deployment

Deployment guidance for Rails applications using Kamal, a tool that runs applications in containers and releases them to servers over SSH. It covers configuration, secrets, health checks, rollbacks, and server preparation.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to prepare servers, write config/deploy.yml, manage environment variables, and plan rolling or zero-downtime releases. It also covers Docker, SSH, firewalls, SSL certificates, and server resources.
Why use it?
It gives developers a clear way to deploy Rails without managing a larger orchestration system such as Kubernetes. It also keeps deployment settings version controlled and separates secrets from ordinary configuration.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/levifig/rails-instructions/deployment
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/levifig/rails-instructions

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 982 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.00982
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00491
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00196
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00098

Measured 2d ago against content hash b07072df400c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

deployment scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.cursor/rules/rails/deployment.mdc · 178 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 178 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Rails Deployment with Kamal

Core Philosophy

  • Deploy containerized Rails applications without complexity
  • Use Kamal for zero-downtime deployments
  • Keep deployment configuration simple and version controlled
  • Leverage Docker without becoming a Docker expert
  • Deploy anywhere with SSH access

Kamal Principles

  • One command deployments with automatic rollback
  • Built-in health checks and rolling updates
  • Integrated secret management
  • No Kubernetes complexity needed
  • Direct SSH-based deployment to servers

Configuration Strategy

  • Keep all deployment config in config/deploy.yml
  • Use environment-specific settings wisely
  • Store secrets securely with Kamal's encryption
  • Version control deployment configuration
  • Document server requirements clearly

Server Prerequisites

  • Ensure servers have Docker installed
  • Configure SSH access for deployment user
  • Set up firewall rules appropriately
  • Prepare SSL certificates if needed
  • Verify sufficient disk space and memory

Environment Management

  • Use Kamal's built-in environment variable handling
  • Separate secrets from non-sensitive configuration
  • Use .env files for local development only
  • Leverage Rails credentials for application secrets
  • Keep production passwords out of version control

Container Strategy

  • Build minimal production Docker images
  • Use multi-stage builds to reduce size
  • Install only production dependencies
  • Configure proper health check endpoints
  • Set appropriate resource limits

Database Configuration

  • Use managed databases when possible
  • Configure connection pooling appropriately
  • Set up automated backups
  • Use read replicas for scaling
  • Handle database migrations carefully

Asset Management

  • Precompile assets during Docker build
  • Use CDN for asset delivery
  • Configure proper cache headers
  • Compress assets appropriately
  • Handle asset versioning correctly

Health Checks

  • Implement /up endpoint for health monitoring
  • Check database connectivity
  • Verify background job processing
  • Monitor external service dependencies
  • Return appropriate status codes

Read the full file on GitHub · 178 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 178 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A b07072df400c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

deployment is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository levifig/rails-instructions (54 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 982 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.