Use Deploy Previews to comment on a Pull Request

CloudCannon can use Deploy Previews to automatically post a comment to the Pull Request in your Git Provider. Each comment includes the following details:

• The Site Name and the branch it tracks
• The Site's current Build Status on CloudCannon (e.g., Ready, Building, Build Failed, or Not configured)
• A View Testing Domain link that opens the Site's Testing Domain
• An Open Site link that opens the Site Dashboard in CloudCannon
• A View Build Logs link that opens the Builds tab on your Site Dashboard
• A Latest Commit link (shown as the short commit SHA) that opens the latest commit on your Git Provider

If multiple Sites are connected to the same branch, CloudCannon renders the details as a table with one row per Site, including both manually connected Sites and Sites that CloudCannon created automatically for the Pull Request.

If no Sites are connected yet, the automatic comment links to your Project so you can connect one.

Automatic comments can be useful for teams where some members review Pull Requests in their Git Provider (e.g., developers reviewing code changes alongside the diff), and other members manage content from inside CloudCannon. Deploy Previews bridge this gap by posting the Testing Domain, Build Status, and links back to your Site directly on the Pull Request, so reviewers can preview changes and open the Site without leaving their Git Provider.

You can turn on Pull Request comments via Deploy Previews for any Project in CloudCannon by configuring Deploy Previews, including custom footer content and whether CloudCannon does this for draft Pull Requests.

Posting and updating Pull Request comments#

By default, CloudCannon posts the Pull Request comment via Deploy Preview when a Team Member opens a Pull Request for a branch in your Project. CloudCannon updates that comment after any of the following triggers:

• A Pull Request event is received (opened, reopened, ready for review, edited, and so on).
• A Site linked to the Pull Request changes branch, is renamed, or has its stable domain updated.
• A Site is created for the Pull Request (including automatically created Sites).
• A build on a connected Site completes, so the status and commit information stay current.

Rather than create a new comment after any of these triggers, CloudCannon always updates the existing comment and moves the comment to the most recent event on your Pull Request timeline (e.g., your Conversation in GitHub, Discussion in GitLab, and Overview in Bitbucket). CloudCannon identifies its own comment using a hidden HTML marker scoped to your Organization. Editing or reacting to a comment from your Git Provider does not affect CloudCannon's ability to update it.

Manually refreshing Deploy Preview comments#

CloudCannon updates Deploy Preview comments automatically when Pull Requests, Sites, or builds change. Refresh Deploy Preview comments is an option in the Context Menu on the Project page that triggers an immediate refresh, without waiting for the next event.

Selecting this option re-runs the comment posting and updating flow for every Site on the Project. CloudCannon updates the comment on each open Pull Request.

A manual refresh is useful when Deploy Previews settings change and existing comments should reflect the new content immediately, when CloudCannon's automatic comment failed to post or was deleted from the Pull Request, or when debugging Deploy Preview comment behavior.

The comment footer#

By default, each comment has a footer with the text "Deployed by CloudCannon." You can append extra content to this footer, for example, including useful links to internal review checklists, tagging reviewers, or pointing at documentation specific to your team.

Skipping draft Pull Requests#

You can skip automatic comment posting for draft Pull Requests. Once a Pull Request is marked as ready for review, CloudCannon posts a comment.

Disabling automatic comments#

If you disable automatic comments on your Project, CloudCannon does not delete any existing comments in your Git Repository. Instead, CloudCannon reconciles every open Pull Request in the Project and rewrites its automatic comment with a short notice explaining that Pull Request comments have been disabled.

The same reconciliation runs if you mark a Pull Request as a draft or change the content of the comment footer. Pull Requests that were previously eligible are updated with the disabled notice, and Pull Requests that are newly eligible are back-filled with a fresh Deploy Preview comment.