I mean, I wish. But for deployment, with Laravel Cloud CLI, I don't have to. It makes going from local to production so much smoother. Flawless, I'd say.
Someone on X recently asked why every vibe-coded app works perfectly on local and then loses its mind in production. I felt this because it was me.
My first live app, no CLI
The first app I ever built (laracon.us/photos), I did not use Laravel Cloud CLI.
It worked perfectly on my machine. Then I added my git repo to Laravel Cloud, deployed it, and photo uploads just spun. Forever.
Turns out there was a whole list of things I didn't know I needed:
A database. The first deploy failed without one.
A storage bucket, so uploads and background jobs could see the files.
Queue workers, set up correctly.
Smaller images, because big ones were running out of memory.
None of that is hard once you know it. But I didn't know it. Every fix started with figuring out what was wrong, then figuring out where to fix it.
Eventually, it worked. It just took a while to get there (especially as a non-developer builder).
Last app, yes CLI
For my most recent build, Bound (launching soon), I used Laravel Cloud CLI.
I went from local to production without leaving my terminal.
I told my agent to ship it, answered a couple of questions, and that was it. Bound had a live production link.
No list of fixes this time.
(Well, I left once to attach a bucket. But I let the Laravel Cloud team know and they already updated that. If you have Laravel Cloud CLI installed and still have to leave the terminal, let me know. I know a guy.)
So if I built this app again today, I wouldn't have to leave at all to get it live.
For deployment and beyond
The CLI isn't just for deploying.
I used to have my agent tell me what commands to run in Cloud. Clear out a database. Find an error. Test a Slack integration. Then I'd copy/paste and go run them myself.
With the CLI, now I just ask my agent, right in my terminal, and it runs them for me.
INSANE.
Getting to production shouldn't be the hard part
The CLI takes a lot of the deployment work off your plate.
Here's what I've noticed about getting an app live: it's not the building that wears you down. It's clicking around a new platform you don't understand yet to get it all in production.
Environments. Instances. Buckets. Hibernation. If you don't know what those words mean, every click is a guess. And every guess is a chance to break something.
That gets cumbersome. Then it gets discouraging. Then you have an app that works great locally and nowhere else.
Now, I work at Laravel. I know what those words mean (mostly).
But imagine if you don't code and you don't work at Laravel. The CLI is even more helpful for you.
How to use it
No Laravel Cloud account yet? Make one first.
Then open your agent in your project and paste this:
Install the Laravel Cloud CLI and its agent skills, log me in, and ship this app to Laravel Cloud.Log in when your browser pops open. Answer what it asks. That’s it.
Your agent now has the instructions it needs to use the CLI. From then on, when you want changes live, just tell your agent to deploy.
If your agent needs a hand, point it here. Laravel wrote that page for agents.
Heads up: I build my apps in Laravel. Laravel Cloud is opening up to other stacks too, so if your agent builds with something else, check that it’s supported.
The bar is higher
Now that I know it's possible, I want it from every tool.
Resend has a CLI too. I used it, and I never had to leave the terminal for email.
But here's where I still had to leave:
Stripe, to set up the API and webhook
Blurb, to create a product SKU (specific to my physical book print app)
Slack, to set up notifications (my agent said not to use the Slack API, still not sure why)
Small things. But man, I felt every one.
So, never leaving my terminal again?
For Stripe, Blurb, and Slack? I'm holding out hope.
But for getting my apps into production? No notes.