CI/CD for Laravel with GitHub Actions: Automated Testing and Deployment

Automate Everything

Manual deployments are error-prone and slow. CI/CD pipelines run tests automatically and deploy with confidence. GitHub Actions provides this integrated with your repository.

Testing Workflow

name: Tests

on:
  push:
    branches: [main, develop]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    services:
      mysql:
        image: mysql:8.0
        env:
          MYSQL_DATABASE: testing
          MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: password
        ports:
          - 3306:3306
        options: --health-cmd="mysqladmin ping" --health-interval=10s

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup PHP
        uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: '8.3'
          extensions: mbstring, pdo_mysql
          coverage: xdebug

      - name: Cache Composer dependencies
        uses: actions/cache@v3
        with:
          path: vendor
          key: composer-${{ hashFiles('composer.lock') }}

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: composer install --no-interaction

      - name: Run tests
        run: php artisan test --coverage
        env:
          DB_HOST: 127.0.0.1
          DB_DATABASE: testing
          DB_PASSWORD: password

Deployment Workflow

name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: tests

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Deploy to production
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
          key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY }}
          script: |
            cd /var/www/app
            git pull origin main
            composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
            php artisan migrate --force
            php artisan config:cache
            php artisan route:cache
            php artisan view:cache
            php artisan queue:restart

Environment Secrets

Store sensitive data in GitHub Secrets:

• SSH_KEY: Private key for server access
• HOST: Server IP or hostname
• USERNAME: SSH username
• SLACK_WEBHOOK: For notifications

Zero-Downtime Deployment

# Using Envoy or similar
@servers(['web' => 'user@host'])

@task('deploy')
    cd /var/www
    git clone --depth 1 {{ $repo }} releases/{{ $release }}
    cd releases/{{ $release }}
    composer install --no-dev
    ln -s ../../.env .env
    ln -s ../../storage storage
    php artisan migrate --force
    ln -sfn /var/www/releases/{{ $release }} /var/www/current
    sudo systemctl reload php-fpm
@endtask

Notification on Deploy

      - name: Notify Slack
        if: success()
        uses: rtCamp/action-slack-notify@v2
        env:
          SLACK_WEBHOOK: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK }}
          SLACK_MESSAGE: 'Deployed to production successfully'

Conclusion

CI/CD pipelines catch issues early and enable confident, frequent deployments. Start with automated tests, add deployment automation, and iterate on your pipeline as needs evolve.