This is a lightweight solution for deploying single page apps with GitHub Pages. You can easily deploy a React single page app with React Router <BrowserRouter />, like the one in the demo app, or a single page app built with any frontend library or framework.
GitHub Pages doesn't natively support single page apps. When there is a fresh page load for a url like example.tld/foo, where /foo is a frontend route, the GitHub Pages server returns 404 because it knows nothing of /foo.
When the GitHub Pages server gets a request for a path defined with frontend routes, e.g. example.tld/foo, it returns a custom 404.html page. The custom 404.html page contains a script that takes the current url and converts the path and query string into just a query string, and then redirects the browser to the new url with only a query string and hash fragment. For example, example.tld/one/two?a=b&c=d#qwe, becomes example.tld/?/one/two&a=b~and~c=d#qwe.
The GitHub Pages server receives the new request, e.g. example.tld/?/..., ignores the query string and returns the index.html file, which has a script that checks for a redirect in the query string before the single page app is loaded. If a redirect is present it is converted back into the correct url and added to the browser's history with window.history.replaceState(...), but the browser won't attempt to load the new url. When the single page app is loaded further down in the index.html file, the correct url will be waiting in the browser's history for the single page app to route accordingly. (Note that these redirects are only needed with fresh page loads, and not when navigating within the single page app once it's loaded).
For general information on using GitHub Pages please see Getting Started with GitHub Pages, note that pages can be User, Organization or Project Pages
Basic instructions - there are two things you need from this repo for your single page app to run on GitHub Pages.
- Copy over the
404.htmlfile to your repo as is- Note that if you are setting up a Project Pages site and not using a custom domain (i.e. your site's address is
username.github.io/repo-name), then you need to setpathSegmentsToKeepto1in the404.htmlfile in order to keep/repo-namein the path after the redirect. If you are using React Router you'll need to tell it to use therepo-nameas thebasename, for example<BrowserRouter basename="/repo-name" />.
- Note that if you are setting up a Project Pages site and not using a custom domain (i.e. your site's address is
- Copy the redirect script in the
index.htmlfile and add it to yourindex.htmlfile - Note that the redirect script must be placed before your single page app script in yourindex.htmlfile.
Detailed instructions - using this repo as a boilerplate for a React single page app hosted with GitHub Pages. Note that this boilerplate is written in TypeScript but is setup to accept JavaScript files as well. It was previously written in JS and if you prefer a JS only boilerplate you can use version 6.
- Clone this repo (
$ git clone https://github.com/rafgraph/spa-github-pages.git) - Delete the
.gitdirectory (cdinto thespa-github-pagesdirectory and run$ rm -rf .git) - Instantiate the repository
- If you're using this boilerplate as a new repository
$ git initin thespa-github-pagesdirectory, and then$ git add .and$ git commit -m "Add SPA for GitHub Pages boilerplate"to initialize a fresh repository- If this will be a Project Pages site, then change the branch name from
maintogh-pages($ git branch -m gh-pages), if this will be a User or Organization Pages site, then leave the branch name asmain - Create an empty repo on GitHub.com (don't add a readme, gitignore or license), and add it as a remote to the local repo (
$ git remote add origin <your-new-github-repo-url>) - Feel free to rename the local
spa-github-pagesdirectory to anything you want (e.g.your-project-name)
- If you're adding this boilerplate as the
gh-pagesbranch of an existing repository- Create and checkout a new orphaned branch named
gh-pagesfor your existing repo ($ git checkout --orphan gh-pages), note that thegh-pagesbranch won't appear in the list of branches until you make your first commit - Delete all of the files and directories (except the
.gitdirectory) from the directory of your existing repo ($ git rm -rf .) - Copy all of the files and directories (including hidden dot files) from the cloned
spa-github-pagesdirectory into your project's now empty directory ($ mv path/to/spa-github-pages/{.[!.],}* path/to/your-projects-directory) $ git add .and$ git commit -m "Add SPA for GitHub Pages boilerplate"to instantiate thegh-pagesbranch
- Create and checkout a new orphaned branch named
- If you're using this boilerplate as a new repository
- Set up a custom domain (optional) - see GitHub Pages instructions for setting up a custom domain
- Update the
CNAMEfile with your custom domain, don't includehttps://, but do include a subdomain if desired, e.g.wwworyour-subdomain - Update your
CNAMEand/orArecord with your DNS provider - Run
$ dig your-subdomain.your-domain.tldto make sure it's set up properly with your DNS (don't includehttps://)
- Update the
- Set up without using a custom domain (optional)
- Delete the
CNAMEfile - If you are creating a User or Organization Pages site, then that's all you need to do
- If you are creating a Project Pages site, (i.e. your site's address is
username.github.io/repo-name):- Set
pathSegmentsToKeepto1in the404.htmlfile in order to keep/repo-namein the path after the redirect - Add your
repo-nameto the absolute path of assets inindex.html, change the bundle.js src to"/repo-name/build/bundle.js" - In React Router set the
basenameto/repo-namehere like<BrowserRouter basename="/repo-name" /> - In the start script in
package.jsonreplace--openwith--open-page repo-name - In
webpack.config.js:- Add
repo-nameto thepublicPathlikepublicPath: '/repo-name/build/' - Change the
historyApiFallback rewritestorewrites: [{ from: /\/repo-name\/[^?]/, to: '/404.html' }]
- Add
- Set
- Delete the
- Run
$ npm installto install React and other dependencies, and then run$ npm run buildto update the build $ git add .and$ git commit -m "Update boilerplate for use with my domain"and then push to GitHub ($ git push origin gh-pagesfor Project Pages or$ git push origin mainfor User or Organization Pages) - the example site should now be live on your domain- Create your own site
- Write your own React components, create your own routes, and add your own style
- Note that the example site is styled with Stitches and uses React Interactive for the links and other interactive components.
- Change the title in
index.htmland the title in404.htmlto your site's title - Remove the favicon links from the header of
index.htmland thefavicondirectory. - Update or delete
robots.txtandsitemap.txtas you see fit (see SEO section below for more info) - Change the readme, license and package.json as you see fit
- For testing changes locally see development environment info below
- To publish your changes to GitHub Pages run
$ npm run build(this runswebpack -pfor production) to update the build, then$ git commitand$ git pushto make your changes live
- Write your own React components, create your own routes, and add your own style
Serving from the /docs folder on the main branch - alternatively you can serve your site from the /docs folder instead of the root folder while your source code remains in the root folder.
- After following the previous set of instructions for using this repo as a boilerplate, create a
/docsfolder in the root and moveindex.html,404.htmland the/buildfolder into/docs - Add
--content-base docs/to the start script inpackage.json - In
webpack.config.jschange the output path topath: `${__dirname}/docs/build`, - On GitHub in your repo settings select the
/docsfolder as the source for GitHub Pages
I have included webpack-dev-server for testing changes locally. It can be accessed by running $ npm start (details below). Note that webpack-dev-server automatically creates a new bundle whenever the source files change and serves the bundle from memory, so you'll never see the bundle as a file saved to disk.
$ npm startruns the start script inpackage.json, which runs the command$ webpack-dev-server --host 0.0.0.0 --disable-host-check --open--host 0.0.0.0 --disable-host-checkis so you can access the site on your local network from other devices athttp://[YOUR COMPUTER'S IP ADDRESS]:8080--openwill open automatically open the site in your browser
webpack-dev-serverwill serveindex.htmlathttp://localhost:8080(port8080is the default). Note that you must load theindex.htmlfrom the server and not just open it directly in the browser or the scripts won't load.
When I first created this solution in 2016 Google treated the redirect in 404.html the same as a 301 redirect and indexed pages without issue. Around 2019 Google changed their algorithm and no longer follows redirects in 404.html. In order to have all the pages on your site indexed by Google you need to create a robots.txt and sitemap.txt file to let Google know what pages exist. The robots.txt file needs to contain the location of the sitemap, and the sitemap.txt file needs to contain the redirect links for each page of your site so the crawler doesn't get a 404 response when it requests the page. To make this easier I created a sitemap link generator that transforms normal links into redirect links to use in the sitemap. I have done this for the demo site (this repo) and you can see the pages indexed here. Note that since Google is no longer associating the redirect links with the real paths, incoming links from other sites won't help your site's page rank. If you are creating a site where page rank on generic search terms is important, then I'd suggest looking for another solution. Some options are using GitHub Pages with a static site generator like Gatsby which generates an html file for each page as part of its build process, or hosting your single page app on a service that has native support for spas, like Netlify.
- The
.nojekyllfile in this repo turns off Jekyll for GitHub Pages - One of the great things about the GitHub Pages CDN is that all files are automatically compressed with gzip, so no need to worry about compressing your JavaScript, HTML or CSS files for production
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