How to Deploy a Laravel App (Composer, Scheduler and Queue Workers)

This guide shows how to host a Laravel application on OpenPanel - from a fresh install or an existing project - including Composer, the public/ document root, artisan commands, the task scheduler and queue workers.

Laravel runs like any PHP site: the domain's web server and PHP-FPM container serve it directly, so there's no separate app container to manage.

Step 1: Add the Domain and Choose a PHP Version​

1. Add the domain in OpenPanel → Domains (see Add a new domain).
2. Set a PHP version supported by your Laravel release (e.g. PHP 8.3 for Laravel 11/12) in OpenPanel → PHP → Select PHP Version - see changing the PHP version per domain.

Step 2: Install Laravel​

Option A: New Laravel project​

1. Go to OpenPanel → Websites → Install App → Install PHP Application.
2. Select the domain and leave the subfolder empty.
3. In Initial project, enter laravel/laravel.
4. Enable Run composer install and Optimize autoloader.
5. Click install. OpenPanel runs composer create-project laravel/laravel inside the domain's PHP container.

Option B: Existing project​

1. Upload your project to the domain folder (/var/www/html/example.com/) with the File Manager or FTP. You don't need to upload vendor/ or node_modules/.
2. Go to Install App → Install PHP Application, select the domain, leave Initial project empty and enable Run composer install.

You can re-run composer install or composer update any time from the app's Composer tab - see PHP applications.

Step 3: Point the Document Root to public/​

Laravel must be served from its public/ folder, never from the project root (that would expose .env).

Go to OpenPanel → Domains, click the domain, and change the document root to:

/var/www/html/example.com/public

See Change document root. Laravel's public/.htaccess works as-is on Apache and OpenLiteSpeed; on Nginx and OpenResty, OpenPanel's default vhost already routes requests through index.php.

Step 4: Create the Database and Configure .env​

Create a database and user in OpenPanel → MySQL → Database Wizard. Then edit .env in the project folder:

APP_NAME=MyApp
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://example.com

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=mysql          # use "mariadb" for MariaDB
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=user_myapp
DB_USERNAME=user_myapp
DB_PASSWORD=strong-password

# optional, if the Redis service is enabled
REDIS_HOST=redis
REDIS_PORT=6379
CACHE_STORE=redis
QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis
SESSION_DRIVER=redis

For PostgreSQL use DB_CONNECTION=pgsql, DB_HOST=postgres, DB_PORT=5432.

Step 5: Run Artisan Commands​

Open OpenPanel → Containers → Terminal, select the domain's PHP container (e.g. php-fpm-8.3) and run:

cd /var/www/html/example.com
php artisan key:generate      # only if APP_KEY is empty
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan storage:link
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

Run php artisan config:cache again every time you change .env.

The web terminal is an Enterprise feature and must be enabled for your plan - see Terminal. If you don't have it, you can run one-off commands with a cron job and the Run button (next step).

File permissions​

If you see The stream or file "storage/logs/laravel.log" could not be opened, fix ownership with Fix Permissions.

Step 6: Scheduler (schedule:run)​

Laravel's scheduler needs a cron job that runs every minute. Go to OpenPanel → Cron Jobs → Create New:

• Container: the domain's PHP container, e.g. php-fpm-8.3
• Schedule: Every Minute
• Command:

php /var/www/html/example.com/artisan schedule:run

Use the Run button to test it. See Cron Jobs.

Step 7: Queue Workers​

There's no Supervisor in the PHP container, so run the queue worker from a cron job that starts every minute and exits before the next run:

• Container: php-fpm-8.3
• Schedule: Every Minute
• Command:

php /var/www/html/example.com/artisan queue:work --stop-when-empty --max-time=55

--max-time=55 makes sure a worker never overlaps with the next one. For light queues, --stop-when-empty alone is enough.

After deploying new code, restart workers with php artisan queue:restart so they load the new version.

Deploying Updates​

1. Upload the changed files (or pull from Git in the terminal).
2. Run Composer install from the app's Composer tab.
3. In the terminal: php artisan migrate --force && php artisan optimize && php artisan queue:restart.

Troubleshooting​

Related​

• Host a PHP website
• Increase PHP memory_limit and upload limits
• Deploy a Django app