Fly CI/CD

When to use this page

• You want automatic Fly deployments from GitHub.
• You need repeatable staging/production deploy workflows.

Prerequisites

• Fly app already deploys manually with fly deploy.
• GitHub repository with Actions enabled.
• FLY_API_TOKEN available from Fly CLI.

Manual deploys are useful when you need explicit release control. For staging and fast iteration, GitHub Actions usually provides a better default.

Documentation: https://fly.io/docs/launch/continuous-deployment-with-github-actions/

Step 1: Create deploy token

Generate a long-lived deploy token using the Fly CLI:

fly tokens create deploy -x 999999h

Step 2: Add token to GitHub

Add the generated token as a repository secret in your GitHub repository:

1. Go to Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
2. Create a new secret named FLY_API_TOKEN
3. Paste the token value

Step 3: Create GitHub Actions workflow

Create a workflow file (e.g. .github/workflows/deploy-production-api.yml):

name: Production - Deploy API

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - deploy-production-api/**
    paths:
      - apps/api/**
      - packages/email-templates/**
      - .github/workflows/deploy-production-api.yml
      - fly.toml

jobs:
  deploy_api:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: production
    defaults:
      run:
        working-directory: ./
    concurrency: deploy-production-api
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: superfly/flyctl-actions/setup-flyctl@master
      - run: flyctl deploy --remote-only --dockerfile ./apps/api/Dockerfile
        env:
          FLY_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.FLY_API_TOKEN }}

Key configuration options

• branches — trigger deploys on pushes to specific branches. Use patterns like deploy-production-api/** to allow manual trigger branches
• paths — only trigger when relevant files change (e.g. your app code, shared packages, the workflow file itself, or fly.toml)
• environment — use GitHub environments to require approvals for production deploys
• concurrency — prevents multiple deploys from running simultaneously
• --remote-only — builds the Docker image on Fly's remote builders instead of locally
• --dockerfile — specify the Dockerfile path for monorepo setups

Verify

• A push to configured branches triggers the workflow.
• Workflow finishes with successful deploy status.
• Fly app revision changes and health checks pass.

Troubleshooting

• GitHub action fails authentication: Confirm FLY_API_TOKEN exists and belongs to the correct Fly organization.
• Deploy triggered too often: Tighten branch/path filters in the workflow.
• Parallel deploy conflicts: Ensure concurrency key is present and scoped correctly.