sencho/docs/tutorials/connect-a-git-source.mdx

---
title: Deploy Compose Changes by Pulling From Git Instead of Editing by Hand
sidebarTitle: Deploy compose changes from Git
description: Link a running stack to a Git repository, pull a real commit, review the classified change plan, and deploy it, instead of hand-editing the compose file in the browser.
---

Say `marketing-site` is a small nginx stack you created directly in Sencho, and your team has decided the compose file should live in a Git repository instead, so changes go through a commit and a pull request before they reach the stack. This walks through connecting that already-running stack to a repository, pulling a real commit a teammate pushed, reviewing the classified change plan Sencho builds against what is on disk, and applying it, which both writes the new files and redeploys the container.

This tutorial covers linking an existing stack to a Git source and running one manual pull-review-apply cycle. It doesn't cover creating a brand-new stack directly from a repository, provider hooks, the three webhook-driven apply modes, polling, suspend, multi-file compose sources, or converting the source onto a Git-managed Blueprint; see [Git Sources](/features/git-sources), [Trigger pulls from Git hosts and CI](/features/git-webhooks), and [Git-managed Blueprints](/features/git-managed-blueprints) for those.

## Prerequisites

- The `admin` or `node-admin` role. Linking a source and running a pull or apply needs the `stack:edit` permission, which `deployer`, `viewer`, and `auditor` do not hold.
- A running stack to link. If you don't have one, select **Create Stack**, name it `marketing-site`, and replace its compose file with:

  ```yaml
  services:
    web:
      image: nginx:1.27-alpine
      restart: always
      ports:
        - "8098:80"
  ```

  Select **Save & Deploy**. This tutorial's steps and screenshots use this exact stack, so if you use a different name or port, adjust accordingly.
- A public Git repository over HTTPS that you control, with a compose file committed at its root. The screenshots below use a small throwaway demo repository; any repository with the same shape works.
- Available on every tier, including Community; no Admiral requirement.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the Git Source sheet">
    Open the `marketing-site` stack and select **Git Source** in the editor toolbar. The sheet opens from the right, empty, since nothing is linked yet.

    <Frame>
      <img src="/images/tutorials/connect-a-git-source/git-source-panel-empty.png" alt="Empty Git Source sheet for the marketing-site stack, with crumb Stack, marketing-site, Git source, heading Git source, meta Not linked, a Save toolbar button, and Repository fields for URL, Ref, compose.yaml, Public (no auth), and Review only." />
    </Frame>
  </Step>
  <Step title="Point it at your repository">
    Paste your repository's HTTPS URL into **Repository URL** (for example `https://github.com/your-org/your-repo.git`). Leave **Ref** on its default, `main`, unless your repository uses a different branch, tag, or pinned commit SHA.

    Select **Browse** to confirm Sencho can actually reach the repository and see its files, rather than trusting the URL is correct. The browser lists every file in the repository; `compose.yaml` is already ticked as the primary compose file, since that name matches the picker's default.

    <Frame>
      <img src="/images/tutorials/connect-a-git-source/browse-picker.png" alt="Git Source sheet with a Repository URL filled in and the Browse file picker open below the Compose files list, showing a checked compose.yaml and an unchecked README.md fetched live from the repository." />
    </Frame>

    Leave **Authentication** on **Public (no auth)** for a public repository, and **Apply behavior** on **Review only**, the safest default: a pull only stages a change plan for you to review, it never writes or deploys on its own. Select **Save**. Sencho runs a reachability check against the repository before persisting anything; if that check fails, nothing is saved and the sheet reports why.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Pull the latest commit">
    Now make a change the way your team actually would: edit the compose file in your repository (not in Sencho) and push a commit. For this tutorial, bump the pinned tag from `nginx:1.27-alpine` to `nginx:1.28-alpine` and push it to the ref you configured.

    Back in the Git Source sheet, select **Pull now**. Sencho fetches the ref's current commit and opens a classified change plan against what's on disk.

    <Frame>
      <img src="/images/tutorials/connect-a-git-source/pull-preview-diff.png" alt="GIT · CHANGE PLAN dialog for marketing-site, listing a Modify row for compose.yaml (image tag change) with Deploy after apply and Apply in the footer." />
    </Frame>

    The plan lists only the files that actually change. If the incoming compose file failed `docker compose config` validation, an error banner would appear here and the **Apply** button would stay disabled; since this pull is clean, Apply is enabled.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Apply and deploy in one step">
    Tick **Deploy after apply** at the bottom of the dialog, then select **Apply**. This both writes the incoming file to disk and runs `docker compose up -d` against it, so the running container picks up the new tag immediately instead of just staging the file for a later manual deploy.

    Sencho shows the deploy's progress the same way any other deploy does, ending in a health check on the recreated container.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Verify it worked

Check from two places, since neither alone proves the pull was actually applied and deployed.

**The Git Source sheet.** Reopen it. The header now shows the short SHA of the commit you just pulled and a state of `accepted`, meaning Sencho took that commit as the current generation rather than merely writing its files, and the footer shows when the source was last updated. The Status block offers no **Review** button, because nothing is waiting; if Sencho could not prove something (an unresolved image reference, for example), the block says how many items under **Evidence**.

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/tutorials/connect-a-git-source/last-applied-commit.png" alt="Git Source sheet for marketing-site with Apply behavior still on Review only, the header showing a short commit SHA and the state accepted, a Status block with no Review button, and a freshness line in the footer." />
</Frame>

**The stack itself.** Reopen `marketing-site`. The container recreated on the new image: a fresh uptime, and its logs now start with `nginx/1.28.3` instead of `1.27.5`. The compose editor tab reflects the same change; if it still shows the old tag, reload the page, since the editor buffer doesn't refresh itself after a Git-driven write.

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/tutorials/connect-a-git-source/stack-redeployed.png" alt="marketing-site stack page after redeploy, showing marketing-site-web-1 up about a minute, logs starting from nginx/1.28.3, and the compose editor showing image nginx:1.28-alpine." />
</Frame>

## If something goes wrong

**Saving the source fails with "The configured branch, tag, or commit was not found," even though the URL is right.** Ref names are case-sensitive, and a typo there (`Main` instead of `main`, for example) surfaces as a distinct not-found error rather than a repository error, because Sencho resolves the ref on the remote before fetching. Double-check the ref against what your Git host actually shows before assuming the URL itself is wrong.

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/tutorials/connect-a-git-source/branch-error.png" alt="Git Source sheet with Ref set to the incorrect value Main, and a red error toast in the corner reading The configured branch, tag, or commit was not found." />
</Frame>

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Git Sources" icon="code-branch" href="/features/git-sources">
    Multi-file sources, the apply modes, polling, and the troubleshooting table.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Git hosts and authentication" icon="key" href="/features/git-authentication">
    Private repositories over HTTPS tokens or SSH deploy keys, and custom certificate authorities.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Deploy a Stack Automatically From Your CI Pipeline" icon="satellite-dish" href="/tutorials/set-up-a-webhook">
    Trigger a Git source sync from CI when your pipeline already calls Sencho, or use provider hooks on the Git Source sheet when the Git host can post events directly.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>