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Site Deployment Flow and History

Published · Last updated: May 2026 · 3 min read

Who this is for

Users who want to understand how site deployments work in CloudAIPilot — what a "plan" is, how to track deployment progress, and how to view past deployments.

How CloudAIPilot Deploys Sites

Every change CloudAIPilot makes to a site goes through a plan. A plan is:

  1. Generated — CloudAIPilot creates a list of steps to execute (e.g., "Pull git repo", "Reload nginx").
  2. Confirmed — Either automatically (if autoConfirm is enabled) or manually by you.
  3. Executed — CloudAIPilot runs the steps via SSH in sequence.

This approach gives you visibility into exactly what changes will be made before they happen.

Plan Status Values

StatusMeaning
draftPlan has been created but not yet confirmed
user_confirmedPlan confirmed — queued for execution
executingSteps are currently running on the server
completedAll steps ran successfully
failedOne or more steps failed

Triggering a Deployment

A deployment plan is created in several ways:

  • Manual deploy — clicking "Deploy" in the site detail.
  • Git push — via webhook trigger when you push to the configured branch (see KB-03-08: Git and Webhook Deploy).
  • Site creation — the initial provisioning is itself a plan.
  • Clone — cloning a site creates a plan for the new site.

Confirming a Plan (Manual Confirmation Mode)

When a plan is in draft status:

  1. Open the site detail → Activity or Deployments tab.
  2. The pending plan is shown with a summary of steps.
  3. Review the steps.
  4. Click Confirm to queue execution, or Discard to cancel.

Watching a Deployment in Progress

Open the Activity Center (bell icon in the top navigation). The currently executing plan shows:

  • Each step with its status (pending, running, completed, failed)
  • Real-time output from the server for the current step

Viewing Deployment History

  1. Open the site detail.
  2. Click the Deployments tab (or History tab depending on UI version).
  3. The last 5 plans are shown for the site, with status, timestamps, and summary.

What Happens If a Deployment Fails

If a plan reaches failed status:

  1. Open the Activity Center or the Deployments tab.
  2. Find the failed plan and click it to see which step failed and why.
  3. Review the error message.
  4. Fix the root cause (e.g., git auth issue, disk full, bad command).
  5. Click Retry to re-execute the failed plan from the beginning.

What Success Looks Like

The plan shows completed status. The site is updated and accessible in a browser.

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