Capistrano

What the maker publishes

Audience fit

The project says Capistrano may not suit users who are not comfortable using SSH and the command line on Linux servers. source

Deployment

It can deploy web applications to multiple machines simultaneously, in sequence, or as a rolling set. source

Deployment limits

Capistrano deploys code but does not know how to execute the application or provision supporting server software by itself. source

Deployment stages

A deployment can be parameterized for multiple environments such as QA, staging, and production. source

Deployment tasks

It extends the Rake DSL with methods for running commands on servers. source

Deployment workflow

Capistrano v3 provides deployment and rollback flows with hook tasks that users can extend. source

Language support

Although Capistrano is written in Ruby, it can be used to deploy any language. source

License

The project is distributed under the MIT License and states that it is provided without warranty. source

Official plugins

Official plugins are listed for Bundler, Composer, Drupal, Laravel, npm, Phusion Passenger, Ruby version managers, Rails, and Symfony. source

Parallel execution

Deployment tasks can run concurrently across application servers, using connection pooling. source

Plugins

Official plugins cover Bundler, Composer, Drupal, Laravel, npm, Phusion Passenger, Ruby version managers, Rails, Symfony, and other tools. source

Purpose

Capistrano is a remote server automation tool that scripts and executes tasks and includes deployment workflows. source

Purpose

Capistrano is a remote server automation and deployment tool written in Ruby. source

Rails support

The capistrano-rails gem provides asset pipeline and database migration support. source

Remote execution

Capistrano executes remote commands over SSH using SSHKit. source

Requirements

Capistrano is distributed as a Ruby gem and the installation guide says it requires Ruby 2.0 or newer. source

Requirements

The quick start lists Ruby 2.5 or higher locally and source control; Git, Mercurial, and Subversion support is built in. source

Rollback limitation

Rollback behavior depends on the application and assembled plugins, so users are advised to test their procedure beforehand. source

Security

The documentation recommends SSH keys, ideally passphrase-protected and used with an SSH agent, for workstation-to-server authentication. source

Security limitation

The documentation notes that sharing one deployment user among team members may be unsuitable or against regulations in some jurisdictions. source

Security reporting

The project directs suspected vulnerability reports to [email protected] instead of GitHub issues. source

Server roles

Servers can be assigned roles to control where tasks run. source

Shell support

Capistrano 3 expects a POSIX shell such as Bash or Sh on deployment servers. source

Source control

The built-in source control plugins support Git, Subversion, and Mercurial, and custom SCM plugins are possible. source

Checked against the maker's pages on 11 Oct 2026.