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How do I create a preview environment for each pull request?
Choose how previews are created before wiring up events. An integrated hosting service can connect a repository to pull requests and generate preview deployments with unique URLs. Alternatively, a GitHub Actions workflow can call your chosen hosting or infrastructure provider. The first approach can reduce lifecycle code; the second gives your team more control, but makes you responsible for provisioning, updates, credentials, concurrency, cleanup, and failure handling.
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Vercel documents preview deployments for supported pull-request and branch activity, including unique deployment URLs. Netlify documents pull-request deploy previews, preview-context variables, and manual or automatic deletion. These are examples of provider capabilities, not guarantees that every provider handles labels, resource deletion, or access control the same way.
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| Approach | What it does | What your team must verify |
|---|---|---|
| Integrated hosting | Connects repository events to preview deployments and URLs. | Whether it supports your desired opt-in trigger, access restrictions, secret boundaries, fork behavior, update ordering, and deletion of attached resources. |
| GitHub Actions plus provider API or action | Lets a workflow invoke a separate service to create, update, and delete previews. | Provider-specific API and permissions, URL publication, concurrency, failure recovery, and removal of databases, storage, domains, and deployment records. |
Do not assume that deleting an app deployment also deletes its database, storage, domain, or deployment metadata. Confirm the behavior for each resource type with the provider you use.
#1 Best Overall
Give every PR a stable identity
Use a deterministic key derived from the pull request number, such as preview-pr-123. Apply that same key to provisioning, updates, status reporting, and teardown. This is an implementation pattern, not a GitHub requirement. A stable identity makes repeated commits update the existing preview instead of creating untracked duplicates, and gives cleanup a clear target.
Decide which revision is deployed
Choose whether the preview deploys the pull request’s head revision or the provider’s intended merge revision, then make that choice consistent. Publish the unique preview URL on the pull request so reviewers can find the deployment associated with the change. When a new commit arrives, update the existing preview and refresh its reported URL or status if those have changed.
How do I deploy a preview when I add a PR label?
Use an explicit opt-in label, for example preview, when previews should not be created for every pull request. Keep the label-triggered workflow narrowly scoped: check that the label is on an allowlisted list, that the event is for the intended repository and base branch, and that the pull request is in a state where deployment is allowed. Verify the current GitHub event and workflow-filter syntax before putting a label event into a copy-paste workflow; a superficially similar event filter may not match the label action you intend.
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Separate opt-in from deployment
- Receive the label event. Start a small workflow path that validates the label and repository and base-branch conditions.
- Resolve the PR identity and revision. Use the pull request number for the stable resource key and select the head or intended merge revision.
- Provision or update. Call the hosting provider, infrastructure API, or deployment action with that key. Make the operation idempotent so repeating it updates or safely reuses the same preview.
- Publish the result. Report the resulting unique URL and deployment status on the pull request using only the permissions the workflow needs.
A GitHub Actions environment can provide deployment tracking, protection rules, and a boundary for environment secrets. It is not the preview application environment and does not create or delete infrastructure. The provider integration or your own provisioning code must perform those operations.
Make repeat commits safe
Scope concurrency to the pull request so rapid pushes do not cause overlapping jobs to publish mismatched links or deploy an older revision after a newer one. GitHub’s concurrency controls and deployment environments are separate mechanisms: assigning a job an environment does not, by itself, serialize runs.
Choose cancellation behavior carefully. If a running deployment is cancelled, it may have partially created resources. The deployment operation should tolerate retries, and a later run should be able to discover and update the existing preview. Also account for a close or label-removal event arriving while a deployment is in progress; a late run must not silently recreate a preview after its opt-in has ended.
Rank #4
How do I delete a preview environment when a pull request closes?
Make teardown an explicit workflow path rather than relying on someone to remember to remove a preview. Trigger it when the chosen end condition occurs: the opt-in label is removed, the pull request closes, or both. A closed pull request includes merged pull requests, so cleanup on closure also removes previews after a merge. If your policy treats these events differently, encode that policy explicitly.
Delete by the same key used to deploy
- Identify the preview. Derive the same stable key, such as
preview-pr-123, from the pull request. - Invoke provider-specific deletion. Remove the application preview and any other resources your team created for it.
- Report the result. Show cleanup success or failure on the pull request or in your deployment record so a failed deletion is visible.
- Make retries safe. Treat an already-absent resource as a successful end state where the provider permits it, and make repeated cleanup attempts safe.
A GitHub Marketplace action provides an example of handling cleanup on a closed pull-request event, including environment and deployment records. Marketplace actions are third-party implementations, not platform guarantees; check the action’s maintenance, version, and required permissions before adopting one. Confirm separately what your provider removes when an application resource is deleted.
Best Value
Guard against orphaned previews
Event-driven cleanup can fail because of permission errors, provider outages, or interrupted jobs. As an operational safeguard, consider a scheduled reconciliation that compares previews with open, opted-in pull requests and flags or removes stale resources. The exact query and deletion process depend on your provider and should be designed around its API and your retention policy.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How do I keep preview deployments from using production secrets?
Assume pull-request code may be untrusted, especially when contributors outside your organization can submit changes. Do not expose production credentials or sensitive production data to a preview build. Use separate non-production credentials and data, restrict job permissions to the actions actually required, and avoid granting a workflow broader access merely to make deployment easier.
Use environments as a gate, not a sandbox
GitHub deployment environments can apply protection rules such as required approval, a wait timer, or branch restrictions. A job that accesses environment secrets waits for the environment’s protection rules to pass. This can provide a deliberate trust gate for secrets, but an environment does not isolate malicious code from credentials that the job is allowed to use. Treat environment secrets with the same care as repository and organization secrets.
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Review the complete credential path
- Use a separate provider token or role for preview resources, scoped to the operations and resources previews need.
- Keep production secrets out of repository variables, preview build settings, and any environment available to untrusted PR code.
- Use environment protection rules or approval when a deployment needs access that should not be automatic.
- Review what code runs in each job and which credentials are available to that job, including actions and deployment scripts.
- Use non-production datasets and integrations so a preview cannot alter or disclose production records.
What should a reliable preview lifecycle include?
Before enabling the workflow for a team, verify the whole path from opt-in through deletion. Provider behavior and GitHub configuration vary, so test the exact permissions, event handling, and resource lifecycle in your repository.
- Opt-in: Only an approved label on an eligible pull request starts the preview path.
- Isolation: Each pull request has its own stable resource identity and review URL.
- Updates: New commits update the same preview, and concurrent runs cannot leave a stale link as the visible result.
- Access: Reviewers can reach the preview under the intended access policy, without exposing production credentials or data.
- Cleanup: Removing the label and/or closing the pull request invokes deletion for the matching resources; merged pull requests are included if they should not retain previews.
- Visibility: Deployment and cleanup failures are reported, and the team can distinguish a deleted resource from a URL that remains operational.
- Scope: The workflow removes relevant app, database, domain, storage, and deployment records according to the provider’s actual behavior.
GitHub’s documentation on deploying with Actions and on deployments and environments explains workflow triggers, concurrency, environment protection, and secret handling. Vercel and Netlify document their respective preview deployment models; consult the provider’s current documentation for API permissions, deletion behavior, pricing, and retention before choosing an implementation.
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