It is now up to you to choose how to host those static files.
:::
You can deploy your site to static site hosting services such as [Vercel](https://vercel.com/), [GitHub Pages](https://pages.github.com/), [Netlify](https://www.netlify.com/), [Render](https://render.com/docs/static-sites), [Surge](https://surge.sh/help/getting-started-with-surge)...
A Docusaurus site is statically rendered, and it can generally work without JavaScript!
| `url` | URL for your site. For a site deployed at `https://my-org.com/my-project/`, `url` is `https://my-org.com/`. |
| `baseUrl` | Base URL for your project, with a trailing slash. For a site deployed at `https://my-org.com/my-project/`, `baseUrl` is `/my-project/`. |
It is important to test your build locally before deploying it for production. Docusaurus provides a [`docusaurus serve`](cli.md#docusaurus-serve-sitedir) command for that:
Docusaurus has a [`trailingSlash` config](./api/docusaurus.config.js.md#trailing-slash), to allow customizing URLs/links and emitted filename patterns.
The default value generally works fine. Unfortunately, each static hosting provider has a **different behavior**, and deploying the exact same site to various hosts can lead to distinct results. Depending on your host, it can be useful to change this config.
Use [slorber/trailing-slash-guide](https://github.com/slorber/trailing-slash-guide) to understand better the behavior of your host and configure `trailingSlash` appropriately.
Putting potentially sensitive information in the environment is common practice. However, in a typical Docusaurus website, the `docusaurus.config.js` file is the only interface to the Node.js environment (see [our architecture overview](advanced/architecture.md)), while everything else—MDX pages, React components... are client side and do not have direct access to the `process` global. In this case, you can consider using [`customFields`](api/docusaurus.config.js.md#customfields) to pass environment variables to the client side.
```js title="docusaurus.config.js"
// If you are using dotenv (https://www.npmjs.com/package/dotenv)
require('dotenv').config();
module.exports = {
title: '...',
url: process.env.URL, // You can use environment variables to control site specifics as well
// highlight-start
customFields: {
// Put your custom environment here
teamEmail: process.env.EMAIL,
},
// highlight-end
};
```
```jsx title="home.jsx"
import useDocusaurusContext from '@docusaurus/useDocusaurusContext';
export default function Home() {
const {
siteConfig: {customFields},
} = useDocusaurusContext();
return <div>Contact us through {customFields.teamEmail}!</div>;
- [Self hosting](#self-hosting) with an HTTP server like Apache2 or Nginx;
- Jamstack providers, e.g. [Netlify](#deploying-to-netlify) and [Vercel](#deploying-to-vercel). We will use them as references, but the same reasoning can apply to other providers.
- [GitHub Pages](#deploying-to-github-pages). (By definition, it is also Jamstack, but we compare it separately.)
If you are unsure of which one to choose, ask the following questions:
<details>
<summary>
How much resource (person-hours, money) am I willing to invest in this?
- 🔴 Self-hosting is the hardest to set up—you would usually need an experienced person to manage this. Cloud services are almost never free, and setting up an on-site server and connecting it to the WAN can be even more costly.
- 🟢 Jamstack providers can help you set up a working website in almost no time and offers features like server-side redirects that are easily configurable. Many providers offer generous build time quotas even for free plans that you would almost never exceed. However, it's still ultimately limited—you would need to pay once you hit the limit. Check the pricing page of your provider for details.
- 🟡 The GitHub Pages deployment workflow can be tedious to set up. (Evidence: see the length of [Deploying to GitHub Pages](#deploying-to-github-pages)!) However, this service (including build and deployment) is always free for public repositories, and we have detailed instructions to help you make it work.
</details>
<details>
<summary>How much server-side configuration would I need?</summary>
- 🟢 With self-hosting, you have access to the entire server's configuration. You can configure the virtual host to serve different content based on the request URL; you can do complicated server-side redirects; you can put part of the site behind authentication... If you need a lot of server-side features, self-host your website.
- 🟡 Jamstack usually offers some server-side configurations, e.g. URLs formatting (trailing slashes), server-side redirects...
- 🟡 Self-hosted services can achieve the same effect as Netlify, but with much more heavy-lifting. Usually, you would have a specific person who looks after the deployment, and the workflow won't be very git-based as opposed to the other two options.
- 🟢 Netlify and Vercel have deploy previews for every pull request, which is useful for a team to review work before merging to production. You can also manage a team with different member access to the deployment.
- 🟡 GitHub Pages cannot do deploy previews in a non-convoluted way. One repo can only be associated with one site deployment. On the other hand, you can control who has write access to the site's deployment.
</details>
There isn't a silver bullet. You need to weigh your needs and resources before making a choice.
In the following sections, we will introduce a few common hosting providers and how they should be configured to deploy Docusaurus sites most efficiently. Some of the writeups are provided by external contributors. Docusaurus is not interest-related with any of the services. The documentation may not be up-to-date: recent changes in their API may not be reflected on our side. If you see outdated content, PRs are welcome.
For the same concern of up-to-datedness, we have stopped accepting PRs adding new hosting options. You can, however, publish your writeup on a separate site (e.g. your blog, or the provider's official website), and ask us to include a link to your writeup.
Then, [create your site with Netlify](https://app.netlify.com/start).
While you set up the site, specify the build commands and directories as follows:
- build command: `npm run build`
- build directory: `build`
If you did not configure these build options, you may still go to "Site settings" -> "Build and deploy" after your site is created.
Once properly configured with the above options, your site should deploy and automatically redeploy upon merging to your deploy branch, which defaults to `main`.
:::caution
Some Docusaurus sites put the `docs` folder outside of `website` (most likely former Docusaurus v1 sites):
```bash
repo # git root
├── docs # md files
└── website # docusaurus root
```
If you decide to use the `website` folder as Netlify's base directory, Netlify will not trigger builds when you update the `docs` folder, and you need to configure a [custom `ignore` command](https://docs.netlify.com/configure-builds/common-configurations/ignore-builds/):
By default, Netlify adds trailing slashes to Docusaurus URLs.
It is recommended to disable the Netlify setting `Post Processing > Asset Optimization > Pretty Urls` to prevent lowercased URLs, unnecessary redirects, and 404 errors.
**Be very careful**: the `Disable asset optimization` global checkbox is broken and does not really disable the `Pretty URLs` setting in practice. Please make sure to **uncheck it independently**.
If you want to keep the `Pretty Urls` Netlify setting on, adjust the `trailingSlash` Docusaurus config appropriately.
Refer to [slorber/trailing-slash-guide](https://github.com/slorber/trailing-slash-guide) for more information.
:::
## Deploying to Vercel {#deploying-to-vercel}
Deploying your Docusaurus project to [Vercel](https://vercel.com/) will provide you with [various benefits](https://vercel.com/) in the areas of performance and ease of use.
To deploy your Docusaurus project with a [Vercel for Git Integration](https://vercel.com/docs/git-integrations), make sure it has been pushed to a Git repository.
Import the project into Vercel using the [Import Flow](https://vercel.com/import/git). During the import, you will find all relevant options preconfigured for you; however, you can choose to change any of these options, a list of which can be found [here](https://vercel.com/docs/build-step#build-&-development-settings).
After your project has been imported, all subsequent pushes to branches will generate [Preview Deployments](https://vercel.com/docs/platform/deployments#preview), and all changes made to the [Production Branch](https://vercel.com/docs/git-integrations#production-branch) (usually "main" or "master") will result in a [Production Deployment](https://vercel.com/docs/platform/deployments#production).
Usually, there are two repositories (at least, two branches) involved in a publishing process: the branch containing the source files, and the branch containing the build output to be served with GitHub Pages. In the following tutorial, they will be referred to as **"source"** and **"deployment"**, respectively.
Each GitHub repository is associated with a GitHub Pages service. If the deployment repository is called `my-org/my-project` (where `my-org` is the organization name or username), the deployed site will appear at `https://my-org.github.io/my-project/`. Specially, if the deployment repository is called `my-org/my-org.github.io` (the _organization GitHub Pages repo_), the site will appear at `https://my-org.github.io/`.
In case you want to use your custom domain for GitHub Pages, create a `CNAME` file in the `static` directory. Anything within the `static` directory will be copied to the root of the `build` directory for deployment. When using a custom domain, you should be able to move back from `baseUrl: '/projectName/'` to `baseUrl: '/'`, and also set your `url` to your custom domain.
You may refer to GitHub Pages' documentation [User, Organization, and Project Pages](https://help.github.com/en/articles/user-organization-and-project-pages) for more details.
GitHub Pages picks up deploy-ready files (the output from `docusaurus build`) from the default branch (`master` / `main`, usually) or the `gh-pages` branch, and either from the root or the `/docs` folder. You can configure that through `Settings > Pages` in your repository. This branch will be called the "deployment branch".
We provide a `docusaurus deploy` command that helps you deploy your site from the source branch to the deployment branch in one command: clone, build, and commit.
| `organizationName` | The GitHub user or organization that owns the deployment repository. |
| `projectName` | The name of the deployment repository. |
| `deploymentBranch` | The name of deployment branch. Defaults to `'gh-pages'` for non-organization GitHub Pages repos (`projectName` not ending in `.github.io`). Otherwise, this needs to be explicit as a config field or environment variable. |
These fields also have their environment variable counterparts, which have a higher priority: `ORGANIZATION_NAME`, `PROJECT_NAME`, and `DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH`.
GitHub Pages adds a trailing slash to Docusaurus URLs by default. It is recommended to set a `trailingSlash` config (`true` or `false`, not `undefined`).
By default, GitHub Pages runs published files through [Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com/). Since Jekyll will discard any files that begin with `_`, it is recommended that you disable Jekyll by adding an empty file named `.nojekyll` file to your `static` directory.
| `USE_SSH` | Set to `true` to use SSH instead of the default HTTPS for the connection to the GitHub repo. If the source repo URL is an SSH URL (e.g. `git@github.com:facebook/docusaurus.git`), `USE_SSH` is inferred to be `true`. |
| `GIT_USER` | The username for a GitHub account that **has push access to the deployment repo**. For your own repositories, this will usually be your GitHub username. Required if not using SSH, and ignored otherwise. |
| `GIT_PASS` | Personal access token of the git user (specified by `GIT_USER`), to facilitate non-interactive deployment (e.g. continuous deployment) |
| `CURRENT_BRANCH` | The source branch. Usually, the branch will be `main` or `master`, but it could be any branch except for `gh-pages`. If nothing is set for this variable, then the current branch from which `docusaurus deploy` is invoked will be used. |
GitHub enterprise installations should work in the same manner as github.com; you only need to set the organization's GitHub Enterprise host as an environment variable:
Beginning in August 2021, GitHub requires every command-line sign-in to use the **personal access token** instead of the password. When GitHub prompts for your password, enter the PAT instead. See the [GitHub documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/creating-a-personal-access-token) for more information.
[GitHub Actions](https://help.github.com/en/actions) allow you to automate, customize, and execute your software development workflows right in your repository.
The workflow examples below assume your website source resides in the `main` branch of your repository (the _source branch_ is `main`), under a folder called `website/`, and your [publishing source](https://help.github.com/en/github/working-with-github-pages/configuring-a-publishing-source-for-your-github-pages-site) is configured for the `gh-pages` branch (the _deployment branch_ is `gh-pages`).
1. When a new pull request is made to `main` and updates `website/`, there's an action that ensures the site builds successfully, without actually deploying. This job will be called `test-deploy`.
2. When a pull request is merged to the `main` branch or someone pushes to the `main` branch directly and `website/` is updated, it will be built and deployed to the `gh-pages` branch. After that, the new build output will be served on the GitHub Pages site. This job will be called `deploy`.
Here are two approaches to deploying your docs with GitHub Actions. Based on the location of your deployment branch (`gh-pages`), choose the relevant tab below:
While you can have both jobs defined in the same workflow file, the original `deploy` workflow will always be listed as skipped in the PR check suite status, which is not communicative of the actual status and provides no value to the review process. We therefore propose to manage them as separate workflows instead.
These files assume you are using yarn. If you use npm, change `cache: yarn`, `yarn install --frozen-lockfile`, `yarn build` to `cache: npm`, `npm ci`, `npm run build` accordingly.
A cross-repo publish is more difficult to set up, because you need to push to another repo with permission checks. We will be using SSH to do the authentication.
2. By default, your public key should have been created in `~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`; otherwise, use the name you've provided in the previous step to add your key to [GitHub deploy keys](https://developer.github.com/v3/guides/managing-deploy-keys/).
3. Copy the key to clipboard with `xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub` and paste it as a [deploy key](https://developer.github.com/v3/guides/managing-deploy-keys/#deploy-keys) in your repository. Copy the file content if the command line doesn't work for you. Check the box for `Allow write access` before saving your deployment key.
4. You'll need your private key as a [GitHub secret](https://help.github.com/en/actions/configuring-and-managing-workflows/creating-and-storing-encrypted-secrets) to allow Docusaurus to run the deployment for you.
5. Copy your private key with `xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa` and paste a GitHub secret with the name `GH_PAGES_DEPLOY`. Copy the file content if the command line doesn't work for you. Save your secret.
6. Create your [documentation workflow file](https://help.github.com/en/actions/configuring-and-managing-workflows/configuring-a-workflow#creating-a-workflow-file) in `.github/workflows/`. In this example it's `deploy.yml`.
This file assumes you are using yarn. If you use npm, change `cache: yarn`, `yarn install --frozen-lockfile`, `yarn build` to `cache: npm`, `npm ci`, `npm run build` accordingly.
Continuous integration (CI) services are typically used to perform routine tasks whenever new commits are checked in to source control. These tasks can be any combination of running unit tests and integration tests, automating builds, publishing packages to NPM, and deploying changes to your website. All you need to do to automate the deployment of your website is to invoke the `yarn deploy` script whenever your website is updated. The following section covers how to do just that using [Travis CI](https://travis-ci.com/), a popular continuous integration service provider.
1. Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens and generate a new [personal access token](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-personal-access-token-for-the-command-line/). When creating the token, grant it the `repo` scope so that it has the permissions it needs.
2. Using your GitHub account, [add the Travis CI app](https://github.com/marketplace/travis-ci) to the repository you want to activate.
3. Open your Travis CI dashboard. The URL looks like `https://travis-ci.com/USERNAME/REPO`, and navigate to the `More options > Setting > Environment Variables` section of your repository.
4. Create a new environment variable named `GH_TOKEN` with your newly generated token as its value, then `GH_EMAIL` (your email address) and `GH_NAME` (your GitHub username).
5. Create a `.travis.yml` on the root of your repository with the following:
Now, whenever a new commit lands in `main`, Travis CI will run your suite of tests and if everything passes, your website will be deployed via the `yarn deploy` script.
### Triggering deployment with Buddy {#triggering-deployment-with-buddy}
[Buddy](https://buddy.works/) is an easy-to-use CI/CD tool that allows you to automate the deployment of your portal to different environments, including GitHub Pages.
Follow these steps to create a pipeline that automatically deploys a new version of your website whenever you push changes to the selected branch of your project:
1. Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens and generate a new [personal access token](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-personal-access-token-for-the-command-line/). When creating the token, grant it the `repo` scope so that it has the permissions it needs.
After creating this simple pipeline, each new commit pushed to the branch you selected deploys your website to GitHub Pages using `yarn deploy`. Read [this guide](https://buddy.works/guides/react-docusaurus) to learn more about setting up a CI/CD pipeline for Docusaurus.
1. Sign Up at [Azure Pipelines](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/devops/pipelines/) if you haven't already.
2. Create an organization and within the organization create a project and connect your repository from GitHub.
3. Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens and generate a new [personal access token](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-personal-access-token-for-the-command-line/) with the `repo` scope.
4. In the project page (which looks like `https://dev.azure.com/ORG_NAME/REPO_NAME/_build` create a new pipeline with the following text. Also, click on edit and add a new environment variable named `GH_TOKEN` with your newly generated token as its value, then `GH_EMAIL` (your email address) and `GH_NAME` (your GitHub username). Make sure to mark them as secret. Alternatively, you can also add a file named `azure-pipelines.yml` at your repository root.
1. Create a new ssh key that will be the [deploy key](https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/developers/overview/managing-deploy-keys#deploy-keys) for your project.
2. Name your private and public keys to be specific and so that it does not overwrite your other [ssh keys](https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/authenticating-to-github/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent).
5. Click on the repository, click on activate repository, and add a secret called `git_deploy_private_key` with your private key value that you just generated.
[Koyeb](https://www.koyeb.com) is a developer-friendly serverless platform to deploy apps globally. The platform lets you seamlessly run Docker containers, web apps, and APIs with git-based deployment, native autoscaling, a global edge network, and built-in service mesh and discovery. Check out the [Koyeb's Docusaurus deployment guide](https://www.koyeb.com/tutorials/deploy-docusaurus-on-koyeb) to get started.
[Render](https://render.com) offers [free static site hosting](https://render.com/docs/static-sites) with fully managed SSL, custom domains, a global CDN, and continuous auto-deploy from your Git repo. Get started in just a few minutes by following [Render's guide to deploying Docusaurus](https://render.com/docs/deploy-docusaurus).
[Qovery](https://www.qovery.com) is a fully-managed cloud platform that runs on your AWS, Digital Ocean, and Scaleway account where you can host static sites, backend APIs, databases, cron jobs, and all your other apps in one place.
That's it. Watch the status and wait till the app is deployed. To open the application in your browser, click on **Action** and **Open** in your application overview.
[Hostman](https://hostman.com/) allows you to host static websites for free. Hostman automates everything, you just need to connect your repository and follow easy steps:
To deploy a Docusaurus static website, click **Create** in the top-left corner of your [Dashboard](https://dashboard.hostman.com/) and choose **Front-end app or static website**.
If you are logged in to Hostman with your GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket account, at this point you will see the repository with your projects, including the private ones.
The **Directory with app** points at the directory that will contain the project's files after the build. You can leave it empty if during Step 2 you selected the repository with the contents of the website (or `my_website`) directory.
Once it starts, you will enter the deployment log. If there are any issues with the code, you will get warning or error messages in the log, specifying the cause of the problem. Usually, the log contains all the debugging data you'll need.
Surge is a [static web hosting platform](https://surge.sh/help/getting-started-with-surge), it is used to deploy your Docusaurus project from the command line in a minute. Deploying your project to Surge is easy and it is also free (including a custom domain and SSL).
Confirm that the site you want to publish is in the `build` directory, a randomly generated subdomain `*.surge.sh subdomain` is always given (which can be edited).
See [docs](https://docs.quantcdn.io/docs/cli/continuous-integration) and [blog](https://www.quantcdn.io/blog) for more examples and use cases for deploying to QuantCDN.
[Layer0](https://www.layer0.co) is an all-in-one platform to develop, deploy, preview, experiment on, monitor, and run your headless frontend. It is focused on large, dynamic websites and best-in-class performance through EdgeJS (a JavaScript-based Content Delivery Network), predictive prefetching, and performance monitoring. Layer0 offers a free tier. Get started in just a few minutes by following [Layer0's guide to deploying Docusaurus](https://docs.layer0.co/guides/docusaurus).
[Cloudflare Pages](https://pages.cloudflare.com/) is a Jamstack platform for frontend developers to collaborate and deploy websites. Get started within a few minutes by following [this article](https://dev.to/apidev234/deploying-docusaurus-to-cloudflare-pages-565g).