Deploying with Laravel Cloud

Use the Laravel Cloud documentation for detailed, current feature behavior. Use the Cloud CLI for Cloud operations rather than guessing dashboard or API workflows. Install it in the project and invoke it as ./vendor/bin/cloud by default; use a globally installed cloud command only as a fallback. Commands below are written as cloud for brevity; run them as ./vendor/bin/cloud unless falling back to the global installation.

Application Setup

• Laravel Cloud deploys from GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. A new Laravel application requires PHP 8.2 or later, Laravel 9 or later, a connected Git provider, and a deployment region.
• Cloud creates environments for applications. Use separate production, staging, and preview environments; each environment has its own compute, resources, and deployment settings.
• Keep application compute and attached resources in the same region where possible.
• Cloud builds a Docker image using the selected PHP version, runs the configured build and deploy commands, and switches traffic to a successful deployment with zero downtime. Push-to-deploy is enabled by default, and manual deployments and deploy hooks are also available.

Build and Deploy

• A typical Laravel build command is composer install --no-dev && npm run build.
• Run optimization and cache-building commands during the build, not during deployment. A typical deploy command is php artisan migrate --force.
• Build and deploy commands have a 15-minute timeout. Deploy commands run immediately before the release becomes live, and filesystem changes made by deploy commands are not persisted.
• Do not add php artisan queue:restart, php artisan horizon:terminate, php artisan optimize:clear, or php artisan storage:link to deploy commands. Cloud handles worker restarts and process management; deploy filesystem changes are not persistent.
• After changing environment settings, attached resources, or linked secrets, redeploy the environment for the changes to take effect.

Configuration and Resources

• Attached databases, caches, and object storage inject their connection variables automatically. Custom environment variables take precedence over injected values.
• Use Secrets Manager for encrypted organization-level values shared across environments. Secret values cannot be read after creation; redeploy affected environments after creating, updating, linking, unlinking, or deleting a secret.
• Environment filesystems are ephemeral and are not shared between replicas. Use a database or Laravel Valkey for persistent cache and sessions, and Laravel Cloud Object Storage for persistent files. Do not rely on local files surviving a deployment.

Object Storage and File Visibility

• Laravel Cloud Object Storage is backed by Cloudflare R2. R2 applies visibility at the bucket level; a bucket cannot contain a mix of private and public objects.
• For private files, always use Storage::disk() with no arguments, such as Storage::disk()->put(...), so Laravel uses the environment's default disk. Do not pass a disk name for private/default storage. Attach a private Cloud bucket as the environment's default disk.
• For public files, use the named public disk: Storage::disk('public')->put(...). Attach a second Cloud bucket configured as public and give it the public disk name.
• Applications that use both private and public files therefore need two Cloud Object Storage buckets attached to the environment: a private default bucket and a public bucket named public.
• Do not set per-file or Flysystem visibility: 'public' configuration for Cloud Object Storage. R2 does not support per-object ACL headers and rejects those requests; select the bucket visibility when creating the bucket.
• Private buckets are not internet-accessible, but Laravel can generate temporary public URLs with Storage::temporaryUrl(...). Public buckets expose all objects through their Cloud-provided public URL.
• Install the S3 Flysystem adapter before using Cloud Object Storage: composer require league/flysystem-aws-s3-v3 "^3.0" --with-all-dependencies.

Queues and Scheduling

• Managed queues are the recommended queue option. They provision dedicated workers and autoscale based on queued work.
• Managed queues require a supported recent Laravel version and aws/aws-sdk-php; check the current Cloud documentation before changing dependencies.
• Enable the scheduler on an App or Worker cluster to run php artisan schedule:run every minute. When an environment has multiple replicas, use Laravel's onOneServer for tasks that must run once.
• Only Flex compute sizes can scale to zero. Scale-to-zero environments wake for Laravel scheduled tasks and queued jobs, but long-running jobs may be interrupted when the sleep timeout is reached. Use managed queues for workloads that must not be interrupted.

Domains and Storage

• Each environment receives a laravel.cloud domain after its first successful deployment. Cloud automatically verifies custom domains and provisions SSL after the required DNS records are configured.
• Do not use the ephemeral filesystem for persistent uploads, generated files, cache, or session data. Use the appropriate Cloud resource instead.

Cloud CLI

Setup

composer require --dev laravel/cloud-cli
./vendor/bin/cloud auth -n

If a project-local installation is not available, install the CLI globally with composer global require laravel/cloud-cli and invoke it as cloud.

cloud auth opens a browser. If a browser is unavailable, set LARAVEL_CLOUD_TOKEN in the environment. It overrides any saved token and writes nothing to disk. To save a token instead, run cloud auth:token --add --token=<token> -n or pipe it with echo "$TOKEN" | cloud auth:token --add -n.

Commands

Commands follow a CRUD pattern: resource:list, resource:get, resource:create, resource:update, resource:delete.

Available resources: application, environment, instance, database-cluster, database, cache, bucket, domain, websocket-cluster, background-process, secret, command, deployment.

Some resources have additional commands (e.g., domain:verify, database:open, instance:sizes, cache:types). Discover these via cloud -h.

Never hardcode command signatures. Always run cloud <command> -h to discover options at runtime.

CLI Flags

• Always add -n to every command to prevent the CLI from hanging.
• Never use -q or --silent; they suppress all output.

Flag combos per operation:

• Read (:list, :get) → --json -n
• Create (:create) → --json -n
• Update (:update) → --json -n --force
• Delete (:delete) → -n --force (no --json)
• Environment variables → -n --force
• Deploy or ship → -n with all options passed explicitly (no --json)

Deployment Workflow

Determine the task and follow the matching path:

• First deployment: inspect cloud ship -h, then run cloud ship -n with all required values.

• Existing application:

  cloud deploy {app_name} {environment} -n --open
  cloud deploy:monitor -n

• Environment variables: cloud environment:variables -n --force

• Secrets: echo "$VALUE" | cloud secret:create --name=NAME --json -n, then cloud environment-secret:attach

• Provision infrastructure: cloud <resource>:create --json -n

• Monorepo (application in a subdirectory): add --root-directory=<subdir> to cloud ship or cloud application:create.

• Custom domain: cloud domain:create --json -n, then cloud domain:verify -n.

• Repository defaults: cloud repo:config {application} -n sets repository-local application and organization defaults. Pass --organization=<id|name|slug> when the user has multiple organizations.

For multi-step operations, see reference/checklists.md.

• If the user's needs are unclear, ask before running anything.

When a Command Fails

1. Read the error output.
2. Check the resource status with :list --json -n or :get --json -n.
3. For authentication errors, run cloud auth -n.
4. Fix the issue and rerun the command.
5. If the same error occurs after one fix, stop and ask the user rather than repeating the operation.

Always run cloud deploy:monitor -n after every deploy. If it fails, inspect the deployment status and logs and show the user what went wrong before attempting a fix.

Subagent Delegation

Delegate high-output operations to subagents using the Task tool to keep the main context window small. Only the summary returns; verbose output stays in the subagent's context.

Delegate these to a subagent:

• cloud deploy:monitor -n — deployment logs can be very long
• cloud deployment:get --json -n — full deployment details
• cloud <resource>:list --json -n — listing many resources produces large JSON
• cloud command:run — when output may be long
• cloud usage --detailed --json -n — the payload includes details for every database, cache, bucket, websocket, and application
• Fetching docs from https://cloud.laravel.com/docs/llms.txt via WebFetch

Keep in the main context:

• Short commands like :create, :delete, :update — output is small
• cloud deploy -n — you need the deployment ID immediately
• Any command where you need the result for the next step right away

Rules

Follow these rules:

• Flag selection — always use the documented combos above
• Deploy sequence — deploy then monitor, never skip monitoring
• Destructive commands — always confirm with the user first, show the command and wait for approval. This includes deleting applications, environments, databases, caches, buckets, domains, or secrets.
• Error loop — diagnose, fix once, ask user if it fails again

Use judgment for:

• Instance sizes, regions, cluster types — ask the user if not specified
• Which resources to provision — based on what the user describes
• Order of provisioning — no strict sequence required
• How to present output — summarize, show raw, or extract fields based on context

Secrets

Secrets are encrypted values shared across the organization and attached to environments. The CLI encrypts values locally, so plaintext never reaches the API.

cloud secret:list --json -n
echo "$VALUE" | cloud secret:create --name=STRIPE_KEY --json -n
cloud environment-secret:attach {environment} {secretId} -n
cloud environment-secret:list {environment} --json -n

Pipe the value in. --value= works, but leaves the plaintext in shell history and the process list.

secret:update, secret:delete, and environment-secret:attach take secret IDs, not names — names are not unique. Read IDs from cloud secret:list --json -n.

There is no secret:get, and no way to detach a secret from a single environment. secret:delete removes it and detaches it everywhere.

Secrets need the sodium PHP extension. No other command does.

Redeploy affected environments after creating, updating, attaching, or deleting a secret.

Remote Access

Tinker (v0.2.0 or later)

Run PHP code directly in a Cloud environment:

cloud tinker {environment} --code='Your PHP code here' --timeout=60 -n

• --code — PHP code to execute (required in non-interactive mode)
• --timeout — maximum number of seconds to wait for output (default: 60)

The code must explicitly output results using echo, dump, or similar; expressions alone produce no output.

Always pass --code and -n to avoid interactive prompts.

Remote Commands

Run shell commands on a Cloud environment:

cloud command:run {environment} --cmd='your command here' -n

• --cmd — the command to run (required in non-interactive mode)
• --no-monitor — skip real-time output streaming
• --copy-output — copy output to clipboard

Review past commands:

• cloud command:list {environment} --json -n — list command history
• cloud command:get {commandId} --json -n — get details and output of a specific command

Billing and Usage

View billing and usage for the current organization:

cloud usage --json -n

• --period=current|previous|1|2|3 — Billing period (default: current; 1, 2, and 3 are one, two, and three periods back, respectively). Other values return an error.
• --environment=<id> — filter usage to a single environment
• --detailed — include per-application, per-resource, and per-add-on breakdowns
• --json — machine-readable output (always pair with -n)

Common queries:

• Current spend: cloud usage --json -n | jq '.currentSpendCents'
• Last month's bill: cloud usage --period=previous --json -n
• One environment, full breakdown: cloud usage --environment=<id> --detailed --json -n

All amounts are in cents. Keys are camelCase at every level (e.g., currentSpendCents, bandwidth.allowanceBytes, databases[].totalCents, applications[].totalCostCents).

Config

1. Environment: LARAVEL_CLOUD_TOKEN — an API token, taking precedence over any saved one (empty counts as unset)
2. Global: ~/.config/cloud/config.json — auth tokens and preferences
3. Repo-local: .cloud/config.json — app and environment defaults (set by cloud repo:config {application} -n)
4. CLI arguments override both config files

Pass the application to repo:config. Without it, the command must prompt and fails under -n when the organization has more than one application. Deploy commands do not need these defaults; pass the application and environment to them directly.

Using multiple organizations requires multiple stored API tokens. Commands read organization_id from .cloud/config.json to select one and fail if it is not set. Set it with cloud repo:config {application} --organization=<id|name|slug> -n.

LARAVEL_CLOUD_TOKEN holds one token, so it picks the organization on its own. Naming a different one with --organization fails rather than falling back to the token's organization.

Documentation

Laravel Cloud documentation: https://cloud.laravel.com/docs/llms.txt

When the user asks how something works or needs an explanation of a Laravel Cloud feature, fetch the docs from the URL above using WebFetch and use it to provide accurate answers.

When Stuck

• Fetch https://cloud.laravel.com/docs/llms.txt for official documentation
• Run cloud <command> -h for any command's options
• Run cloud -h to discover commands

Verification

1. Confirm the target application and environment before changing or deploying anything.
2. Check staged environment changes and required resources before deployment.
3. Monitor every deployment to completion with cloud deploy:monitor -n.
4. For production changes, verify the application URL, logs, queues, scheduled tasks, and relevant resource health.