I Just Deployed My First App with GitHub Actions!
Here are 6 things I wish I knew earlier 🧵
Setting up CI/CD for the first time can feel like a maze — especially when you’re excited to automate but aren’t sure what bumps are waiting along the way. After deploying my Laravel API app using GitHub Actions, here are 6 key lessons that apply to any tech stack.
1. 🔑 CI/CD Isn’t Just About Automation — It’s About Resilience
The goal of CI/CD isn’t just “automatic deployments.” It’s about building confidence in your deployments and being ready when things go wrong. Set up your pipeline to be predictable, repeatable, and easy to debug — because someday, it will break.
✅ Automate to recover, not just to deploy.
2. ⚠️ Don't Cache Config Before .env Is Ready
If your pipeline runs php artisan config:cache (or similar in other frameworks), make sure .env is already in place. Caching config too early can cause frustrating bugs like broken DB connections or missing credentials.
🔐 Bonus: Use environment-specific flags like
--env=productionwhen caching config in production-only environments.
3. 📦 Know What Your Deployment Method Supports
I used FTP initially and hit a wall: my server only supported SFTP. Lesson learned: check whether your host supports FTP, FTPS, or SFTP before choosing your GitHub Action.
🔧 If using SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action, your server must support FTP or FTPS — not SFTP.
4. 🌍 Understand Your Server Structure
My files were uploading to the root instead of my subdomain directory. You need to know:
- The full absolute path to your deployment directory
- Whether your host sets the FTP/SFTP home directory automatically
- Where your
.env,public, orindexfiles are expected
🧭 Always verify the server directory before syncing files.
5. 🔎 Always Test Credentials Before Automating
I wasted time debugging GitHub Actions when the real issue was wrong FTP credentials. Tools like FileZilla help confirm your credentials and home directory paths manually before automating.
✅ Tip: Test login manually, note the working path, and match it in your pipeline.
6. 🧪 Start Small, Then Expand
Don’t aim to automate everything on day one. Start by:
- Installing dependencies
- Running tests
- Deploying code
Once stable, you can add:
- Database migrations
- Asset compilation
- Notifications (Slack, Email, etc.)
🧠 Simplicity first. Stability next. Then scale.
🎯 Final Thoughts
CI/CD is a game-changer — not just for speed, but for peace of mind. And while it’s tempting to copy a full pipeline from Stack Overflow or ChatGPT (😉), understanding each step is what makes you truly ready for production.
Let your pipelines work for you, not the other way around.
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