Introduction

Automate is a command line tool that deploys a Git repository, or a build produced by your CI, to one or more Linux servers over SSH.

Automate ships your application to Linux servers with a single command. You describe your platforms, servers and deployment steps in a .automate.yml file at the root of your project, then run automate deploy production from your workstation or from your CI pipeline.

Every deployment creates a new, isolated release on each server. When all your build steps succeed, a current symbolic link is switched to the new release. Your web server always points to current, so visitors never see a half-deployed application, and a failed deployment never goes live.

Features

Atomic, zero-downtime releases. Each deployment lives in its own timestamped folder; publishing is a single symlink switch, and so is rolling back with automate rollback.
Multi-server platforms. Deploy to one server or to a whole fleet. Hooks run in parallel on every server, and any command can be restricted to a subset with only.
Shared files and folders. Keep .env.local, uploads or caches across releases: Automate links them into every new release.
Git, CI build, or both. Clone the repository on the server, upload the artifacts built by your CI, or mix the two. See Deployment strategies.
Hooks at every stage. Run commands before the release is prepared, on the first deployment of a server, before publishing, after publishing, after a rollback, and when a project is removed. See Hooks.
Secrets from the environment. Passwords and other values are resolved from --var options or AUTOMATE__* environment variables, and masked in the output. See Variables.
Safe by default. A lock file prevents two deployments from overlapping, failed releases are set aside, and old releases are pruned automatically.
Any stack. PHP, Node, Ruby, Python, static sites: if it runs on a Linux server, Automate can deploy it. Automate itself is a single static binary with no runtime dependency.

How it works

$ automate deploy production

 Start deployment
 ----------------
 ------------ -----------------------------------
  Repository   git@github.com:acme/shop.git
  Platform     production
  Servers      web-01 (web-01.acme.io)
               web-02 (web-02.acme.io)
  Version      main
 ------------ -----------------------------------

 Prepare Release
 ---------------
 git clone git@github.com:acme/shop.git -q --recursive -b main .

 Setting up shared items
 -----------------------
 [web-01] /var/www/shop/releases/2026.10.23-1412.587/.env.local --> /var/www/shop/shared/.env.local
 [web-02] /var/www/shop/releases/2026.10.23-1412.587/.env.local --> /var/www/shop/shared/.env.local

 On deploy
 ---------
 composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

 Publish new release
 -------------------
 [web-01] /var/www/shop/current --> /var/www/shop/releases/2026.10.23-1412.587
 [web-02] /var/www/shop/current --> /var/www/shop/releases/2026.10.23-1412.587

 Post deploy
 -----------
 php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate -n

 Clear olds releases
 -------------------

 [OK] All is OK

On each server, Automate maintains this layout under the configured path:

/var/www/shop
├── current -> releases/2026.10.23-1412.587
├── releases
│   ├── 2026.10.22-1805.341
│   └── 2026.10.23-1412.587
└── shared
    ├── .env.local
    └── var/uploads

The Deployment lifecycle page details every step.

Requirements

On your machine (or your CI runner):

Linux x86_64 or macOS Apple Silicon for the prebuilt binary, or PHP 8.4+ for the PHAR. See Installation.
tar, when you use upload actions.

On each server:

SSH access with a password or a private key, for the default ssh transport.
A POSIX shell and the usual tools: sh, tar, find, ln, mkdir.
git, when you deploy from a repository. The server must be able to reach the repository, for example with a deploy key.
Whatever your hooks need: composer, php, node, and so on.

Next steps

Install Automate
Follow the quick start to deploy your first project
Browse the configuration reference