Laravel Envoy

Introduction

Laravel Envoy is a tool for executing common tasks you run on your remote servers. Using Blade style syntax, you can easily setup tasks for deployment, Artisan commands, and more.html. Currently, Envoy only supports the Mac and Linux operating systems. However, Windows support is achievable using WSL2.

Installation

First, install Envoy into your project using the Composer package manager:

composer require laravel/envoy --dev

Once Envoy has been installed, the Envoy binary will be available in your application's vendor/bin directory:

php vendor/bin/envoy

Writing Tasks

Defining Tasks

Tasks are the basic building block of Envoy. Tasks define the shell commands that should execute on your remote servers when the task is invoked. For example, you might define a task that executes the php artisan queue:restart command on all of your application's queue worker servers.

All of your Envoy tasks should be defined in an Envoy.blade.php file at the root of your application. Here's an example to get you started:

@servers(['web' => ['user@192.168.1.1'], 'workers' => ['user@192.168.1.2']])

@task('restart-queues', ['on' => 'workers'])
    cd /home/user/example.com
    php artisan queue:restart
@endtask

As you can see, an array of @servers is defined at the top of the file, allowing you to reference these servers via the on option of your task declarations. The @servers declaration should always be placed on a single line. Within your @task declarations, you should place the shell commands that should execute on your servers when the task is invoked.

Local Tasks

You can force a script to run on your local computer by specifying the server's IP address as 127.0.0.1:

@servers(['localhost' => '127.0.0.1'])

Importing Envoy Tasks

Using the @import directive, you may import other Envoy files so their stories and tasks are added to yours. After the files have been imported, you may execute the tasks they contain as if they were defined in your own Envoy file:

@import('vendor/package/Envoy.blade.php')

Multiple Servers

Envoy allows you to easily run a task across multiple servers. First, add additional servers to your @servers declaration. Each server should be assigned a unique name. Once you have defined your additional servers you may list each of the servers in the task's on array:

@servers(['web-1' => '192.168.1.1', 'web-2' => '192.168.1.2'])

@task('deploy', ['on' => ['web-1', 'web-2']])
    cd /home/user/example.com
    git pull origin {{ $branch }}
    php artisan migrate --force
@endtask

Parallel Execution

By default, tasks will be executed on each server serially. In other words, a task will finish running on the first server before proceeding to execute on the second server. If you would like to run a task across multiple servers in parallel, add the parallel option to your task declaration:

@servers(['web-1' => '192.168.1.1', 'web-2' => '192.168.1.2'])

@task('deploy', ['on' => ['web-1', 'web-2'], 'parallel' => true])
    cd /home/user/example.com
    git pull origin {{ $branch }}
    php artisan migrate --force
@endtask

Setup

Sometimes, you may need to execute arbitrary PHP code before running your Envoy tasks. You may use the @setup directive to define a block of PHP code that should execute before your tasks:

@setup
    $now = new DateTime;
@endsetup

If you need to require other PHP files before your task is executed, you may use the @include directive at the top of your Envoy.blade.php file:

@include('vendor/autoload.php')

@task('restart-queues')
    # ...
@endtask

Variables

If needed, you may pass arguments to Envoy tasks by specifying them on the command line when invoking Envoy:

php vendor/bin/envoy run deploy --branch=master

You may access the options within your tasks using Blade's "echo" syntax. You may also define Blade if statements and loops within your tasks. For example, let's verify the presence of the $branch variable before executing the git pull command:

@servers(['web' => ['user@192.168.1.1']])

@task('deploy', ['on' => 'web'])
    cd /home/user/example.com

    @if ($branch)
        git pull origin {{ $branch }}
    @endif

    php artisan migrate --force
@endtask

Stories

Stories group a set of tasks under a single, convenient name. For instance, a deploy story may run the update-code and install-dependencies tasks by listing the task names within its definition:

@servers(['web' => ['user@192.168.1.1']])

@story('deploy')
    update-code
    install-dependencies
@endstory

@task('update-code')
    cd /home/user/example.com
    git pull origin master
@endtask

@task('install-dependencies')
    cd /home/user/example.com
    composer install
@endtask

Once the story has been written, you may invoke it in the same way you would invoke a task:

php vendor/bin/envoy run deploy

Running Tasks

To run a task or story that is defined in your application's Envoy.blade.php file, execute Envoy's run command, passing the name of the task or story you would like to execute. Envoy will execute the task and display the output from your remote servers as the task is running:

php vendor/bin/envoy run deploy

Confirming Task Execution

If you would like to be prompted for confirmation before running a given task on your servers, you should add the confirm directive to your task declaration. This option is particularly useful for destructive operations:

@task('deploy', ['on' => 'web', 'confirm' => true])
    cd /home/user/example.com
    git pull origin {{ $branch }}
    php artisan migrate
@endtask

Notifications

Slack

Envoy supports sending notifications to Slack after each task is executed. The @slack directive accepts a Slack hook URL and a channel / user name. You may retrieve your webhook URL by creating an "Incoming WebHooks" integration in your Slack control panel.

You should pass the entire webhook URL as the first argument given to the @slack directive. The second argument given to the @slack directive should be a channel name (#channel) or a user name (@user):

@finished
    @slack('webhook-url', '#bots')
@endfinished

Discord

Envoy also supports sending notifications to Discord after each task is executed. The @discord directive accepts a Discord hook URL and a message. You may retrieve your webhook URL by creating a "Webhook" in your Server Settings and choosing which channel the webhook should post to. You should pass the entire Webhook URL into the @discord directive:

@finished
    @discord('discord-webhook-url')
@endfinished

Telegram

Envoy also supports sending notifications to Telegram after each task is executed. The @telegram directive accepts a Telegram Bot ID and a Chat ID. You may retrieve your Bot ID by creating a new bot using BotFather. You can retrieve a valid Chat ID using @username_to_id_bot. You should pass the entire Bot ID and Chat ID into the @telegram directive:

@finished
    @telegram('bot-id','chat-id')
@endfinished