Summary

• This how-to shows exactly how to implement CI/CD pipeline Laravel using modern tools like GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Forge, Vapor, and Docker.
• We cover branch protections, Composer/NPM caching, automated testing, safe database migrations, and zero-downtime strategies.
• Everything reflects how Codepaper Technologies Inc. ships production-grade Laravel apps for startups, mid-sized teams, and enterprises across Canada.

Introduction

Shipping Laravel changes safely and quickly shouldn’t be a guessing game. If you’re asking how to implement ci cd pipeline laravel, you’re likely balancing speed with reliability and governance.

• Why this matters: fewer regressions, faster feedback, and confident releases.
• Who this helps: founders launching MVPs, product teams scaling SaaS, and enterprise leaders modernizing legacy systems.
• What we’ll build: a repeatable pipeline with tests, security checks, and automated deployments.

At Codepaper Technologies Inc., CI/CD is embedded in our Laravel development services and DevOps best practices—so you get stable releases without slowing your roadmap.

Before You Start (Prerequisites)

Lay the groundwork so your pipeline is predictable and secure from day one.

• Version control: GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket repo with a clean .env.example committed.
• Branch model: feature branches → pull request → develop → main with required status checks.
• Environment map: development, staging, production—each with its own URL, DB, cache, and queues.
• Secrets ready: per-environment APP_KEY, DB creds, queue/mail/APIs, SSH deploy key, and cloud credentials.
• Hosting target:
  • Laravel Forge (VPS automation) or Laravel Vapor (serverless on AWS).
  • Container platforms (ECS/Kubernetes) or classic VPS with SSH.
• Local tools: PHP 8.2+, Composer 2, Node 20+, npm/yarn/pnpm, Docker (optional), PHPUnit or Pest.
• Governance: protected branches, code reviews, and CI-required checks before merging to main.

Which CI Platform Fits Laravel Best?

Any major CI works. Choose based on where your code lives and your team’s workflow.

Need help choosing? Our team can align CI with your compliance and incident response playbooks, then wire it into your current stack.

How to implement ci cd pipeline laravel: Step-by-Step

We’ll demonstrate with GitHub Actions. The same flow translates to GitLab/CircleCI.

1) Prepare Your Laravel App

• Configuration hygiene: commit a complete .env.example and enable config:cache in production.
• Testing baseline: add feature tests for key routes, controllers, and services; enable --parallel.
• Quality gates: add laravel/pint for code style and phpstan for static analysis.
• Database strategy: use SQLite for speed or a CI MySQL service mirroring production.

2) Create Your CI Workflow (GitHub Actions)

Add .github/workflows/laravel-ci.yml:

name: laravel-ci
on:
  push:
    branches: ["main", "develop"]
  pull_request:
    branches: ["main", "develop"]
jobs:
  tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    services:
      mysql:
        image: mysql:8
        env:
          MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: password
          MYSQL_DATABASE: testing
        ports: ["3306:3306"]
        options: >-
          --health-cmd="mysqladmin ping -h 127.0.0.1 --silent" --health-interval=10s --health-timeout=5s --health-retries=3
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Setup PHP
        uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: "8.2"
          extensions: mbstring, intl, pdo_mysql
          coverage: none
      - name: Cache Composer
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: ~/.composer/cache/files
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-composer-${{ hashFiles('**/composer.lock') }}
      - name: Install Composer deps
        run: composer install --prefer-dist --no-interaction --no-progress
      - name: Cache Node
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: |
            ~/.npm
            ~/.cache
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
      - name: Install Node deps & build
        run: |
          npm ci
          npm run build
      - name: Prepare environment
        run: |
          cp .env.example .env
          php artisan key:generate
          php artisan config:clear
      - name: Wait for DB
        run: >
          until mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -uroot -ppassword -e "SELECT 1"; do sleep 2; done
      - name: Run migrations
        env:
          DB_CONNECTION: mysql
          DB_HOST: 127.0.0.1
          DB_PORT: 3306
          DB_DATABASE: testing
          DB_USERNAME: root
          DB_PASSWORD: password
        run: php artisan migrate --force
      - name: Run tests
        env:
          DB_CONNECTION: mysql
          DB_HOST: 127.0.0.1
          DB_PORT: 3306
          DB_DATABASE: testing
          DB_USERNAME: root
          DB_PASSWORD: password
        run: php artisan test --parallel --no-coverage

3) Add Quality and Security Checks

• Style check: ./vendor/bin/pint --test to enforce consistent formatting.
• Static analysis: ./vendor/bin/phpstan analyse to detect risky patterns.
• Dependency health: composer audit to flag known vulnerabilities.
• Supply chain: enable dependency review or SCA in your CI platform.

4) Decide on Build Artifacts

• Assets: build with Vite in CI, attach artifacts, or build on server—pick one standard and stick with it.
• Vendors: install on server for smaller artifacts or ship a Docker image/zip containing vendors for reproducibility.
• Secrets: never bundle secrets into artifacts; use environment variables or cloud secret managers.

5) Choose a Deployment Strategy

• Laravel Forge: after tests pass, trigger Forge’s deploy URL. Forge handles Nginx, PHP-FPM, SSL, and queues.
• Laravel Vapor: build and deploy to AWS Lambda with auto-scaling, SQS queues, and CloudFront/CDN.
• SSH + rsync: upload a new release, run migrate --force, warm caches, and atomically swap symlink.
• Containers: build an image, push to registry, and roll out to ECS or Kubernetes with blue/green or rolling updates.

6) Minimal Deploy Job (SSH Example)

deploy:
  needs: tests
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - name: Setup SSH
      uses: webfactory/ssh-agent@v0.9.0
      with:
        ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
    - name: Deploy release
      run: |
        rsync -az --exclude ".git" --exclude "node_modules" ./ user@server:/var/www/app/releases/${{ github.sha }}
        ssh user@server "cd /var/www/app && ln -sfn releases/${{ github.sha }} current && cd current && php artisan migrate --force && php artisan config:cache && php artisan route:cache && php artisan view:cache && sudo systemctl reload php8.2-fpm"

7) Zero-Downtime Essentials

• Symlink releases: keep current pointing to the warmed release, then switch atomically.
• Blue/green: shift traffic to a warmed standby; flip back on rollback.
• Queues: gracefully stop Horizon/workers, deploy, then restart to prevent job loss.
• Caching: regenerate config, routes, and views as part of every deploy.

8) Safer Database Migrations

• Backward compatibility: deploy code that works with old and new schemas during transitions.
• Long migrations: schedule during off-peak windows; use online migration tools where possible.
• Feature flags: decouple risky changes from deploys to enable instant rollbacks.

9) Optional: GitLab CI Snippet

stages: [build, test, deploy]
cache:
  key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
  paths: [vendor/, node_modules/]
php-tests:
  stage: test
  image: php:8.2
  script:
    - apt-get update && apt-get install -y unzip git
    - curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
    - php composer.phar install --no-interaction
    - cp .env.example .env && php artisan key:generate
    - php artisan test --no-coverage

10) Optional: Docker Build (for ECS/Kubernetes)

FROM php:8.2-fpm
RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo_mysql
WORKDIR /var/www/html
COPY . .
RUN curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php 
 && php composer.phar install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
RUN npm ci && npm run build
CMD ["php-fpm"]

Troubleshooting

• Composer memory errors: set COMPOSER_MEMORY_LIMIT=-1 during install or use larger runners.
• Node/PHP mismatches: explicitly pin PHP and Node versions in your workflow.
• APP_KEY missing: generate per environment; don’t reuse keys.
• Permissions: ensure storage and bootstrap/cache are writable; run php artisan storage:link once.
• Stale config: run config:clear before rebuild and config:cache after deploy.
• Slow pipelines: enable Composer/NPM caches, trim steps, and avoid unnecessary matrix builds.
• Third-party services: add CI service containers for Redis/Meilisearch or use Docker Compose to mirror prod.

Advanced Tips (Optional)

• Preview environments: spin up ephemeral staging per PR; auto-destroy on merge.
• Matrix testing: cover PHP 8.2/8.3 and MySQL/PostgreSQL to catch edge cases early.
• Security gates: require approvals, signed commits, and code scanning for production.
• Observability: forward logs/metrics to APM; add health checks and smoke tests post-deploy.
• Monorepos: use path filters to run only affected Laravel packages or services.
• Compliance: enforce regional data residency and backups—common for Canadian organizations.

Tools & Resources

• CI: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Jenkins.
• Deploy: Laravel Forge, Laravel Vapor, Envoy, Deployer.
• Quality: Pest/PHPUnit, Laravel Pint, PHPStan, Composer Audit.
• Containers: Docker, docker-compose; orchestration via ECS/Kubernetes.
• Secrets: CI-level secrets, environment variables, or secret managers.

Want the quick start package? We fold CI/CD into our managed delivery so product teams can focus on features, not plumbing. Our website launch checklist also helps lock down go-live basics.

Mini Case Studies (From Codepaper’s Playbook)

Logistics Platform (Fleet Management)

• Problem: manual deploys created inconsistent builds and after-hours incidents.
• Approach: GitHub Actions with Composer/NPM caching; blue/green releases via Forge.
• Result: predictable releases, measurable incident reduction, happier engineers.

Education SaaS

• Problem: long test suites blocked PRs; hotfixes were risky.
• Approach: parallel testing, artifact reuse, feature flags, and approvals for production.
• Result: faster merges and safer mid-day deploys.

Food Service Franchise Ops

• Problem: multi-tenant app needed zero-downtime schema changes.
• Approach: online migrations and gradual rollout guarded by flags; observability wired into CI/CD.
• Result: uninterrupted service during peak lunch windows.

FAQ

How do I store secrets for Laravel CI/CD?

Use encrypted CI secrets for tokens and SSH keys, plus environment variables or cloud secret managers on your host. Never commit secrets. Keep separate values for staging and production and rotate keys periodically.

Should database migrations run automatically on deploy?

Yes—if they’re safe. For risky/long changes, split into backward-compatible steps and guard with feature flags. Always test in staging and keep a verified rollback plan.

Where should I build frontend assets?

Either in CI (store artifacts) or on the server. CI builds are repeatable and fast; server builds reduce artifact size. Pick one approach and standardize across services.

Can I do zero-downtime deploys without Kubernetes?

Absolutely. Use a symlinked releases directory and atomic switch, warm caches, and gracefully restart workers. On a single VPS, this pattern is both simple and reliable.

What if my tests need Redis, Meilisearch, or browser automation?

Attach CI service containers (e.g., Redis) and run browser tests via Laravel Dusk in headless mode. For heavier stacks, use Docker Compose in CI to mirror production as closely as possible.

Additional Resources

• See our quick read on hiring Laravel developers for team readiness.
• Our Laravel MVP guide shows how fast feedback loops pair with CI/CD.
• When you’re planning modernization, here’s a DevOps tools overview we reference often.

Key Takeaways

• Automate builds, tests, and deployments; protect branches; manage secrets per environment.
• Cache Composer/NPM and parallelize tests to keep pipelines fast.
• Choose a deployment approach (Forge, Vapor, SSH, Docker) that matches your ops maturity.
• Design for rollback and zero-downtime before your first release.

Conclusion

• CI/CD for Laravel is your reliability engine—not just a speed boost.
• With a few well-chosen tools and a disciplined process, you’ll ship faster and sleep better.
• When you’re ready, book a discovery call with Codepaper at our ON office on Woodstream Blvd to align CI/CD with your roadmap.

Looking for a partner who blends strategy with hands-on execution? Our Laravel team and DevOps specialists can help you standardize releases and scale with confidence.