Diagnose deployment failures for Symfony

Summary

Deployment diagnostics for a Symfony app on Ample. Verified on Symfony: the same app deployed with a deliberate boot failure (CANARY_FAIL=boot): ample deploy exited 1 with a coded failure (health_check_failed when the process dies at boot, public_ingress_failed when the framework boots but every request answers 500) and the app's own error line was readable with ample logs <deployment_id> --kind runtime, so the cause is read from the framework's output rather than guessed. Build and start: composer install --no-dev from composer.lock with Symfony Runtime's dotenv disabled (extra.runtime.disable_dotenv; .env never ships, its values arrive as encrypted env, and compile-time parameters such as DEFAULT_URI need a default), then FrankenPHP serving public/ (php-server with the index.php fallback) reading PORT on the php-8.5 template with APP_ENV=prod.

Infrastructure requirements

• Compute: verified (Apps run in isolated x86_64 Firecracker microVMs that auto-pause when idle and wake on request; sizes are the priced VM sizes.)

Prerequisites

• A Symfony project (composer install --no-dev from composer.lock with Symfony Runtime's dotenv disabled (extra.runtime.disable_dotenv; .env never ships, its values arrive as encrypted env, and compile-time parameters such as DEFAULT_URI need a default), then FrankenPHP serving public/ (php-server with the index.php fallback) reading PORT on the php-8.5 template with APP_ENV=prod)
• An Ample account token with servers:write

Exact tested configuration

• template: php-8.5
• runtime: php
• size: s-1vcpu-1gb
• install: composer install --no-dev --prefer-dist --no-interaction --no-progress --optimize-autoloader
• start: frankenphp php-server --listen :$PORT --root public

Steps

1. Read the failure code. Deploy is synchronous. Exit 1 with build_failed means the isolated build failed; health_check_failed means the app built but never answered on PORT (it crashed at boot or bound the wrong port); public_ingress_failed means it answered on PORT but the public URL returned an error status (a request handler or bootstrap failed); exit 2 means a required preflight action is blocking.

2. Read the build log. The last lines name the failing command and its output.

   ample logs <deployment_id> --kind build
   

3. Read the runtime log. For health_check_failed the runtime log carries the Symfony process output: in the verified run the deliberate boot failure's own error line was there, followed by the platform's health-check verdict and the start command it ran.

   ample logs <deployment_id> --kind runtime
   

4. Fix and redeploy once. Change the source, the environment or the command override, then run ample deploy again. Do not loop deploys to poll status; an unchanged redeploy is a no-op.

5. Verify. Fetch the live URL on the example; on failure read the build and runtime logs.

   ample logs <deployment_id> --kind build
   

Tested examples

• Symfony pattern fixture (tests/deploy-canaries/symfony-patterns): Verified deployment diagnostics on Symfony.

Success checks

• failed deploy reports health_check_failed synchronously
• runtime log carries the app's own error line

Limitations

• Verified on the php-8.5 template at s-1vcpu-1gb; other sizes and Symfony major versions are not verified.
• Region, compliance attestations and request-duration limits are unknown and not claimed.

Cost estimate

Estimated 5.00 USD per month (size prices from pricing.toml at build revision a1b8c38919e59cd035ebabaced73cf84ece24371).

• app server x1 s-1vcpu-1gb: 5.00 USD

Always-on monthly price of the tested sizes; apps auto-pause when idle. Buckets are allocation-priced per quota and not included.

Verification evidence

• canary_run on 2026-09-21T02:23:07Z at revision 50dbac567d2c5cc8e55e6c748a646be0025d9cfb-dirty (CLI 0.1.21): Symfony pattern fixture deployed on Ample with CANARY_FAIL=boot (composer install --no-dev from composer.lock with Symfony Runtime's dotenv disabled (extra.runtime.disable_dotenv; .env never ships, its values arrive as encrypted env, and compile-time parameters such as DEFAULT_URI need a default), then FrankenPHP serving public/ (php-server with the index.php fallback) reading PORT on the php-8.5 template with APP_ENV=prod); the same app deployed with a deliberate boot failure (CANARY_FAIL=boot): ample deploy exited 1 with a coded failure (health_check_failed when the process dies at boot, public_ingress_failed when the framework boots but every request answers 500) and the app's own error line was readable with ample logs <deployment_id> --kind runtime, so the cause is read from the framework's output rather than guessed. (expires 2027-03-20T02:23:07Z)

Last verified: 2026-09-21T02:23:07Z

Execution binding

No execution binding. This recipe is documentation only; nothing is executed automatically.

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