---
title: Deploying WordPress
description: Both WordPress installs deploy with wp-deploy, which pushes a packaged commit to the host's Git remote and checks that the host installed it.
---

The WordPress installs are not Workers. Each one runs on a WordPress host and deploys with [`wp-deploy`](https://github.com/patronage/launch/tree/main/wordpress-shared/wp-deploy), Patronage's deploy kit, which lives in `wordpress-shared/wp-deploy` (see [ADR 0013](/decisions/wordpress-deploy-kit)). It works on Cloudways, WP Engine and Kinsta. The Launch demos use Cloudways.

## How a deploy works

`deploy.sh` deploys the committed `HEAD`. It refuses to run with uncommitted changes, and it never stashes or switches branches. It:

1. runs the site's build step, such as a production `composer install`;
2. builds a deploy commit in a temporary Git index: `HEAD`, plus the build output named in the include list, minus the local tooling named in the exclude list;
3. refuses the deploy if the payload holds `.env*`, `wp-config.php` or `wp-content/uploads/`;
4. pushes to the host's Git remote, then checks that the host installed the commit.

A deploy has succeeded only when the script exits 0 and prints `Deploy to <target> complete`. On Cloudways, a `post-receive` hook on the server installs only the app's own folder into the webroot.

## Each app's `_build` folder

Each WordPress app keeps the kit in its `_build/` folder. `deploy.sh` and the Cloudways hook are symlinks to the canonical copies, so every app runs the same version. The app's own settings sit beside them:

| File | What it holds |
| --- | --- |
| `deploy.env` | Committed, non-secret settings: the host, the branch, the build step |
| `.deploy_include.txt` | Gitignored build output to ship, such as Composer's plugins and the shared mu-plugins |
| `.deploy_exclude.txt` | Local tooling to keep out of the webroot |
| `wp-config-environment.php` | A sample block for each environment's `wp-config.php` |

The repo is public, so server IPs, application paths and SSH users go in a gitignored `.env` next to `_build/`, never in `deploy.env`.

## Deploy

From the app folder, with a clean working tree:

```bash
pnpm run deploy staging --dry-run      # build and show the payload; needs no SSH
pnpm run deploy audit staging          # read-only report on the server's files
pnpm run deploy install-hook staging   # Cloudways, once per environment
pnpm run deploy staging
pnpm run deploy production
```

A site outside this repo copies the kit's files into its own `_build/` folder unchanged, and keeps anything site-specific in `deploy.env`. The kit's [README](https://github.com/patronage/launch/blob/main/wordpress-shared/wp-deploy/README.md) covers every command, host and setting.