A site that's already live is served from a plain folder. XenoDeploy moves it into releases beside that folder, never inside it, and the site keeps being served from the old folder until you switch.
Import the project
Use Import Project… instead of Add Project: the environment is marked as waiting to be adopted, and Deploy refuses until it is.
Adopt
Choose Adopt… and give the folder the site is served from today (on DreamHost, ~/<domain>). The plan shows:
- where the releases go, beside the old folder
- the shared paths it copies out of the old folder (uploads,
.env) - server-only files: files in the old folder that aren't in your project. Add each to the project, make it shared, or leave it behind.
- crontab lines that name the old folder, with what they should say instead (XenoDeploy never edits your crontab)
Adopt deploys the first release beside the old folder. Nothing in the old folder changes.
Switch, then Finish
Point the site's web directory at the new current folder; the wizard shows the exact value for your host's panel. Then click Finish: whatever was uploaded to the old folder in between is copied across, and the site is checked from current. Where the web directory can't change, Swap Instead renames the old folder and puts a link in its place.
Archive the old folder
Once you're sure the site is right, Archive Old Root makes a tarball of the old folder beside it. XenoDeploy never deletes it; that's yours to do.