How deploys work

A deploy runs the same ordered sequence every time, and there's one design goal behind that sequence: a failed deploy should never take your site down. Here's what happens between clicking Deploy and your new version going live.

strackt checks before it starts

Before any work happens on your server, strackt confirms the environment is ready — your settings are saved, the services your application needs are connected, and your database details resolve. If something's missing, the deploy doesn't start: strackt tells you exactly what's missing and links you straight to where to fix it, instead of failing partway through. See Add and deploy an application for the first run.

What runs during a deploy

Once the check passes, strackt runs the same steps in order and shows each one advancing live:

1. Fetches your code at the branch you chose
2. Installs dependencies and builds front-end assets
3. Validates the environment — boots your application and confirms it can reach its database
4. Runs any database migrations
5. Rebuilds caches and reloads the application

Why your site stays up

strackt prepares the new version alongside the one currently serving visitors. Your live version keeps handling traffic the entire time the new release is being built and checked. Only once the new release has passed every step does strackt switch traffic over to it.

If any step fails — a dependency won't install, the application can't reach its database, a migration errors — strackt stops before the switch. The half-built release is discarded and your current version keeps serving visitors exactly as before. Nothing goes down. You fix the problem and deploy again.

Every deploy starts clean

Each deploy runs the full sequence from the start, so a retry after a fix behaves exactly like a first deploy — there's no leftover state from a failed attempt to clear out first.

If a deploy does fail, When a deploy fails walks through what it means and how to get running again.