pleno-vue/docs/cpanel-frontend-deployment.md

cPanel frontend deployment

This runbook covers the production deployment of pleno-vue only. The API is not uploaded to cPanel and continues to use its existing release process and hosts.

Release flow

.github/workflows/release.yml starts only after the Automated Tests workflow succeeds for a push to master in this repository. It then:

1. Rechecks that the tested commit is still the head of master.
2. Checks out that exact commit without persisting GitHub credentials.
3. Installs dependencies, runs source checks, and builds dist once.
4. Runs the local-production Playwright gate against that existing dist.
5. Creates an immutable ZIP, SHA-256 sidecar, and file inventory, then verifies a local archive round trip.
6. Uploads the package as a required GitHub Actions artifact.
7. Enters the protected frontend-production GitHub environment and rechecks master immediately before deployment.
8. Uploads the ZIP and checksum over certificate-verified explicit FTPS. The uploaded .part files are downloaded and hashed before they are renamed.
9. Uploads an authenticated, bounded-lifetime request into the jailed deployment directory. A root-owned account-scoped activator validates the request and archive, extracts an inactive release, verifies its manifest identity and required files, and replaces current with a local single-filesystem rename.
10. Downloads the extracted tree and compares it byte-for-byte with the validated inventory. Public manifest, asset-integrity, cache-header, API-ping, and role gates then run against the active release. A failed gate asks the same activator to restore the previous immutable target.

The fixed frontend-production concurrency group is not cancellable. A newer push therefore cannot interrupt an in-progress switch or rollback.

GitHub environment

Create the environment frontend-production, restrict deployment branches to protected branches, and keep master protected by the required CI checks. Production approvals can be added as an environment protection rule.

Add these environment secrets:

• PRODUCTION_FTP_HOST
• PRODUCTION_FTP_USER
• PRODUCTION_FTP_PASSWORD
• PRODUCTION_FTP_PATH
• PRODUCTION_ACTIVATION_KEY

The API .env contains legacy values under the first four names, but production frontend deployment uses a dedicated cPanel FTP account jailed to /home/truckwash/frontend-deployments. Leave the API .env and the API deployment unchanged.

The hosted release path deliberately does not call the remote cPanel API. Imunify360 blocks standard GitHub-hosted runner addresses, so release safety is provided by the jailed FTPS transport, the HMAC-authenticated account-scoped activator, exact inventory comparison, and public manifest verification.

Add these environment variables:

• PRODUCTION_FRONTEND_URL: https://truckwash.io

PRODUCTION_FRONTEND_URL has the requested https://truckwash.io fallback.

Create the dedicated FTP credentials

1. Open Files -> FTP Accounts in the truckwash cPanel account.
2. Create github-pleno-vue@truckwash.io with a generated, unique password.
3. Set its directory to frontend-deployments, which cPanel resolves to /home/truckwash/frontend-deployments, and leave quota unlimited.
4. Add server.red-block.com as PRODUCTION_FTP_HOST. Do not use truckwash.io: the FTPS certificate is issued to the server hostname.
5. Add the full account login as PRODUCTION_FTP_USER, the generated password as PRODUCTION_FTP_PASSWORD, and / as PRODUCTION_FTP_PATH. / is the root of this jailed FTP account, not the cPanel account home.
6. Verify explicit FTPS login and directory listing before merging. Never copy these frontend-only credentials back into the API .env.

In GitHub, navigate to Settings -> Environments -> frontend-production. Use Add secret for credentials and Add variable for the frontend URL. Environment values are available only to the deployment job that names this environment, and configured protection rules are evaluated before its secrets are released.

The existing live-test, Release Manager, and server-version secrets used by release.yml must remain configured. The GitHub-hosted deployment job installs lftp job-locally when needed, configures Node 22, and installs Playwright Chromium. The hosted image must provide npm, zip, unzip, GNU find, stat, and sha256sum. The cPanel account host needs /bin/sh, flock, unzip, jq, and sha256sum for the account-scoped activator.

cPanel layout and one-time bootstrap

The production FTP account is jailed directly to the deployment root, so its PRODUCTION_FTP_PATH is /. On cPanel that jail maps to the frontend-deployments directory below the account home. The helper creates this layout below it:

archives/
releases/
  <commit>-<github-run>-<attempt>/
    dist/
staging/
current -> releases/<release-id>/dist

The domain's document root must resolve to <cPanel account home>/frontend-deployments/current, not to the deployment root itself. This stable document-root path is what makes replacing current atomic: every HTTP request resolves either the complete old release or the complete new release, never a partly uploaded directory.

Before merging the workflow change, perform a one-time bootstrap in cPanel:

1. Back up the existing cPanel webroot and confirm the frontend hostname does not serve API/PHP files from this location.
2. Create archives, releases, and staging below the dedicated deployment root.
3. Put one complete, validated frontend build at releases/<commit>-<build-id>/dist. Its release-manifest.json must contain that full 40-character commit and the same build ID used in the directory name.
4. Create current as a relative symlink to that release's dist directory.
5. Make the frontend domain document root resolve to the stable current path. For a cPanel primary domain whose configured document root remains /home/truckwash/public_html, make public_html a symlink to frontend-deployments/current. Exchange the old directory and prepared symlink atomically, and retain the old directory as a recovery copy.
6. Confirm the release .htaccess contains DirectoryIndex index.html so a symlinked primary-domain root serves the Vue shell instead of a directory listing.
7. Confirm /release-manifest.json, /release-entry.json, a deep Vue route, and the API health request work at PRODUCTION_FRONTEND_URL.
8. The server-side activator, rather than the hosted runner, validates that current and the captured rollback release exist before every switch.
9. Generate a dedicated 32-byte random activation key. Store its 64-character hexadecimal form in the protected frontend-production environment as PRODUCTION_ACTIVATION_KEY. On the server, install the same value at /etc/pleno-release-activator/truckwash.key, owned by root:truckwash and mode 0440. The FTPS jail must not expose this key.
10. As root, install scripts/release/cpanel-activate.sh out of band at /usr/local/sbin/truckwash-release-activate.sh, owned by root:root and mode 0755. The FTPS principal must not be able to replace or modify this executable. Then install this one truckwash account cron entry without replacing any other account cron lines:

* * * * * /bin/flock -n /home/truckwash/frontend-deployments/.activation.lock /usr/bin/env CPANEL_ACTIVATION_ROOT=/home/truckwash/frontend-deployments CPANEL_ACTIVATION_KEY_FILE=/etc/pleno-release-activator/truckwash.key /bin/sh /usr/local/sbin/truckwash-release-activate.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

The workflow can upload release data and bounded-lifetime request files, but it cannot replace the root-owned executable or read the activation key. The script authenticates each bounded-lifetime request with HMAC-SHA-256, accepts only strict filename components and hashes, validates the archive and manifest, runs a disposable local symlink preflight, journals the prior pointer for crash recovery, and writes a request-specific result. It runs as truckwash; it does not need root or a shell credential in GitHub. The host must provide /bin/sh, flock, openssl, unzip, jq, and sha256sum.

The automatic deployer intentionally refuses to create the first current pointer. This prevents a missing or misconfigured bootstrap from turning the first automated run into an unreviewed production cutover.

Auditing or restoring the primary webroot

There is no GitHub Actions root-audit or root-restore job. Imunify360 blocks standard GitHub-hosted runner addresses, and this GitHub Team organization cannot assign static egress to a larger hosted runner. Keeping a configurable runner label would risk sending production cPanel secrets to a self-hosted runner, so that workflow has been removed.

If the primary domain starts showing a directory index or returns 404 for files visible in public_html, inspect and recover it through the cPanel web interface or the hosting provider. Before replacing anything, confirm the exact public_html entry, the frontend-deployments/current link and required release files, all domain document roots, and retained public_html.recovery-*, public_html.backup-*, or public_html.before-atomic-* candidates. Do not replace the root while an addon or subdomain document root is nested below it. Restore only a verified physical directory, retain the displaced webroot, and verify /, /index.html, /release-manifest.json, and a deep Vue route. Normal releases do not depend on remote cPanel API access.

Caching and compatibility

The release .htaccess gives exact eight-character Vite-fingerprinted assets a one-year immutable policy. index.html, release metadata, web manifests, and service-worker control files always revalidate. The deployer retains every immutable release while hosted runners cannot query reliable cPanel modification metadata. Each successful run reports that retention cleanup is deferred. Periodically review disk usage in cPanel and remove only inactive releases and their matching archives; never remove the active or recorded rollback target.

Because the document root switches as one symlink, an already-loaded page may still request an asset from its previous release after activation. The current implementation keeps previous release directories for rollback, but does not publish their asset paths through the new current pointer. Treat long-lived open-tab compatibility as a separate CDN/shared-assets enhancement if product usage requires it; the deployment itself does not serve mixed files.

Failure and rollback behavior

• Any error before the symlink rename leaves the current release untouched.
• The deploy helper immediately verifies the public release after the rename. A failure restores the captured previous release.
• A later public or credentialed Playwright failure runs the explicit rollback step with the previous immutable target emitted by the deploy step.
• A stale workflow run exits before activation when master has advanced.
• Release Manager is record-only (auto_sync: false); it no longer deploys the frontend through the API/Coolify path.

For manual rollback from a controlled runner, provide the same GitHub environment settings plus the target recorded in the successful deployment:

RELEASE_ROLLBACK_TARGET=releases/<release-id>/dist npm run release:deploy:cpanel:rollback

Never point this command outside releases/<release-id>/dist; the helper rejects path traversal and operations outside the configured deployment root.