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Companion Git Repositories are disabled as of November 3rd, 2025. You should now provide your Procfile and .aptible.yml files within your container image when deploying from Docker Image.

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What was a Companion Git Repository?

Initially, Aptible supported deploying applications only via Git: users provided a Dockerfile, and the platform built the app image. In June 2017, we added support for deploying pre-built Docker images. At that time, if you needed to define processes or migrations using a Procfile or .aptible.yml, those files still had to be provided via Git in addition to your image. This pattern of providing configuration files via Git was known as a Companion Git Repository. In January 2018, we added support to provide Procfiles and .aptible.yml within Docker Images. At that time we indicated that the Companion Git Repository was deprecated, but gave an indefinite timeline for customers to migrate. Final deprecation was announced in September 2025, and as of November 3rd, 2025, companion git repositories are no longer supported. Attempts to deploy will fail with the following message:
You are attempting to deploy with a Companion Git Repository, but this functionality has been deprecated and is no longer supported

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What impact will this have on me?

Hopefully, none! Fewer than 2% of apps hosted on Aptible at the time of deprecation used a Companion Git Repository, and even fewer included a Procfile or .aptible.yml. Since there is no functional difference in how these files are provided, migrating off the disabled method will not affect app behavior. We have notified impacted customers directly and provided them with a list of affected apps, and the majority of impacted customers have already migrated. Unless you migrate, impacted apps will fail to deploy.

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How do I migrate?

  1. If you have a Procfile or .aptible.yml file in your repository, you must embed it in your Docker image. To do so, follow the instructions at Procfiles and .aptible.yml with Direct Docker Image Deploy.
  2. If you modified your image to add the Procfile or .aptible.yml, rebuild your image and push it again.
  3. Deploy using aptible deploy as documented in using aptible deploy, with one exception: the first time you deploy (you don’t need to do it again), add the --git-detach flag to this command.
In some cases, you’ll find neither your Procfile or .aptible.yml are being provided via a Companion Git Repo, and you can skip right to step 3.