Home › Guides

Deploy hooks: deploy any host with one URL

A deploy hook is a secret URL from your host: one request to it starts a build of a branch you picked. Create it in the host's settings, call it with curl when you want to deploy, and turn off the host's build on every push, so the hook is the only thing that builds.

Last updated 12 November 2026

Call a hook

Most hooks take an empty POST. Keep the URL in a variable or a secret store, never in the repository:

curl -fsS -X POST "$DEPLOY_HOOK_URL"

A 2xx answer means the build was started, nothing more. The build can still fail at the host, so check it there. Do not retry blindly on a timeout: the first request may have started a build already, and a retry starts a second one.

Some endpoints need a token in a header. Coolify's deploy webhook is a GET with an API token; DigitalOcean's new-deployment endpoint is a POST with a token and a small body:

curl -fsS -H "Authorization: Bearer $COOLIFY_TOKEN" \
  "https://coolify.example.com/api/v1/deploy?uuid=$UUID&force=false"

curl -fsS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $DO_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"force_build":true}' "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/apps/$APP_ID/deployments"

Vercel deploy hooks

In the project, open Settings → Git → Deploy Hooks, give the hook a name and a branch, and copy the URL. A POST to it builds the newest commit of that branch. Vercel keeps deploy hooks with the Git connection, so if you disconnect Git to stop builds on push, the hooks go with it. Without Git, deploy the remembered repository through the Vercel API instead; that is what deploys vercel deploy does.

Keep the URL secret

• Anyone with the URL can start builds, and builds cost minutes. Treat it like a password.
• Read it from stdin or an environment variable, so it stays out of your shell history and out of ps.
• In CI, store it as a secret. Never commit it, not even in a private repository.
• If it leaks, delete or rotate it at the host. Removing it from your own tools does not stop it from working.

Deploy hooks in Deploy Center

Deploy Center turns any such URL into a project you deploy by hand, next to Vercel and Render. It is opt-in:

deploys providers enable hook
pbpaste | deploys hook add blog - --repo me/blog --site https://blog.example.com
deploys changed          # commits on the branch since the last trigger
deploys hook deploy blog # one request, never retried

The URL goes into the macOS keychain (on Linux a 0600 file) and is masked in every output. Header values can name an environment variable, like 'Authorization: Bearer $COOLIFY_TOKEN', so no token is stored in a file. A hook has no status API, so Deploy Center shows "triggered", not the build result. Every option and more examples: the deploy hook docs.

Questions