This is a GitHub Action to deploy your static files to GitHub Pages. This deploy action can be combined simply and freely with Static Site Generators. (Hugo, MkDocs, Gatsby, mdBook, Next, Nuxt, and so on.)
The next example step will deploy ./public
directory to the remote gh-pages
branch.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
For newbies of GitHub Actions:
Note that the GITHUB_TOKEN
is NOT a personal access token.
A GitHub Actions runner automatically creates a GITHUB_TOKEN
secret to authenticate in your workflow.
So, you can start to deploy immediately without any configuration.
Three tokens are supported.
Token | Private repo | Public repo | Protocol | Setup |
---|---|---|---|---|
github_token |
✅️ | ✅️ | HTTPS | Unnecessary |
deploy_key |
✅️ | ✅️ | SSH | Necessary |
personal_token |
✅️ | ✅️ | HTTPS | Necessary |
Notes: Actually, the GITHUB_TOKEN
works for deploying to GitHub Pages but it has still some limitations.
For the first deployment, we need to select the gh-pages
branch or another branch on the repository settings tab.
See First Deployment with GITHUB_TOKEN
All Actions runners: Linux (Ubuntu), macOS, and Windows are supported.
runs-on | github_token |
deploy_key |
personal_token |
---|---|---|---|
ubuntu-20.04 | ✅️ | ✅️ | ✅️ |
ubuntu-18.04 | ✅️ | ✅️ | ✅️ |
macos-latest | ✅️ | ✅️ | ✅️ |
windows-latest | ✅️ | (2) | ✅️ |
- WIP, See Issue #87
✅️ GitHub Enterprise Server is supported above 2.22.6
.
Note that the GITHUB_TOKEN
that is created by the runner might not inherently have push/publish privileges on GHES. You might need to create/request a technical user with write permissions to your target repository.
- Getting started
- Options
- ⭐️ Set Runner's Access Token
github_token
- ⭐️ Set SSH Private Key
deploy_key
- ⭐️ Set Personal Access Token
personal_token
- ⭐️ Set Another GitHub Pages Branch
publish_branch
- ⭐️ Source Directory
publish_dir
- ⭐️ Deploy to Subdirectory
destination_dir
- ⭐️ Filter publishing assets
exclude_assets
- ⭐️ Add CNAME file
cname
- ⭐️ Enable Built-in Jekyll
enable_jekyll
- ⭐️ Allow empty commits
allow_empty_commit
- ⭐️ Keeping existing files
keep_files
- ⭐️ Deploy to external repository
external_repository
- ⭐️ Force orphan
force_orphan
- ⭐️ Set Git username and email
- ⭐️ Set custom commit message
- ⭐️ Create Git tag
- ⭐️ Set Runner's Access Token
- Tips and FAQ
- Examples
- License
- Maintainer
Add your workflow file .github/workflows/gh-pages.yml
and push it to your remote default branch.
Here is an example workflow for Hugo.
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main # Set a branch name to trigger deployment
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
with:
submodules: true # Fetch Hugo themes (true OR recursive)
fetch-depth: 0 # Fetch all history for .GitInfo and .Lastmod
- name: Setup Hugo
uses: peaceiris/actions-hugo@v2
with:
hugo-version: '0.79.1'
- name: Build
run: hugo --minify
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
Actions log overview | GitHub Pages log |
---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
This option is for GITHUB_TOKEN
, not a personal access token.
A GitHub Actions runner automatically creates a GITHUB_TOKEN
secret to use in your workflow. You can use the GITHUB_TOKEN
to authenticate in a workflow run.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
For more details about GITHUB_TOKEN
: Authenticating with the GITHUB_TOKEN - GitHub Help
Read Create SSH Deploy Key, create your SSH deploy key, and set the deploy_key
option like the following.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
deploy_key: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
publish_dir: ./public
Generate a personal access token (repo
) and add it to Secrets as PERSONAL_TOKEN
, it works as well as ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY
.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
personal_token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
Set a branch name to use as GitHub Pages branch.
The default is gh-pages
.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_branch: your-branch # default: gh-pages
A source directory to deploy to GitHub Pages. The default is public
.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./out # default: public
This feature is on beta. Any feedback is welcome at Issue #324
A destination subdirectory on a publishing branch. The default is empty.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
destination_dir: subdir
This feature is on beta. Any feedback is welcome at Issue #163
Set files or directories to exclude from publishing assets.
The default is .github
.
Values should be split with a comma.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
exclude_assets: '.github,exclude-file1,exclude-file2'
Set exclude_assets
to empty for including the .github
directory to deployment assets.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
deploy_key: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }} # Recommended for this usage
# personal_token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_TOKEN }} # An alternative
# github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} # This does not work for this usage
exclude_assets: ''
The exclude_assets
option supports glob patterns.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
exclude_assets: '.github,exclude-file.txt,exclude-dir/**.txt'
To add the CNAME
file, we can set the cname
option.
Alternatively, put your CNAME
file into your publish_dir
. (e.g. public/CNAME
)
For more details about the CNAME
file, read the official documentation: Managing a custom domain for your GitHub Pages site - GitHub Help
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
cname: github.com
If you want GitHub Pages to process your site with the static site generator Jekyll, set enable_jekyll
to true.
github/personal-website is one of the examples using GitHub Pages built-in Jekyll.
By default, this action signals to GitHub Pages that the site shall not be processed with Jekyll. This is done by adding an empty .nojekyll
file when publishing to the master or gh-pages branch. When a .nojekyll
file already exists, this action does nothing.
Bypassing Jekyll makes the deployment faster and is necessary if you are deploying files or directories that start with underscores, since Jekyll considers these to be special resources and does not copy them to the final site. You only need to set enable_jekyll
to true when you want to deploy a Jekyll-powered website and let GitHub Pages do the Jekyll processing.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
enable_jekyll: true
For more details about .nojekyll
: Bypassing Jekyll on GitHub Pages - The GitHub Blog
By default, a commit will not be generated when no file changes. If you want to allow an empty commit, set the optional parameter allow_empty_commit
to true
.
For example:
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
allow_empty_commit: true
By default, existing files in the publish branch (or only in destination_dir
if given) will be removed. If you want the action to add new files but leave existing ones untouched, set the optional parameter keep_files
to true
.
Note that users who are using a Static Site Generator do not need this option in most cases. Please reconsider your project structure and building scripts, or use a built-in feature of a Static Site Generator before you enable this flag.
For example:
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
keep_files: true
With the v3, this option does not support working with the force_orphan option. The next major release (version 4) will support this. See the issue #455
By default, your files are published to the repository which is running this action.
If you want to publish to another repository on GitHub, set the environment variable external_repository
to <username>/<external-repository>
.
For example:
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
deploy_key: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
external_repository: username/external-repository
publish_branch: your-branch # default: gh-pages
publish_dir: ./public
You can use deploy_key
or personal_token
.
When you use deploy_key
, set your private key to the repository which includes this action and set your public key to your external repository.
Note that GITHUB_TOKEN
has no permission to access to external repositories. Please create a personal access token and set it to personal_token
like personal_token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_TOKEN }}
.
Use case:
A GitHub Free Plan account cannot use the GitHub Pages in a private repository. To make your source contents private and deploy it with the GitHub Pages, you can deploy your site from a private repository to a public repository using this option.
peaceiris/homepage
: A private repository running this action withexternal_repository: peaceiris/peaceiris.github.io
peaceiris/peaceiris.github.io
: A public repository using GitHub Pages
We can set the force_orphan: true
option.
This allows you to make your publish branch with only the latest commit.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
force_orphan: true
Set custom git config user.name
and git config user.email
.
A commit is always created with the same user.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
user_name: 'github-actions[bot]'
user_email: 'github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com'
Set a custom commit message.
When we create a commit with a message docs: Update some post
, a deployment commit will be generated with a message docs: Update some post ${GITHUB_SHA}
.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
commit_message: ${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}
To set a full custom commit message without a triggered commit hash,
use the full_commit_message
option instead of the commit_message
option.
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
full_commit_message: ${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}
Here is an example workflow.
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
tags:
- 'v*.*.*'
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Some build
- name: Prepare tag
id: prepare_tag
if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
run: |
TAG_NAME="${GITHUB_REF##refs/tags/}"
echo "::set-output name=tag_name::${TAG_NAME}"
echo "::set-output name=deploy_tag_name::deploy-${TAG_NAME}"
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
tag_name: ${{ steps.prepare_tag.outputs.deploy_tag_name }}
tag_message: 'Deployment ${{ steps.prepare_tag.outputs.tag_name }}'
Commands on a local machine.
$ # On a main branch
$ git tag -a "v1.2.3" -m "Release v1.2.3"
$ git push origin "v1.2.3"
$ # After deployment
$ git fetch origin
$ git tag
deploy-v1.2.3 # Tag on the gh-pages branch
v1.2.3 # Tag on the main branch
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 |
---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
The GITHUB_TOKEN
has limitations for the first deployment so we have to select the GitHub Pages branch on the repository settings tab. After that, do the second deployment like the following pictures.
First deployment failed | Go to the settings tab |
---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
Select branch | Deploying again and succeed |
---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
We recommend you to use the latest and specific release of this action for stable CI/CD. It is useful to watch this repository (release only) to check the latest release of this action.
For continuous updating, we can use the GitHub native Dependabot.
Here is an example configuration of the bot. The config file is located in .github/dependabot.yml
.
version: 2
updates:
- package-ecosystem: "github-actions"
directory: "/"
schedule:
interval: "daily"
labels:
- "CI/CD"
commit-message:
prefix: ci
See the official documentation for more details about the Dependabot: Keeping your dependencies updated automatically - GitHub Docs
For deploying regularly, we can set the on.schedule
workflow trigger.
See Scheduled events | Events that trigger workflows - GitHub Docs
For deploying manually, we can set the on.workflow_dispatch
workflow trigger.
See Manual events workflow_dispatch
| Events that trigger workflows - GitHub Docs
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
schedule:
- cron: "22 22 * * *"
workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
...
hexo, vuepress, react-static, gridsome, create-react-app and so on.
Please check where your output directory is before pushing your workflow.
e.g. create-react-app
requires publish_dir
to be set to ./build
Premise: Dependencies are managed by package.json
and package-lock.json
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Setup Node
uses: actions/[email protected]
with:
node-version: '12.x'
- name: Cache dependencies
uses: actions/cache@v2
with:
path: ~/.npm
key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-node-
- run: npm ci
- run: npm run build
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
An example for Gatsby (Gatsby.js) project with gatsby-starter-blog
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Setup Node
uses: actions/[email protected]
with:
node-version: '12.x'
- name: Cache dependencies
uses: actions/cache@v2
with:
path: ~/.npm
key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-node-
- run: npm ci
- run: npm run format
- run: npm run test
- run: npm run build
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
An example for Next.js (React.js) project with create-next-app
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Setup Node
uses: actions/[email protected]
with:
node-version: '12.x'
- name: Get yarn cache
id: yarn-cache
run: echo "::set-output name=dir::$(yarn cache dir)"
- name: Cache dependencies
uses: actions/cache@v2
with:
path: ${{ steps.yarn-cache.outputs.dir }}
key: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn-${{ hashFiles('**/yarn.lock') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-yarn-
- run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
- run: yarn build
- run: yarn export
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./out
An example for Nuxt.js (Vue.js) project with create-nuxt-app
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Setup Node
uses: actions/[email protected]
with:
node-version: '12.x'
- name: Cache dependencies
uses: actions/cache@v2
with:
path: ~/.npm
key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-node-
- run: npm ci
- run: npm test
- run: npm run generate
- name: deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./dist
An example workflow for Docusaurus.
npx @docusaurus/init@next init website classic
is useful to create a new Docusaurus project.
# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
paths:
- '.github/workflows/deploy.yml'
- 'website/**'
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
defaults:
run:
working-directory: website
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Setup Node
uses: actions/[email protected]
with:
node-version: '12.x'
- name: Get yarn cache
id: yarn-cache
run: echo "::set-output name=dir::$(yarn cache dir)"
- name: Cache dependencies
uses: actions/cache@v2
with:
path: ${{ steps.yarn-cache.outputs.dir }}
key: ${{ runner.os }}-website-${{ hashFiles('**/yarn.lock') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-website-
- run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
- run: yarn build
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./website/build
pelican, MkDocs, sphinx, and so on.
Premise: Dependencies are managed by requirements.txt
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Setup Python
uses: actions/setup-python@v2
with:
python-version: '3.8'
- name: Upgrade pip
run: |
# install pip=>20.1 to use "pip cache dir"
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
- name: Get pip cache dir
id: pip-cache
run: echo "::set-output name=dir::$(pip cache dir)"
- name: Cache dependencies
uses: actions/cache@v2
with:
path: ${{ steps.pip-cache.outputs.dir }}
key: ${{ runner.os }}-pip-${{ hashFiles('**/requirements.txt') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-pip-
- name: Install dependencies
run: python3 -m pip install -r ./requirements.txt
- run: mkdocs build
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./site
An example GitHub Actions workflow to deploy rust-lang/mdBook site to GitHub Pages.
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Setup mdBook
uses: peaceiris/actions-mdbook@v1
with:
mdbook-version: '0.4.5'
# mdbook-version: 'latest'
- run: mdbook build
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./book
An exapmle workflow for Flutter web project.
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Setup Flutter
run: |
git clone https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git --depth 1 -b beta _flutter
echo "${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/_flutter/bin" >> ${GITHUB_PATH}
- name: Install
run: |
flutter config --enable-web
flutter pub get
- name: Build
run: flutter build web
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./build/web
An example workflow for Elm.
name: github pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Setup Node
uses: actions/[email protected]
with:
node-version: '12.x'
- name: Setup Elm
run: npm install elm --global
- name: Make
run: elm make --optimize src/Main.elm
- name: Move files
run: |
mkdir ./public
mv ./index.html ./public/
# If you have non-minimal setup with some assets and separate html/js files,
# provide --output=<output-file> option for `elm make` and remove this step
- name: Deploy
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./public
- github/personal-website - Code that'll help you kickstart a personal website that showcases your work as a software developer.
# .github/workflows/github-pages.yml
name: GitHub Pages
on:
push:
branches:
- master
schedule:
- cron: '24 */24 * * *' # Once a day
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./
allow_empty_commit: true
enable_jekyll: true
cname: github.peaceiris.com
An example workflow for JohnSundell/Publish.
name: GitHub Pages
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: macos-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- uses: actions/cache@v2
with:
path: |
~/Publish_build
.build
key: ${{ runner.os }}-spm-${{ hashFiles('**/Package.resolved') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-spm-
- name: Setup JohnSundell/Publish
run: |
cd ${HOME}
export PUBLISH_VERSION="0.7.0"
git clone https://github.com/JohnSundell/Publish.git
cd ./Publish && git checkout ${PUBLISH_VERSION}
mv ~/Publish_build .build || true
swift build -c release
cp -r .build ~/Publish_build || true
echo "${HOME}/Publish/.build/release" >> ${GITHUB_PATH}
- run: publish-cli generate
- name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
with:
github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
publish_dir: ./Output