Laravel Remote Sync

Pull database and storage files from remote Laravel environments to your local machine. Uses spatie/laravel-db-snapshots for database operations and rsync for file transfers.

Requirements

• PHP 8.3+
• Laravel 11 or 12
• SSH access to remote host (key-based auth recommended)
• rsync installed locally and on remote
• Remote server must have spatie/laravel-db-snapshots installed

Snapshot Configuration

This package relies on spatie/laravel-db-snapshots for database operations. You need to configure it on both local and remote environments.

1. Configure the snapshots disk

Add a disk for storing snapshots in config/filesystems.php:

'disks' => [
    'snapshots' => [
        'driver' => 'local',
        'root' => database_path('snapshots'),
    ],
],

2. Publish the db-snapshots config

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Spatie\DbSnapshots\DbSnapshotsServiceProvider"

3. Ensure config parity

Important: The snapshot filesystem configuration must be identical on both local and remote environments. This package uses your local db-snapshots.disk configuration to determine where snapshots are stored on the remote server. If the remote has a different snapshot path configured, pull operations will fail.

Installation

composer require jorisnoo/laravel-remote-sync

Publish the config file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="remote-sync-config"

Configuration

Add your remote environments to config/remote-sync.php or use environment variables:

REMOTE_SYNC_PRODUCTION_HOST=forge@your-server
REMOTE_SYNC_PRODUCTION_PATH=/home/forge/your-app.com

REMOTE_SYNC_STAGING_HOST=forge@staging-server
REMOTE_SYNC_STAGING_PATH=/home/forge/staging.your-app.com

REMOTE_SYNC_DEFAULT=production

Config Options

return [
    'remotes' => [
        'production' => [
            'host' => env('REMOTE_SYNC_PRODUCTION_HOST'),
            'path' => env('REMOTE_SYNC_PRODUCTION_PATH'),
        ],
    ],

    'default' => env('REMOTE_SYNC_DEFAULT', 'production'),

    // Storage paths to sync (relative to storage/)
    'paths' => [
        'app',
    ],

    // Tables to exclude from database snapshots
    'exclude_tables' => [
        'cache',
        'cache_locks',
        'sessions',
    ],

    // Timeouts in seconds
    'timeouts' => [
        'snapshot_create' => 300,
        'snapshot_download' => 600,
        'snapshot_cleanup' => 60,
        'file_sync' => 1800,
    ],
];

Usage

Interactive Pull

php artisan remote-sync:pull

Prompts you to select a remote and what to pull (database, files, or both).

Options:

• --no-backup - Skip creating a local backup before pulling
• --keep-snapshot - Keep the downloaded snapshot file after loading
• --full - Include all tables (ignores exclude_tables config) and drops all local tables before loading

Pull Database Only

php artisan remote-sync:pull-db production

Options:

• --no-backup - Skip creating a local backup before pulling
• --keep-snapshot - Keep the downloaded snapshot file after loading
• --full - Include all tables (ignores exclude_tables config) and drops all local tables before loading

Pull Files Only

php artisan remote-sync:pull-files production

Options:

• --path=app/uploads - Sync only a specific path
• --delete - Delete local files that don't exist on remote

Push Commands

Push local data to a remote (requires push_allowed: true in config):

php artisan remote-sync:push              # Interactive
php artisan remote-sync:push-db     # Database only
php artisan remote-sync:push-files        # Files only

Cleanup Snapshots

Remove old database snapshots from local and/or remote storage:

php artisan remote-sync:cleanup-snapshots

Options:

• --local - Only cleanup local snapshots
• --remote - Only cleanup remote snapshots
• --keep=5 - Number of most recent snapshots to keep (default: 5)
• --force - Skip confirmation prompt
• --dry-run - Show what would be deleted without actually deleting

Examples:

# Cleanup both local and remote (interactive)
php artisan remote-sync:cleanup-snapshots

# Cleanup only local, keep 3 most recent
php artisan remote-sync:cleanup-snapshots --local --keep=3

# Cleanup only remote production snapshots
php artisan remote-sync:cleanup-snapshots production --remote

# Preview what would be deleted
php artisan remote-sync:cleanup-snapshots --dry-run

# Automated cleanup (cron-friendly)
php artisan remote-sync:cleanup-snapshots production --force --keep=5

Atomic Deployments

The package automatically detects if your remote server uses atomic deployments (Envoyer, Laravel Deployer, etc.) by checking for a /current symlink. When detected, it uses the correct working path.

• If /current exists → uses {path}/current as the working directory
• If /current doesn't exist → uses {path} directly

If your path already ends in /current, detection is skipped and atomic mode is assumed.

Safety Features

• Commands refuse to run in production environment
• Confirmation prompt before syncing
• Local database backup created before pulling (unless --no-backup)
• Graceful cleanup on interrupt (Ctrl+C)

Testing

composer test

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

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