Automate and Integrate your WebOps Workflow with Quicksilver
Learn how to use Quicksilver to automate your WebOps workflow.
Discuss in our Forum Discuss in SlackHook into platform workflows to automate your Pantheon WebOps workflow. Tell Pantheon which script you want to run, and the platform will run it automatically every time you or another team member triggers the corresponding workflow. View (and contribute) to a growing set of example scripts. Find examples to enable functionality like chat-ops, database sanitization, deployment logging, and automated testing operations with a CI server.
Quicksilver Cloud Hooks Training
Set up existing scripts and write your own with help from our experts. Pantheon delivers custom workshops to help development teams master our platform and improve their internal WebOps.
For example, committing a pantheon.yml
file with the following contents to the root of your site's code repository with the script adapted from slack_notification will post to Slack every time you deploy:
api_version: 1
workflows:
deploy:
after:
- type: webphp
description: Post deployment notification to Slack
script: private/scripts/slack_deploy_notification.php
Add the following after the previous snippet to have it automatically log the deployment to New Relic:
- type: webphp
description: Log to New Relic
script: private/scripts/new_relic_deploy.php
WebOps Workflow and Stage
Specify the workflows you want to hook into (e.g., deploy
or sync_code
) the workflow stage (before
or after
) and the location of the script relative to the root of your site's docroot.
Quicksilver and the Deploy Hook
Before using a Quicksilver hook for a deploy workflow, deploy your pantheon.yml
file into an environment.
Quicksilver scripts that trigger on the deploy hook operate on the state of the code at the time of the deploy, not the state of the code after the deploy. This means that new or updated code is not available until the deployment finishes even though the deploy hook is triggered at the start of the deploy.
Script Type and Location
Quicksilver currently supports webphp
scripting, which runs a PHP script via the same runtime environment as the website itself. PHP scripts are subject to the same limits as any code on the platform, like timeouts, and cannot be batched. In the future we may add additional types. The commands will run in order, and only execute the next when the previous has finished or timed out.
We recommend setting up a dedicated directory in the docroot (e.g., private/scripts
) for tracking these files. If your site uses a nested docroot, the scripts directory needs to be located in the web
subdirectory of your site's code repository (e.g., web/private/scripts
).
Hooks
You can hook into the following workflows:
Workflow | Description | Location of webphp runtime | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
clear_cache | Clear CMS and Edge Cache | ||
clone_database | Clone database between environments | target (to_env) | |
deploy | Deploy code to Test or Live | target | |
deploy_product | Create site | Dev | after stage valid, before stage invalid |
sync_code | Push code via Git or commit OSD/SFTP changes via Pantheon Dashboard | Dev or Multidev | |
create_cloud_development_environment | Create Multidev environment | Multidev | after stage valid, before stage invalid |
Secrets
Your script may require tokens, passwords, or other information that should be protected. These values should be stored securely. You can do this with a third-party key management service like Lockr, or with a storage solution in your site's private files path.
For the latter, the Terminus Secrets Plugin provides a convenient way to manage secret data in JSON files in your site's private files path.
Note
When storing keys for Quicksilver scripts in the private files path, be aware that the Site Dashboard function to copy files from one environment to another will also overwrite the private files path.
Debugging via Terminus
Use the following Terminus commands for debugging Quicksilver.
Stream New Workflows to the Console
Follow the WebOps activity of your site with terminus workflow:watch <site>
.
Explore Previous Workflows
List and show previous workflows and their corresponding Quicksilver operations with the following commands:
terminus workflow:list <site>
terminus workflow:info:logs <site> --id=<workflow>
terminus workflow:info:operations <site> --id=<workflow>
terminus workflow:info:status <site> --id=<workflow>
Troubleshooting
MultiDev Creation Hook Does Not Run When Expected
Quicksilver hooks for the create_cloud_development_environment
workflow will not be detected when creating a Multidev environment if the pantheon.yml
file does not exist on the Dev environment. As a workaround, commit the pantheon.yml
file on Dev before creating a Multidev environment.
Deploying Configuration Changes or Quicksilver Hooks to Multidev
If a pantheon.yml
file does not exist on the Dev environment, configuration changes will not be detected when creating a Multidev environment. As a workaround, make some modification the pantheon.yml
file and re-commit to the Multidev environment. You will then receive a notice indicating configuration changes have been detected and applied to the Multidev environment:
remote:
remote: PANTHEON NOTICE:
remote:
remote: Changes to `pantheon.yml` detected.
remote:
remote: Successfully applied `pantheon.yml` to the 'new-feature' environment.
remote:
remote: