FTPilot

VS Code extension: build your project and FTP-deploy it to a cPanel server (or multiple domains/subdomains) with one click, from a dedicated deploy git branch.

What it does

1. You work on a deploy branch (name configurable).
2. Click Deploy in the status bar (or run FTPilot: Deploy / Redeploy).
3. FTPilot runs each target's build command, diffs the output against the last deploy, and uploads only what changed over FTP — to as many domains/subdomains as you've configured (e.g. frontend on app.example.com, backend API on api.example.com).
4. If a target is a cPanel "Setup Node.js App" (Passenger) backend, it touches tmp/restart.txt after upload to restart it.

Setup

1. Open your project folder in VS Code with this extension installed.
2. Run FTPilot: Configure Project from the Command Palette.
3. Answer the prompts: deploy branch name, FTP host/port/protocol, default FTP credentials, upload mode (incremental or full), then add one target per domain/subdomain (local build folder → remote folder, build command, optional Passenger restart file, optional separate FTP login for that subdomain).
4. This writes .ftbdeploy/config.json (safe to commit — no secrets in it) and opens it for review/editing.

Credentials are stored in VS Code's encrypted SecretStorage, never written to disk in the repo.

Commands

• FTPilot: Configure Project — run the setup wizard
• FTPilot: Deploy / Redeploy — build + upload (also the status bar button)
• FTPilot: Force Full Re-upload — ignore the manifest, re-upload everything for every target
• FTPilot: Set FTP Credentials — set/update credentials for the default account or a per-target override account
• FTPilot: Edit Config File — open .ftbdeploy/config.json
• FTPilot: Set Up AI Agent Deploy Skill (Claude Code, Copilot, …) — see below
• FTPilot: Scan Server Folder Structure — see below

AI agent setup (Claude Code, Copilot, …)

Run FTPilot: Set Up AI Agent Deploy Skill from the Command Palette (or the banner in the FTPilot panel when it isn't set up yet). It writes two files into your project, generated from the same source so they can't drift apart:

• .claude/skills/ftpilot-target-setup/SKILL.md — a Claude Code skill.
• .ftbdeploy/AGENTS.md — the same instructions in plain Markdown, for any other coding agent (Copilot, Cursor, Antigravity, …). If your project already has a root AGENTS.md and/or CLAUDE.md, a short pointer block is added there too (existing content is left untouched).

Once set up, telling your agent "this is ready to deploy" makes it fill in a target's Target Name, Working Directory and Build Command in .ftbdeploy/config.json by inspecting the project (package manager, build script, framework output folder). It never touches remoteDir, host, port, or FTP credentials — those stay your job, via the FTPilot panel or FTPilot: Set FTP Credentials.

Both files are meant to be committed, so every contributor's coding agent — and anyone who clones the repo later — gets the same behavior. Re-running the command updates them to the latest version (it asks before overwriting local edits).

Filling in remoteDir too

FTPilot: Scan Server Folder Structure (Command Palette, or the list-tree icon next to Connection in the panel) connects with your already-saved FTP credentials and writes the server's directory names only — never file contents, never the credentials themselves — to .ftbdeploy/remote-tree.json (gitignored, since it reflects a live server at scan time).

The agent skill above reads that file if present and proposes remoteDir for any target it can match unambiguously to a scanned folder, asking you to pick when a match is ambiguous or missing. It never guesses a remote path without that evidence. host/port/credentials are still entirely your job.

Config reference (.ftbdeploy/config.json)

{
  "deployBranch": "deploy",
  "warnIfNotOnBranch": true,
  "host": "ftp.yourdomain.com",
  "port": 21,
  "secure": false,           // true = FTPS (explicit TLS)
  "uploadMode": "incremental", // or "full"
  "targets": [
    {
      "name": "Frontend (app.example.com)",
      "buildCommand": "npm run build",
      "cwd": "client",
      "localDir": "client/build",
      "remoteDir": "/app.example.com"
    },
    {
      "name": "Backend (api.example.com)",
      "buildCommand": "npm run build",
      "cwd": "server",
      "localDir": "server/dist",
      "remoteDir": "/api.example.com",
      "restartFile": "/api.example.com/tmp/restart.txt",
      "ftpUser": "api-subdomain-ftp-user"
    }
  ]
}

ftpUser is optional — set it only when that subdomain has its own separate FTP login. Set its password via FTPilot: Set FTP Credentials using that same username as the account name.

Safety notes

• Incremental mode only ever deletes remote files that FTPilot itself uploaded in a previous deploy (tracked in .ftbdeploy/manifest.json, which is gitignored). It never wipes or clears a remote directory, so other projects/subdomains on the same cPanel account are never touched.
• Full mode overwrites files but also never deletes anything remote automatically.

Development

npm install
npm run compile   # or: npm run watch

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host and test commands there.

Contributing

Bug reports, feature requests, and PRs are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for the workflow (open an issue before starting on anything non-trivial, so effort isn't wasted on something out of scope). Maintained by @IshanKulkarni02.

Status

Early scaffold — built for a MERN + TypeScript project deployed to Apache/cPanel over plain FTP. Not yet published to the Marketplace; install locally via npm run package (produces a .vsix) then "Install from VSIX" in VS Code, or just run it via F5 during development.

License

MIT