Deploying to Ploi-Managed Servers via DeployHQ: Automated Server Deployment
Deploying your code to a server managed by Ploi is straightforward with DeployHQ.
Ploi is a server management platform that provisions and manages servers on cloud providers like DigitalOcean, Vultr, Hetzner, and others. It handles server setup, SSL, databases, and site configuration — while DeployHQ handles the actual code deployment.
Important: Ploi disables password-based SSH by default. You will need to use SSH key authentication when connecting from DeployHQ.
Firstly, you'll need to set up your DeployHQ project, then connect to your Ploi-managed server.
Setting up your project
Head to the Projects screen in DeployHQ, then click the New Project button to get started.
You'll be prompted to enter a name for your project, then select where your repository is hosted.
Next, click Create project and you'll be taken to a screen where you can log in with your repository hosting account to authorise access and then choose your repository.
- Adding a Bitbucket repository
- Adding a Codebase repository
- Adding a GitHub repository
- Adding a GitLab repository
- Adding a repository manually
Setting up your Ploi server
Once you've configured your repository, you'll need to connect to your Ploi-managed server.
First, add DeployHQ's public SSH key to your server via the Ploi dashboard. Go to your server in Ploi, then navigate to SSH Keys and paste in the DeployHQ public key shown on the server configuration page in DeployHQ.
Make sure your server's firewall (configured in Ploi under Server > Firewall) allows connections from DeployHQ's IP addresses. For the list of IPs to allow, refer to our IP ranges article.
Head to Servers & Groups in DeployHQ, and click the New Server button. Choose SSH/SFTP as the protocol.
Enter the following details:
- Hostname: Your server's IP address (found in the Ploi dashboard under your server's overview)
- Username:
ploi(the default SSH user Ploi creates on all managed servers) - Port:
22
Then set the Deployment path. Ploi uses the following directory structure:
- Site root:
/home/ploi/yourdomain.com/ - Web root:
/home/ploi/yourdomain.com/public/
If you're deploying a full application (Laravel, Node.js, etc.), set the deployment path to /home/ploi/yourdomain.com/. If you're deploying only the public-facing files, use /home/ploi/yourdomain.com/public/.
Under Deployment options, you can enable automatic deployments and set a Deployment subdirectory if needed.
Click Create Server to save, then proceed to your first deployment.
Run your first deployment
By default, DeployHQ will upload your entire repository on the first deployment, since there's no previously deployed commit to compare against.
If your files are already on the server and up to date with the latest commit, you can skip that initial upload:
Otherwise, follow this guide to start your first deployment — after the first run, only changed files will be uploaded:
That's it! You've now set up automated deployments to your Ploi-managed server.
Further reading
- Compile assets with the Build pipeline
- Run commands on your server with SSH commands
- Prevent certain files from uploading using Excluded files
- Keep sensitive config out of your repository using Config files
- Notify your team and integrate with other services via Integrations
Need help with your deployment? Check out our documentation or contact our support team for assistance.