Navigate to your project

Open the Devpilot dashboard, select your workspace, and click on the project where you want to add your application. If you have not created a project yet, click New Project and give it a name and description.

Create an application

Inside your project, click New App. Fill in the following details:

• App Name — A descriptive name for your application (for example, "API Server" or "Marketing Website").
• Platform — Select the platform that matches your codebase (Laravel, Vanilla PHP, Vanilla Javascript, Nuxt Js, React Js, or Vue Js).
• Server — Select the server where this application will be deployed.
• Environment — Label the environment this app represents (for example, production or staging).
• Project path — The path on the server where Devpilot will place releases.

Click Create App to save.

Connect your Git repository

On the application overview page, navigate to the Repository section and connect your repository.

1. Select your provider: GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.
2. If you have not connected this provider before, Devpilot redirects you to authorize access. Grant the required permissions and return to Devpilot.
3. Select the repository you want to deploy.
4. Choose the default branch for deployments (typically main or master).
5. Save the repository configuration.

Configure deployment hooks

Navigate to the Deployment Hooks tab on your application page. This is where you define the commands that run during each stage of the deployment lifecycle.

For a Laravel application, a typical configuration looks like this:

Post Source Control stage:

1. Click Add Hook under Post Source Control.
2. Select Shell Command as the action type.
3. Name the hook "Install Composer Dependencies" and enter the command:

composer install --no-interaction --no-dev

Post Setup stage:

1. Add a hook named "Sync Storage Directory" with action type Sync Directory, using storage as the path so persistent files carry across releases.
2. Add a hook named "Run migration" (Shell Command):

php artisan migrate --force

3. Add a hook named "Artisan optimize" (Shell Command):

php artisan optimize

Post Release stage (optional):

1. Add a hook to restart your queue worker or reload services, for example:

sudo systemctl reload php8.3-fpm

Save your hook configuration.

Trigger your first deployment

With your repository connected and hooks configured, you are ready to deploy.

1. Click the Deploy button on your application page.
2. Confirm the branch you want to deploy. By default, Devpilot uses the branch configured on the application.
3. Optionally enter a deployment message describing the change.
4. Start the deployment.

Devpilot queues the deployment (status Pending) and begins running it (status Processing). You are redirected to the deployment detail view where you can watch the process unfold.

Monitor the deployment in real time

The deployment detail view shows each configured hook and streams its output live. Here is what you can expect to see for the Laravel example:

[Post Source Control] Install Composer Dependencies
  > composer install --no-interaction --no-dev
  Installing dependencies from lock file
  Package operations: 87 installs, 0 updates, 0 removals
  Generating optimized autoload files
  [exit 0]

[Post Setup] Sync Storage Directory
  Syncing storage -> current/storage
  [done]

[Post Setup] Run migration
  > php artisan migrate --force
  Nothing to migrate.
  [exit 0]

[Post Setup] Artisan optimize
  > php artisan optimize
  INFO  Caching framework bootstrap, configuration, and metadata.
  [exit 0]

Deployment completed successfully in 47s

During the deployment, you can observe:

• Stage and hook names indicating what is running.
• Command output including warnings, progress, and the final exit code.
• Per-hook status (Pending, Processing, Successful, Failed, or Skipped).
• A progress bar filling as hooks complete.
• Elapsed time updating in real time.

If you see something wrong, click Cancel to stop the deployment immediately.

Verify your deployment

Once the deployment reaches the Completed status and is marked Live, your application is running on the server with the new code.

Verify it is working by:

• Visiting the domain associated with your application in a browser.
• Checking the deployment logs in the Devpilot dashboard.
• Running a health check against your application endpoint.

On the deployment detail page, you can review the complete deployment record: status, branch, commit hash and message, committer, duration, and the full hook log.