Deploying a Laravel application over SSH, step by step

Deploying a Laravel application

This guide describes a manual Laravel deployment over SSH. If browser-only deployment without your own SSH client is enough for you, see the Deployments tab and Quick actions – cloning, pulling and common artisan commands can all be done directly in the panel.

Prerequisites

• A hosting with SSH access enabled
• A Git repository with the Laravel application (public, or private with a deploy key added)
• A database created in Database management in the panel

Step 1: Connect via SSH

Your login credentials and a ready-to-use connect command are in the panel, on the hosting's Services tab, in the SSH Access panel (username, password, host and port).

ssh your_user@host -p PORT

Step 2: Add a deploy key (private repository)

If the repository is private, generate a deploy key on the Deployments tab (Development → Deployments → Deploy key) and add it as a deploy key on the repository. A public repository does not need this step.

Step 3: Clone the repository

cd /var/www/html
git clone git@github.com:your-account/your-project.git .

Step 4: Install PHP dependencies

composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev

Step 5: Install JavaScript dependencies and build the frontend

npm install
npm run build

Step 6: Configure .env

cp .env.example .env

Copy the database credentials directly from the panel: hosting → Services tab → MySQL Access → the "Laravel .env (internal)" block has a button that copies the whole block. The internal host (the Host field under "Internal Connection") is usually mysql, not localhost – the application and the web server share the same environment, but the database runs separately on the same network.

APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://your-domain.sk

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=mysql
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=your_database
DB_USERNAME=your_database_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_password

Step 7: Generate the application key

php artisan key:generate

Step 8: Run migrations

php artisan migrate --force

Step 9: Create the storage symlink

php artisan storage:link

Step 10: Optimize for production

php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

Step 11: Fix permissions

fix_permissions

See Fixing file permissions for details on this command.

Updating the application

For subsequent deployments, repeat only the relevant steps:

cd /var/www/html
git pull origin main
composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev
npm install && npm run build
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache
fix_storage

Scheduler

If the application uses the Laravel task scheduler, you have two options without needing a server-level cron of your own:

• Development → Cron Jobs: add a job with the command php artisan schedule:run, the working directory set to the application root (e.g. /var/www/html), and the schedule * * * * * (every minute). See Cron Jobs.
• Development → Supervisor Tasks: the "Laravel Scheduler" template runs php artisan schedule:work as a permanently running process that handles the once-a-minute triggering itself – no cron entry needed. See Background processes.

Queue workers

If the application processes jobs through a queue, add the Laravel Queue Worker template (php artisan queue:work --sleep=3 --tries=3) under Development → Supervisor Tasks, or Laravel Horizon if the application uses it. A Supervisor task runs as a persistent process and restarts itself if it crashes. See Background processes.