Migrate from Cloudways to fortrabbit

# Migrate from Cloudways with a coding agent

Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other coding agents can run this migration. Paste this prompt into the agent, in the project folder:

Read https://www.fortrabbit.com/agents.md and set up fortrabbit. Then move this site from Cloudways to fortrabbit, following https://www.fortrabbit.com/raw/migrate/from-cloudways.md

Sign-in happens in the browser, see agent setup. The agent needs SSH access to the Cloudways server to read the settings, dump the database and copy the uploads. The steps below are what the agent follows, and what to do by hand without one. The agent changes nothing on the old host: a person deletes the old setup once the site runs on fortrabbit.

# Cloudways settings and where they go

# 1. Create the app

Create an app in the dashboard with the software template matching the framework or CMS. Its default domain works with HTTPS right away, so the whole move can be tested before DNS changes. Lower the TTL of the domain's DNS records now, see migrate to fortrabbit.

# 2. Get SSH access

Cloudways has two kinds of credentials. Master credentials reach every application on the server over SSH and SFTP. Application credentials reach one application over SFTP only, until SSH is switched on for them in Application Settings. Either works for the steps below.

The folder name under /home/master/applications/ is random, not the domain.

# 3. Copy the settings

• Open the .env, wp-config.php or the config file of the CMS in public_html. Copy every value except the database credentials and the app URL into the environment variables of the fortrabbit environment.
• Open Cron Job Management. Each entry becomes one cron job.
• Open Application Settings → Supervisor Jobs. Each queue worker becomes a worker. fortrabbit has no Redis: a Laravel app sets the queue, cache and session drivers to database or file, see Laravel queues and scheduler.

# 4. Deploy the code

Cloudways pulls from Git over SSH and has no deploy on push. Code that is not in a Git repository yet needs one first: download public_html with rsync, commit it without uploads and vendor, and push to GitHub. Connect the repository to the environment. The first deployment runs the build commands, such as composer install.

# 5. Move the database

The Database Manager of the application shows the credentials and exports smaller databases. It is not meant for databases over about 200 MiB. Use mysqldump over SSH for those:

mysqldump -u <user> -p <database> > dump.sql

Import the dump into the MySQL component as described under MySQL export and import.

# 6. Copy the uploads

Find the upload folder in public_html, such as wp-content/uploads for WordPress or the asset volumes of Craft CMS. Pull it to the local machine with rsync, then push it to the environment, see rsync.

# 7. Switch the DNS

DNS for a Cloudways application usually sits at the registrar or at Cloudflare, since DNS hosting is a paid add-on. Test the app on its default domain, add the custom domain to the environment and point the records to fortrabbit, see external domain setup.

# What stays on Cloudways

• Mailboxes from the Rackspace email add-on. They are independent of the hosting: keep the MX records pointing to Rackspace.
• Server-level settings of the Cloudways server.
• Mail sent with PHP mail(). Use SMTP or a transactional mail provider, see limits.

Once the site runs on fortrabbit, delete the application on Cloudways, and the server when no other application runs on it.