When a deploy won't start

Before strackt does any work on your server, it confirms your environment is ready. If something's missing, the deploy doesn't begin at all — strackt stops at the start, tells you exactly what's wrong, and links you straight to where to fix it.

This is different from a deploy that fails partway: nothing ran on your server, no settings were written, and no migrations were attempted. You just need to clear the reason and deploy again.

What strackt checks

When a deploy is held back before it starts, it's one of these:

• You haven't saved environment settings yet. A brand-new application has no settings to deploy with. Open the application's settings and save them. For applications that need a database, strackt pre-fills sensible defaults to get you started — you'll see a note explaining the values were generated for you, and you can change them.
• A service isn't connected yet. Your settings point at a database or cache that hasn't been set up. Open Services, confirm and provision the service, then deploy. If the service is already confirmed and being set up, strackt won't block you — it provisions it and deploys in one go.
• A database application is missing its connection details. The database host, name, or connection type isn't filled in. Open your settings and complete them, or keep the generated defaults strackt suggested.
• strackt couldn't load your saved settings just now. This is usually momentary — try the deploy again. If it keeps happening, reach out and we'll help.

How a blocked deploy looks

The Deploy action stays where it always is — you don't lose it. When the environment isn't ready, the deploy dialog switches to a warning that names the reason, and the button to start the deploy is removed so you can't kick off a broken one by accident. A link in the dialog takes you straight to the settings section you need to fix.

Clear the reason, come back, and deploy — the dialog returns to normal once your environment is ready.

A second check on the server

Even after the pre-start checks pass, strackt verifies your environment once more on the server — it boots your application and confirms it can reach its database before running any migrations. If something is still wrong at that point, the deploy stops there too, before touching your database, and the operation shows the specific reason rather than a generic failure.

What to do next

• See the full deploy sequence in How deploys work.
• If a deploy started and then failed, see When a deploy fails.
• Setting up a database or cache? See Add a service.