Put your code in a git repository

What this page is for. Turn the 6ammart file you downloaded from CodeCanyon into a private git repository, so SixPanel can install from it and update it later with one button.

You need

• The 6ammart file you bought on CodeCanyon, unzipped on your own computer.
• A free account on GitHub, GitLab or Gitea. This page uses GitHub. The other two work the same way, with different button names.
• About twenty minutes. You do this once.

Do you have to do this?

No. SixPanel installs your 6ammart code either from a git repository or from the CodeCanyon zip you already have — both are on the Deploys page, side by side, and the zip path needs nothing on this page.

Git is still worth the twenty minutes, because it is what makes the rest of this manual work:

• Get the latest code brings a new version to the live server with one button press, showing you exactly what changed first.
• Roll back puts the last working version back. "The last version" only means something when there is a history.
• Automatic deploys can update the server every time you push.

A project installed from a zip is updated by uploading the next zip, which works and is honest about what it costs: you see less of what changed, and there are no automatic deploys.

The repository must be private

Decide this before you create anything — the repository must be private. You cannot undo making one public. People and search engines copy public code within minutes, and making it private again does not take those copies back.

Two reasons:

• The 6ammart code is licensed to you. A public repository hands it to everybody, and that breaks the licence you paid for.
• 6ammart carries a settings file named .env. People add mail passwords and payment keys to that file and send it to the repository without noticing. In a private repository that is a mistake you can fix. In a public one it is a leak.

Every step below keeps the repository private. Check the setting twice.

1. Find the Laravel root

This is the step people get wrong, and a wrong folder here breaks the install later.

Unzip what you downloaded. Inside there are usually several folders: the admin code (Laravel), the customer website (React), the mobile apps, and documentation.

Open them until you find the folder that holds a file named artisan. Next to artisan you also see folders named app, config, public and routes. That folder is the Laravel root. It is the only part SixPanel installs.

artisan must end up at the top of your repository, not inside a folder inside it. If SixPanel downloads your repository and finds no artisan, the install fails.

2. Leave out what does not belong

Look inside the Laravel root for a folder named vendor. It holds thousands of library files. SixPanel installs those on the server by itself, so they do not belong in the repository.

Create a file named .gitignore in the Laravel root, holding these two lines:

/vendor
/node_modules

If the Laravel root already has a .gitignore, open it and make sure both lines are in it. Files whose name starts with a dot are hidden by default. In Notepad, choose File → Save as, set Save as type to All Files, and type the name with quotation marks: ".gitignore". On Mac, press Command+Shift+. in Finder to show hidden files.

GitHub refuses any single file bigger than 100 MB. Nothing in a normal Laravel root is that big once vendor is left out. If a push is refused because of a large file, remove that file from the folder and send it again.

3a. Create the repository — GitHub Desktop

This way needs no commands.

1. Open https://github.com and sign in. Create a free account if you have none.
2. Download GitHub Desktop from https://desktop.github.com and install it.
3. Open GitHub Desktop and sign in with the same account.
4. Choose File → New repository…
5. Set Name to 6ammart-admin. Set Local path to any folder on your computer. Leave the other boxes as they are. Press Create repository.
6. Open the folder it made: Repository → Show in Explorer on Windows, or Repository → Show in Finder on Mac.
7. Copy everything inside your Laravel root into that folder, artisan included. Copy the contents, not the Laravel root folder itself. When you are finished, artisan sits directly in the new folder.
8. Go back to GitHub Desktop. The list on the left fills with your files. Type first import in the Summary box at the bottom left, then press Commit to main.

Read this before the last step — the last step sends your code to GitHub, and that cannot be taken back. In the box that opens, Keep this code private must stay ticked. If you publish it public by mistake, delete the repository at once and make a new one — but treat the code as seen by others.

Last step. Press Publish repository at the top. In the box, check that Keep this code private is ticked, then press Publish repository.

3b. Create the repository — the terminal

Use this instead of the section above if you prefer commands.

First make the empty repository on GitHub:

1. On https://github.com, press + at the top right, then New repository.
2. Set Repository name to 6ammart-admin.
3. Choose Private.
4. Do not tick anything under Initialize this repository with.
5. Press Create repository.

Then open a terminal in your Laravel root — the folder that holds artisan — and run these five commands:

git init -b main
git add .
git commit -m "first import"
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR-NAME/6ammart-admin.git
git push -u origin main

Replace YOUR-NAME with your GitHub user name. The last command asks you to sign in.

4. Copy the address SixPanel needs

Open your repository page on GitHub. Press the green Code button and choose HTTPS. The address looks like this:

https://github.com/YOUR-NAME/6ammart-admin.git

That address goes into Git repository URL in the panel. The branch is main.

Use the https:// address for the first install. The panel signs in with an access token you paste once; the next section explains what happens after that.

5. How SixPanel signs in to a private repository

There are two moments, and they are answered differently.

The first install: an access token you paste once

Make a token on GitHub: Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens. Give it read access to this one repository and nothing else. Paste it into Access token on the Deploys page.

SixPanel puts the token into the download address for that one command, then writes the plain address back. The token is not kept on the server. That is deliberate: a token stored on a server is a token that can leak from it.

Every deploy after that: a read-only key the panel makes itself

Because the token is not kept, the server needs its own way in for later pulls and for automatic deploys. The panel issues one:

1. Open Deploys and start Set up automatic deploys (or open the read access card on the repository's section).
2. Press Create the key. The panel generates a read-only SSH key for this one repository, keeps the private half in its own data directory where only root can read it, and shows you the public half.
3. Copy that public half into your repository: GitHub → Settings → Deploy keys → Add deploy key. Give it any title. Leave "Allow write access" OFF.
4. Press Check again. The panel tries a real read against your repository and tells you whether it worked.

What that buys you, compared with leaving a token on the server:

• it can only read — a leak cannot rewrite your code;
• it is scoped to one repository, not to your whole account;
• you can revoke it from that repository's own settings page, per server, without touching anything else;
• it is a key, not a bearer token, so pasting it into a support thread by accident gives nobody anything.

The admin app and the customer website each get their own key. Replace the key issues a new one; the old one stops working immediately, so you have to paste the new one in.

How to check it worked

• The repository page on GitHub shows a Private label next to its name.
• The file list on that page shows artisan at the top level.
• There is no vendor folder in that list.
• Code → HTTPS gives an address that ends in .git.
• After the install, the read access card on the Deploys page shows working.

You are ready for Install your 6ammart code.

If it went wrong

GitHub Desktop lists tens of thousands of files The .gitignore from step 2 is missing, or it is not in the same folder as artisan. Add it, and the list drops to a few thousand.

The push was refused because a file is too large GitHub allows no single file over 100 MB. The message names the file. Remove it from the folder and commit again. Files that big are almost always inside vendor or node_modules, which step 2 leaves out.

The panel's install cannot find artisan You copied the Laravel root folder instead of its contents, so artisan sits one level down. Move everything up one level in the repository and commit again.

The clone step fails with a private repository A token only works with an https:// address, and a private repository with no token fails here. Paste a read token into Access token for the install.

Update says it could not read the repository The server has no read access of its own yet. Create the deploy key in section 5 and paste it into the repository. That is the whole fix, and it takes two minutes.

More causes and fixes: When something is broken.