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Capistrano automates a deployment procedure you would otherwise perform manually over SSH. You run it from your application’s Ruby bundle, select a stage such as production, and it connects to the VPS to fetch code, build a release, link persistent files, run application tasks, and move a current symlink to the new release. A reliable setup therefore has two parts: a correctly prepared VPS and stage-specific Capistrano configuration.
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This guide shows how to prepare the server, initialize Capistrano 3, configure production and Rails integrations, test safely, understand the releases/shared/current layout, and roll back when a release is unusable.
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Capistrano is a Ruby, Rake, and SSH deployment automation framework. The command is run from your project, normally through Bundler:
bundle exec cap production deployCapistrano then executes the tasks defined by your application and its plugins on the remote VPS. The normal flow checks prerequisites, creates a new release directory, checks out the configured source revision, runs configured tasks such as dependency installation or migrations, links shared paths, publishes the release by moving current, and removes old releases according to your retention setting.
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It does not provision a VPS, install an operating system, create a database, configure DNS, or replace a process manager. Those jobs must already be handled on the server. Capistrano makes a repeatable SSH procedure, rather than hiding the underlying operations; the project documentation describes this as having “no magic.”
Prerequisites and responsibilities
| Area | What you need |
|---|---|
| Local development machine | Ruby compatible with the Capistrano release, Bundler, your application source-control checkout, and the project’s bundle. |
| Capistrano compatibility | The official quick start documents Ruby 2.5 or newer. Verify that prerequisite against the Capistrano version you pin and the Ruby version actually installed on your machine and VPS. |
| VPS | An SSH-accessible POSIX server with Ruby/Bundler and the application’s runtime dependencies installed. |
| Source control | Git or the SCM selected for the project, with its binaries available where Capistrano runs the checkout. |
| Access | A dedicated non-privileged deployment user, SSH key authentication, and permission to write the application’s deployment directory. |
| Application operations | A running database and service/process-manager arrangement, plus any web-server, firewall, TLS, and monitoring configuration your application requires. |
Use a non-interactive SSH session. A deployment that waits for a password, an interactive sudo prompt, or a shell profile question will stop unattended execution. Grant narrowly scoped privileges instead of making the deployment user an administrator.
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Prepare the VPS
- Create the deployment account. Add a dedicated user that is not used for routine administration. Give it ownership of the application parent directory, for example
/var/www/my_app, and only the extra groups or commands the application genuinely needs. - Install the runtime. Install the Ruby version supported by the application and Capistrano, Bundler, native libraries required by gems, and any runtime services the application uses. Keep the Ruby and Bundler versions consistent with the lockfile and your local deployment bundle.
- Install the SCM client. Install Git, or the binary for the SCM configured in your Capistrano setup. The remote checkout cannot succeed if that executable is missing.
- Install the SSH key. Put the public key used by the deployment machine in the deployment user’s
authorized_keys, verify directory and file permissions, and test a non-interactive connection before writing Capistrano configuration. - Create the parent directory. The deployment user must be able to create the Capistrano hierarchy below the path you choose for
:deploy_to. Do not place that path in a temporary directory that is routinely cleaned. - Prepare external services. Create the production database, ensure the process manager and web server can restart or reload the application, and decide where secrets and user uploads will live. Capistrano can run application tasks, but it does not create these services for you.
Test the exact account and host that will appear in the stage file. For example, confirm that an SSH command using the deployment key can start the server’s normal POSIX shell without prompting for input.
Install and initialize Capistrano in the project
Add Capistrano to the development bundle rather than the application’s runtime dependency list:
group :development do
gem "capistrano", require: false
endPin a version compatible with your Ruby and application, then install the bundle:
bundle installFrom the project root, generate the standard configuration:
bundle exec cap installInitialization creates a Capfile, a shared config/deploy.rb, and stage files such as config/deploy/production.rb and config/deploy/staging.rb. Treat these as templates. Replace sample application names, repository addresses, users, hosts, branches, and paths with values for your own VPS.
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Configure the common deployment policy
Put settings that apply to every stage in config/deploy.rb. A minimal policy looks like this:
set :application, 'my_app'
set :repo_url, '[email protected]:team/my_app.git'
set :branch, 'main'
set :deploy_to, '/var/www/my_app'
append :linked_dirs,
'log',
'tmp/pids',
'tmp/cache',
'tmp/sockets',
'public/uploads',
'vendor/bundle'
append :linked_files,
'config/database.yml',
'config/secrets.yml'Choose the repository and branch deliberately
:repo_url must be reachable by the account performing the checkout. If the repository is private, configure a deploy key or another non-interactive authentication method on the VPS; never depend on a developer’s personal SSH agent being present during an unattended deployment. Set a branch policy that matches your release process. A fixed production branch is easier to audit than an accidental checkout of whatever branch happened to be active locally.
Set a stable deployment root
:deploy_to is the parent directory for all Capistrano data. Keep it stable across releases and make it writable by the deployment user. The value should not include a trailing path that changes between stages unless you intentionally want separate trees.
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Declare persistent directories and files
Use append :linked_dirs for data that must survive a new checkout: logs, PID and socket locations, caches, uploads, and a shared Bundler directory when your deployment needs it. Use append :linked_files for files that are not stored in the repository, such as database connection settings or application secrets. Capistrano creates symlinks from shared into each release.
Create every required shared file before the first deployment, with ownership and permissions that allow the application process to read it. Do not commit production secrets merely to make a symlink target exist. Conversely, do not mark an ordinary source file as linked: Capistrano will expect its target in shared and the deployment will fail if that target is absent.
Define the production stage
Keep host-specific values in config/deploy/production.rb so staging can point to another machine and use different settings:
server '203.0.113.10',
user: 'deploy',
roles: %w[app db web]
set :stage, :productionReplace the example address with the VPS hostname or IP and use the deployment account you tested. Roles are labels used by tasks to decide where work runs; assign only the roles your application and integrations need. If your application has separate application and database hosts, declare each server explicitly rather than assuming all roles share one machine.
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A staging file can use the same common policy while changing the host, branch, deployment root, and any non-production service settings. Always invoke the intended stage in the command; production and staging are separate configuration contexts.
Load the integrations your application needs
Capistrano’s core handles deployment orchestration. Plugins add framework-specific tasks. In Capfile, load only the integrations you use:
require 'capistrano/setup'
require 'capistrano/deploy'
require 'capistrano/bundler'
require 'capistrano/rails'Bundler integration
capistrano/bundler runs the bundle installation policy during deployment. If the project relies on a shared Bundler configuration, include .bundle in :linked_dirs alongside vendor/bundle, after confirming that the configuration contains no machine-specific or secret values that should not be shared.
Rails integration
capistrano/rails provides Rails deployment tasks, including cap deploy:migrate and cap deploy:compile_assets. You can require only the assets and migrations integrations when you do not need the rest of the Rails plugin. Typical Rails persistent paths include log, tmp/pids, tmp/cache, tmp/sockets, vendor/bundle, .bundle, and upload directories. Typical persistent files include config/database.yml and config/secrets.yml; choose paths according to the actual Rails version and secret-management design of your application.
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For a deployment root such as /var/www/my_app, Capistrano separates immutable release checkouts from mutable shared state:
| Path | Purpose | What changes during deployment |
|---|---|---|
releases/ |
One directory per successful or in-progress checkout. | A new release directory is created; old ones are removed according to retention settings. |
shared/ |
Persistent files and directories such as secrets, logs, sockets, and uploads. | Contents remain while releases are replaced; linked entries in each release point here. |
current |
Symlink consumed by your process manager or web server. | It moves to the newest successfully published release. |
Your service should run from current, not from a numbered release path. This makes publication and rollback an atomic symlink change and prevents a process restart from accidentally selecting an older checkout. Persistent user data belongs in shared or an external storage service, never only inside a release directory that cleanup may delete.
Inspect a deployment before changing the server
From the project root, inspect prerequisites and task execution first:
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bundle exec cap production deploy --prereqs
bundle exec cap production deploy --dry-run--prereqs helps you inspect task dependencies. The dry run shows the task sequence without applying the deployment changes to the server. Review the selected stage, host, user, repository, branch, linked paths, and any commands that would restart services. A dry run cannot prove that credentials, permissions, native libraries, or application data are correct, so treat it as a configuration check rather than a complete deployment test.
When the output is unclear, add tracing:
bundle exec cap production deploy --traceAfter the dry run and a successful SSH check, perform the real deployment:
bundle exec cap production deployWatch the output until Capistrano publishes current. Then check the application through its normal health endpoint or user-facing path, inspect the service logs, and verify that background workers and scheduled jobs are using the new release as intended.
Control release retention and service behavior
Keep enough releases to recover from a bad application change, but do not retain unbounded copies of large assets. Set a retention count appropriate to the VPS disk budget and your recovery window. Cleanup should remove old release directories only after the new release has been published; never store uploads, logs, or secrets exclusively under releases.
Capistrano publishes code by changing the current symlink. It does not automatically restart every process manager or web server. Configure an explicit restart or reload task for the services that need one, and make that task safe to run repeatedly. If a service continues using old code after publication, the deployment may have succeeded while the running process still points at an earlier process state.
Roll back an unusable release
If the newly published release fails its health check, stop accepting traffic or follow your incident procedure first. Then invoke Capistrano’s rollback task for the production stage:
bundle exec cap production deploy:rollbackThe rollback changes current back to a previous release retained under releases. Restart or reload the application service if your process manager does not notice the symlink change automatically, and verify the health check again.
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Rollback restores code; it does not repair a misconfigured VPS, recreate a missing linked file, undo an irreversible database migration, or recover an upload deleted outside shared. Keep database migrations backward-compatible when possible, back up production data independently, and correct the configuration or shared-state problem before attempting another deployment.
Troubleshoot common failures
SSH authentication or host-key errors
Confirm that the stage’s user and host match the account tested manually, that the deployment key is available to the process running Bundler, and that the VPS accepts the key without an interactive prompt. Check the deployment user’s home, .ssh permissions, and known-host policy.
Repository checkout fails
Verify the repository URL, branch name, SCM binary, and repository credentials from the deployment account’s environment. A successful checkout on your laptop does not prove that the VPS can reach a private repository.
Permission denied under the deployment root
Inspect ownership of the parent directory and existing releases, shared, and current entries. Avoid fixing this by running the whole deployment as root; correct ownership or grant the narrow permission the task requires.
A linked file or directory is missing
Create the expected target under shared with correct ownership and mode, or remove the path from :linked_files or :linked_dirs if it is not actually persistent. Confirm that the relative path matches the application’s runtime expectation exactly.
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Check Ruby and Bundler compatibility, native package dependencies, environment variables, database connectivity, and the plugin requirements loaded in Capfile. Run the failing task manually as the deployment user only to isolate the dependency; keep the final procedure in Capistrano so later deployments remain repeatable.
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Confirm that the process manager starts the application from current, that the symlink points to the new release, and that the configured restart or reload task actually ran. Also check reverse-proxy caching and background workers separately.
Production checklist
- Ruby and Bundler versions satisfy the pinned Capistrano and application dependencies.
- The VPS has the selected SCM binary and all runtime and native dependencies.
- The deployment account uses SSH keys, a POSIX shell, and no interactive privilege escalation.
:repo_url,:branch,:deploy_to, host, user, and roles are correct for the selected stage.- Every linked file and directory has an intentional target in
shared. - Secrets are outside source control and readable by the application process.
- The service runs from
currentand has an explicit, repeatable reload or restart task. - A dry run, prerequisite inspection, health check, log check, and rollback procedure have been exercised on staging or a maintenance window.
- Release retention leaves enough known-good releases while respecting disk capacity.
When Capistrano is a good fit
Capistrano is especially practical when you already operate one or a small number of SSH-accessible VPS instances and want predictable release directories, shared persistent paths, multiple stages, and a straightforward code rollback. It assumes servers are provisioned and maintained separately. Workflows based on prebuilt images, container schedulers, or artifact registries may be preferable when an organization needs immutable infrastructure, automated fleet provisioning, or orchestration across many machines; those approaches use different mechanisms for artifacts, secrets, health checks, and rollback.
For a single VPS, the key design decision is not the command itself but the boundary between release content and persistent state. Keep code in numbered releases, keep secrets and mutable data in shared or external storage, make service reloads explicit, and test the exact production stage before publishing.
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