GitHub Actions for deploying to GitHub Pages

A GitHub Action to deploy your static site to GitHub Pages with Static Site Generators (Hugo, MkDocs, Gatsby, GitBook, etc.)

Table of Contents

• Getting started
  • (1) Add ssh deploy key
  • (2) Create .github/workflows/gh-pages.yml
    • ⭐️ Repository type - Project
    • ⭐️ Repository type - User and Organization
  • Options
    • ⭐️ Pull action image from Docker Hub
    • ⭐️ PERSONAL_TOKEN
    • ⭐️ GITHUB_TOKEN
    • ⭐️ Suppressing empty commits
    • ⭐️ Keeping existing files
• Tips and FAQ
  • How to add CNAME
  • Deployment completed but you cannot read
• Examples
  • Static Site Generators with Node.js
  • Gatsby
  • React and Next
  • Vue and Nuxt
  • Static Site Generators with Python
• License
• About the author

Getting started

(1) Add ssh deploy key

Generate your deploy key with the following command.

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "$(git config user.email)" -f gh-pages -N ""
# You will get 2 files:
#   gh-pages.pub (public key)
#   gh-pages     (private key)

Next, Go to Repository Settings

• Go to Deploy Keys and add your public key with the Allow write access
• Go to Secrets and add your private key as ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY

Add your public key	Success

Add your private key	Success

(2) Create .github/workflows/gh-pages.yml

⭐️ Repository type - Project

An example workflow for Hugo.

• peaceiris/actions-hugo: GitHub Actions for Hugo

name: github pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - master

jobs:
  build-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@master
      # with:
      #   submodules: true

    - name: Setup Hugo
      uses: peaceiris/actions-hugo@v2.2.0
      with:
        hugo-version: '0.58.3'

    - name: Build
      run: hugo --gc --minify --cleanDestinationDir

    - name: Deploy
      uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v2.4.0
      env:
        ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
        PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
        PUBLISH_DIR: ./public

The above example is for Project Pages sites. (<username>/<project_name> repository)

Actions log overview	Build step log

Deploy step log	GitHub Pages log

⭐️ Repository type - User and Organization

For User and Organization Pages sites (<username>/<username>.github.io repository), we have to set master branch to PUBLISH_BRANCH.

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - source  # default branch

PUBLISH_BRANCH: master  # deploying branch

Options

⭐️ Pull action image from Docker Hub

You can pull a public docker image from Docker Hub. By pulling docker images, you can reduce the overall execution time of your workflow. In addition, latest tag is provided.

- uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v2.4.0
+ uses: docker://peaceiris/gh-pages:v2.4.0

• peaceiris/gh-pages - Docker Hub

⭐️ PERSONAL_TOKEN

Generate a personal access token (repo) and add it to Secrets as PERSONAL_TOKEN, it works as well as ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY.

- ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
+ PERSONAL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_TOKEN }}

⭐️ GITHUB_TOKEN

NOTES: Do not use GITHUB_TOKEN.

This action supports GITHUB_TOKEN but it has some problems to deploy to GitHub Pages. GitHub team is investigating that. See Issue #9

- ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
+ GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

⭐️ Suppressing empty commits

By default, a commit will always be generated and pushed to the PUBLISH_BRANCH, even if nothing changed. If you want to suppress this behavior, set the optional parameter emptyCommits to false. cf. Issue #21

For example:

- name: Deploy
  uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v2.4.0
  env:
    ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
    PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
    PUBLISH_DIR: ./public
  with:
    emptyCommits: false

⭐️ Keeping existing files

By default, existing files in the publish branch are removed before adding the ones from publish dir. If you want the action to add new files but leave existing ones untouched, set the optional parameter keepFiles to true.

For example:

- name: Deploy
  uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v2.4.0
  env:
    ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
    PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
    PUBLISH_DIR: ./public
  with:
    keepFiles: true

Tips and FAQ

How to add CNAME

Most of the Static Site Generators support CNAME as a static file.

• Use a Custom Domain | Hugo
• Using the Static folder | GatsbyJS

The same may be said of other files (.nojekyll, BingSiteAuth.xml, robots.txt, etc.). It is better to manage those files by Static Site Generators.

Deployment completed but you cannot read

Does your PUBLISH_DIR contain files or directories that name starts with an underscore? (_modules, _sources and _next, etc.) GitHub Pages does not read those by default. Please add .nojekyll file to PUBLISH_DIR.

• Bypassing Jekyll on GitHub Pages - The GitHub Blog

It is now possible to completely bypass Jekyll processing on GitHub Pages by creating a file named .nojekyll in the root of your pages repo and pushing it to GitHub. This should only be necessary if your site uses files or directories that start with underscores since Jekyll considers these to be special resources and does not copy them to the final site.

Examples

Static Site Generators with Node.js

hexo, gitbook, vuepress, react-static, gridsome, etc.

Premise: Dependencies are managed by package.json and package-lock.json

name: github pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - master

jobs:
  build-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@master

    - name: build
      uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      with:
        node-version: '10.16'
    - run: |
        npm install
        npm run build

    - name: deploy
      uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v2.4.0
      env:
        ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
        PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
        PUBLISH_DIR: ./public

Gatsby

An example for Gatsby (Gatsby.js) project with gatsby-starter-blog

name: github pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - master

jobs:
  build-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@master

    - name: setup node
      uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      with:
        node-version: '10.16'

    - name: install
      run: npm install

    - name: format
      run: npm run format

    - name: test
      run: npm run test

    - name: build
      run: npm run build

    - name: deploy
      uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v2.4.0
      env:
        ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
        PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
        PUBLISH_DIR: ./public

React and Next

An example for Next.js (React.js) project with create-next-app

• cf. Deploying a Next.js app into GitHub Pages · zeit/next.js Wiki

name: github pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - master

jobs:
  build-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@master

    - name: setup node
      uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      with:
        node-version: '10.16'

    - name: install
      run: yarn install

    - name: build
      run: yarn build

    - name: export
      run: yarn export

    - name: add nojekyll
      run: touch ./out/.nojekyll

    - name: deploy
      uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v2.4.0
      env:
        ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
        PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
        PUBLISH_DIR: ./out

Vue and Nuxt

An example for Nuxt.js (Vue.js) project with create-nuxt-app

• cf. GitHub Pages Deployment - Nuxt.js

name: github pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - master

jobs:
  build-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@master

    - name: setup node
      uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      with:
        node-version: '10.16'

    - name: install
      run: npm install

    - name: test
      run: npm test

    - name: generate
      run: npm run generate

    - name: deploy
      uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v2.4.0
      env:
        ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
        PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
        PUBLISH_DIR: ./dist

Static Site Generators with Python

pelican, MkDocs, sphinx, etc.

Premise: Dependencies are managed by requirements.txt

name: github pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - master

jobs:
  build-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v1

    - name: Set up Python
      uses: actions/setup-python@v1
      with:
        python-version: '3.6'
        architecture: 'x64'

    - name: Install dependencies
      run: |
        pip install --upgrade pip
        pip install -r ./requirements.txt

    - name: Build
      run: mkdocs build

    - name: Deploy
      uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v2.4.0
      env:
        ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
        PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
        PUBLISH_DIR: ./site

License

• MIT License - peaceiris/actions-gh-pages

About the author

• peaceiris's homepage