Preview deployments

Coolify can deploy a preview of a pull request. coolship preview deploys the preview Coolify holds for a pull request and observes it exactly like deploy.

Coolify must know the pull request

The Coolify API accepts a pull request number when deploying, but only for a pull request it already holds as a preview record. There is no API endpoint that creates or lists previews: they are created through the Coolify UI, or by Coolify's GitHub webhook when Preview Deployments is enabled on the application and a pull request is opened.

coolship preview therefore cannot create a preview either. When the server does not know the pull request it answers with a message and no deployment, and Coolship repeats that answer with what to do about it:

$ coolship preview --pr 999999
Error: server did not confirm a deployment for application mm4c0zpbrzx8z96t0qiw3tff: Pull request 999999 not found for this resource. (Coolify must already know the pull request: enable preview deployments and add it through its webhook or the UI)

To make previews work:

1. Enable Preview Deployments on the application in Coolify.
2. Let Coolify's GitHub webhook register the pull request (or add it in the UI).
3. Run coolship preview --pr N, or plain coolship preview in a GitHub Actions pull_request job, where the number is read from GITHUB_REF.

This path was verified live against a public repository through the webhook: a webhook-created preview deployed in 12 seconds.

What Coolship can and cannot show

Preview URLs follow the application's preview URL template but are not readable through the API, so open does not offer them. Preview deployments use the application's preview variable scope; env --preview and dev --preview act on it.

The CI guide shows a pull_request workflow that runs coolship preview.