cPanel Git Version Control lets you clone a GitHub/GitLab repository directly onto your hosting and automatically deploy changes on push.

Setting Up Git Version Control

cPanel → Files → Git Version Control → Create.

Clone URL: https://github.com/username/mysite.git
Repository Path: /home/user/public_html
Repository Name: mysite

✅ For private repositories, add the hosting's SSH key to GitHub: cPanel → Security → SSH Access → Manage SSH Keys → copy the public key to GitHub → Settings → SSH keys.

Auto-Deploy via .cpanel.yml

Create a .cpanel.yml file in the root of the repository:

---
deployment:
  tasks:
    - export DEPLOYPATH=/home/user/public_html
    - /bin/cp -r $SRCDIR/* $DEPLOYPATH
    - cd $DEPLOYPATH && composer install --no-dev
    - cd $DEPLOYPATH && php artisan migrate --force

Manual Deploy via SSH

# Go to the repository folder
cd ~/repositories/mysite

# Pull changes
git pull origin main

# Update production files
rsync -av --delete ./ ~/public_html/ --exclude='.git'

Webhook for Auto-Deploy from GitHub

<?php
// deploy.php
$secret = 'your_webhook_secret';
$payload = file_get_contents('php://input');
$sig = 'sha256=' . hash_hmac('sha256', $payload, $secret);

if (!hash_equals($_SERVER['HTTP_X_HUB_SIGNATURE_256'], $sig)) {
    http_response_code(403);
    exit;
}

exec('cd /home/user/public_html && git pull origin main 2>&1', $output);
echo implode("
", $output);

⚠️ Never place the .git folder in public_html without protection! Add to .htaccess: RedirectMatch 404 /\.git

An Alternative to a Webhook: Deploying via GitHub Actions

If the hosting's firewall blocks inbound webhooks, or the plan does not provide a public IP to receive requests, you can deploy over SSH straight from GitHub Actions — the runner connects to the server itself and pulls the changes on every push to the main branch, with no deploy.php file on the site at all.

# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: SSH deploy
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v1
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.SSH_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.SSH_USER }}
          key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          port: ${{ secrets.SSH_PORT }}
          script: cd ~/public_html && git pull origin main

Common Git Deploy Errors

Message	Cause
fatal: Could not read from remote repository	The hosting's SSH key was never added to GitHub/GitLab, or the private repository is being cloned over HTTPS without an access token
error: Your local changes... would be overwritten by merge	Files in the server-side repository were edited manually through File Manager; git pull refuses to overwrite unsaved changes
.cpanel.yml tasks do not run on push	Deployment in cPanel Git Version Control is triggered by the "Deploy HEAD Commit" button in the interface, not automatically on push from your local machine — automatic triggering needs a webhook
fatal: destination path already exists and is not empty	An attempt to clone the repository directly into public_html, which already contains the hosting's default files (index.html)
composer: command not found (in the .cpanel.yml log)	Deployment tasks run with a minimal PATH — you need the full path to the binary, e.g. /opt/cpanel/composer/bin/composer

When Git Deploy Through cPanel Is Not the Right Tool

You need CI with tests and linters before deployment — cPanel Git Version Control does not isolate the build from production, .cpanel.yml tasks run directly on the live site
Several developers work simultaneously through reviewed pull requests — that calls for a full GitFlow, not a direct git pull onto the production branch
You need a one-click rollback to an arbitrary commit — there is no built-in rollback UI, you would have to run git reset manually over SSH
The build runs inside a Docker container — shared hosting has no Docker daemon, only the commands available inside jailshell
You need separate staging and production environments with different variables — cPanel Git Version Control is tied to a single Repository Path per account, with no built-in environment separation

Verifying the Deployment

After a push or a manual pull, confirm the server actually received the expected commit — the details of working with SSH keys and jailshell are covered in the article on SSH access on cPanel hosting, and it is convenient to automate the following steps with a cron job.

# Compare the local HEAD with the HEAD on the server
cd ~/repositories/mysite && git log -1 --oneline
git ls-remote origin HEAD

# Check the modification time of a key file in public_html
ls -la --time-style=full-iso ~/public_html/index.php