name: Laravel Deploy

on:
 push:
 branches: [main]

jobs:
 test:
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 steps:
 - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 - name: Setup PHP
 uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
 with:
 php-version: '8.3'
 - name: Install dependencies
 run: composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
 - name: Run tests
 run: php artisan test

 deploy:
 needs: test
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
 steps:
 - name: Deploy via SSH
 uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v1.0.0
 with:
 host: ${{ secrets.SERVER_HOST }}
 username: ${{ secrets.SERVER_USER }}
 key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
 script: |
 cd /var/www/myapp
 git pull origin main
 composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
 php artisan migrate --force
 php artisan config:cache
 php artisan queue:restart

Setting Up Secrets

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "github-actions-deploy" -f deploy_key
cat deploy_key.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

In GitHub: Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions:

Secret	Value
SERVER_HOST	Server IP address
SERVER_USER	Username
SSH_PRIVATE_KEY	Full private key content

Caching to Speed Up Builds

- name: Cache Composer packages
 uses: actions/cache@v3
 with:
 path: vendor
 key: ${{ runner.os }}-php-${{ hashFiles('**/composer.lock') }}

Caching reduces build time from 3-4 minutes to under one minute.

Conclusion

GitHub Actions eliminates human error in manual deployments. Servers on كلاود (cloud.net.sa) fully support this workflow — SSH is ready, no restrictions on automated deployments.

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Get Started

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