Laravel GitHub Actions: CICD

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Initialization

1. Start with a clean slate: create a new Laravel project and configure it as a deployable Fly app by using the flyctl launch command:
   # Initialize your Laravel project
   composer create-project laravel/laravel fly-laravel
   cd fly-laravel
   
   # Auto generate your `fly.toml` configuration file:
   # Add in the ams region with --region
   # Auto deploy using --now while your at it!
   flyctl launch --region ams --now
   
2. Create a new github repository for your current Laravel Fly App. You can create one either through:
   1. GitHub Console - Visiting your create a new repository page in your console
   2. GitHub CLI - run the create repo command:
   gh repo create <repository-name> --public
   
3. Finally, initialize your Laravel Fly App’s directory as part of a git repository, and point its remote to the recently created repository above
   git init
   git remote add origin git@github.com:<username>/<repository-name>.git
   

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GitHub CI Action: Auto Deploy to Fly.io

1. Generate a Fly token with fly tokens deploy
2. Then save your newly generated FLY_API_TOKEN in your github repository either through the GitHub Console or GitHub CLI:
   1. GitHub Console - Open your repository’s Settings tab, then add a secret named FLY_API_TOKEN under the Secrets section.
   2. GitHub CLI - run the command below
   cmd

   output

   gh secret set FLY_API_TOKEN --repos <username>/<repository-name>
   
3. Once you have your FLY_API_TOKEN safely stored as a secret in your github repository, proceed with creating a GitHub workflow yml file in .github/workflows/main.yml:
   mkdir -p .github/workflows
   touch .github/workflows/main.yml
   
   name: Fly Deploy
   on: [push]
   env:
     FLY_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.FLY_API_TOKEN }}
   jobs:
     deploy:
         name: Deploy app
         runs-on: ubuntu-latest
         steps:
           - uses: actions/checkout@v2
           - uses: superfly/flyctl-actions/setup-flyctl@master
           - run: flyctl deploy
   
   Let’s go through each line above, shall we?
   • name: Fly Deploy => This is the Workflow name
   • on: [push] => Any push action to the repository triggers the current workflow
   • env: `FLY_API_TOKEN` => Environment variable set for the GitHub Actions container
   • jobs: => This is the list of jobs to run for the workflow
     • name: Deploy app => Each job would have a name
     • runs-on: ubuntu-latest => Each job would have an container environment we want to run its virtual machine on
     • steps: => Each job would have a list of steps, see below:
       • uses: actions/checkout@v2 => This is a pre-made GitHub Action. It allows checking out of your repository into the virtual machine spun up for the job
       • uses: superfly/flyctl-actions/setup-flyctl@master => This is one of Fly.io’s pre-made GitHub action. It sets up `flyctl` in the virtual machine spun up for the job
       • run: flyctl deploy => Need I say more?
4. Save and push your changes with:
   git add .
   git commit -m "Configure auto-deploy through GitHub Actions"
   git push
   
5. Visit the Actions tab of your repository and see how your deployment fares!