Deploy to Heroku

Cloud

Server v4.x

Server v3.x

Introduction

Heroku is a popular platform for hosting applications in the cloud. To configure CircleCI to deploy your application to Heroku, follow the steps below.

Deploy with the Heroku orb

1. Create an account

Create a Heroku account and follow the Getting Started on Heroku documentation to set up a project in your chosen language.

2. Create environment variables

Add the name of your Heroku application and your Heroku API key as environment variables as HEROKU_APP_NAME and HEROKU_API_KEY, respectively. To take advantage of secrets masking, it is best practice to set environment variables at the project level or within a context.

3. Deploy with the Heroku orb

Use the Heroku orb to keep your configuration simple. The deploy-via-git installs the Heroku CLI in the primary container, runs any pre deployment steps you define, deploys your application, then runs any post-deployment steps you define. See the Heroku orb page in the orbs registry for full details of parameters and options:

Make sure to replace any placeholder versions in the example.

version: 2.1
orbs:
  heroku: circleci/heroku@x.y
workflows:
  heroku_deploy:
    jobs:
      - heroku/deploy-via-git:
          post-steps:
            - run: your-database-migration-command #example of a post-deployment step
          pre-steps:
            - run: command-that-run-before-deploying #example of a pre-deployment step

For more detailed information about these Heroku orbs, refer to the CircleCI Heroku Orb.

Heroku deployment with 2.0 configuration

1. Create an account

Create a Heroku account and follow the Getting Started on Heroku documentation to set up a project in your chosen language.

2. Create environment variables

3. Create deploy job

In your .circleci/config.yml, create a deploy job and add an executor type.

4. Add steps to your deploy job

Add steps to your deploy job to checkout and deploy your code. You can specify which branch you would like to deploy. The example below specifies the main branch, and deploys using a git push command.

version: 2.1

jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: <docker-image-name-tag>
    steps:
      - checkout
    # build job ommitted for brevity
  deploy:
    docker:
      - image: <docker-image-name-tag>
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run:
          name: Deploy Main to Heroku
          command: |
            git push https://heroku:$HEROKU_API_KEY@git.heroku.com/$HEROKU_APP_NAME.git main

workflows:
  build-deploy:
    jobs:
      - build
      - deploy:
          requires:
            - build # only run deploy-via-git job if the build job has completed
          filters:
            branches:
              only: main # only run deploy-via-git job on main branch

Heroku provides the option "Wait for CI to pass before deploy" under deploy / automatic deploys. See the Heroku documentation for details.

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