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Once preview environments are set up, GitHub Actions creates and updates a capsule for every branch you push. This page covers what you do with them afterwards. See Capsules for how they work.

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See what is running

Monk shows each capsule’s branch, status, cluster, preview URL and last deploy. The web dashboard lists the same under the project’s Previews tab, with the pull request and schedule. Open a preview’s page there for its URL.

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Keep capsules up only when people use them

A schedule has a timezone, rules for when capsules are up or down, and a default state for the rest of the time. You can add exceptions for dates:
Change the schedule for one capsule, or send it back to the project’s:
You approve each change in the local dashboard, where it shows the current and the new schedule. In the web dashboard, the project’s Previews tab and each preview’s page have the same controls. The workflow applies the schedule every hour. A capsule that is taken down loses its cluster and data, and comes back from the branch with fresh data.

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Choose which branches get capsules

In the web dashboard, open the project’s Previews tab and How previews work here:
  • Build previews for pull requests turns capsules on or off for the project.
  • Only these branches and Never these branches take comma-separated patterns such as feature/*.
The next push follows the new settings. You need the manage permission on the project to change them.

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Update secrets

Monk asks whether the change is for all capsules or one:
  • All capsules (global): stores the values in GitHub and updates the workflow. Commit and push it. New capsules get the values. A capsule that is already running keeps its old values, so update it locally as well if it needs them now.
  • One capsule (local): writes the values into a running capsule right away. Ask Monk to switch to that capsule’s cluster first.
Values are entered in the local dashboard. To refresh the cloud credentials stored in GitHub, for example after rotating a key:

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Redeploy or remove a capsule

Pushing to the branch rebuilds and redeploys its capsule. To remove one, close or merge the branch’s pull request. Deleting the branch alone doesn’t remove it. You can also run the Monk Capsules workflow from the repository’s Actions tab, with a branch and an action:

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When a run fails

Open the failed run in the Actions tab and read the job’s log. Then fix what is in your project and push again:
The usual causes are a template that doesn’t deploy, a secret that isn’t set, or a name that two branches share. Don’t edit dynenv.yml by hand, because running setup again replaces it, and don’t delete a capsule’s cluster yourself, because its records and pull request stay behind. If the failure is in Monk’s workflow rather than your project, report it:

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Replace the API key

The project API key the workflow uses lasts 365 days. Run setup again before it expires:

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