Deployment
To build the static files of your website for production, run:
- npm
- Yarn
Once it finishes, the static files will be generated within the build/
directory.
You can deploy your site to static site hosting services such as Vercel, GitHub Pages, Netlify, Render, and Surge. Docusaurus sites are statically rendered so they work without JavaScript too!
Deploying to GitHub Pages
Docusaurus provides an easy way to publish to GitHub Pages. Which is hosting that comes for free with every GitHub repository.
docusaurus.config.js
settings
First, modify your docusaurus.config.js
and add the required params:
Name | Description |
---|---|
organizationName | The GitHub user or organization that owns the repository. If you are the owner, it is your GitHub username. In the case of Docusaurus, it is "facebook" which is the GitHub organization that owns Docusaurus. |
projectName | The name of the GitHub repository. For example, the repository name for Docusaurus is "docusaurus", so the project name is "docusaurus". |
url | URL for your GitHub Page's user/organization page. This is commonly https://_username_.github.io. |
baseUrl | Base URL for your project. For projects hosted on GitHub pages, it follows the format "/projectName/". For https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus, baseUrl is /docusaurus/ . |
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.
You may refer to GitHub Pages' documentation User, Organization, and Project Pages for more details.
Example:
warning
By default, GitHub Pages runs published files through Jekyll. 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.
Environment settings
Specify the Git user as an environment variable.
Name | Description |
---|---|
GIT_USER | The username for a GitHub account that has commit access to this repo. For your own repositories, this will usually be your GitHub username. The specified GIT_USER must have push access to the repository specified in the combination of organizationName and projectName . |
There are two more optional parameters that are set as environment variables:
Name | Description |
---|---|
USE_SSH | Set to true to use SSH instead of the default HTTPS for the connection to the GitHub repo. |
DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH | The branch that the website will be deployed to, defaults to gh-pages for normal repos and master for repository names ending in github.io . |
CURRENT_BRANCH | The branch that contains the latest docs changes that will be deployed. Usually, the branch will be master , but it could be any branch (default or otherwise) except for gh-pages . If nothing is set for this variable, then the current branch will be used. |
Deploy
Finally, to deploy your site to GitHub Pages, run:
Bash
Windows
Triggering deployment with GitHub Actions
GitHub Actions allow you to automate, customize, and execute your software development workflows right in your repository.
This workflow assumes your documentation resided in documentation
branch of your repository and your publishing source is configured for gh-pages
branch.
- Generate a new SSH key.
- By default, your public key should have been created in
~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
or use the name you've provided in the previous step to add your key to GitHub deploy keys. - Copy key to clipboard with
xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
and paste it as a deploy key in your repository. Copy file content if the command line doesn't work for you. Check the box forAllow write access
before saving your deployment key. - You'll need your private key as a GitHub secret to allow Docusaurus to run the deployment for you.
- Copy your private key with
xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa
and paste a GitHub secret with nameGH_PAGES_DEPLOY
. Copy file content if the command line doesn't work for you. Save your secret. - Create you documentation workflow file in
.github/workflows/
. In this example it'sdocumentation.yml
.
- Now when a new pull request arrives towards your repository in branch
documentation
it will automatically ensure that Docusaurus build is successful. - When pull request is merged to
documentation
branch or someone pushes todocumentation
branch directly it will be built and deployed togh-pages
branch. - After this step, your updated documentation will be available on the GitHub pages.
Triggering deployment with Travis CI
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, a popular continuous integration service provider.
- Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens and generate a new personal access token.
- Using your GitHub account, add the Travis CI app to the repository you want to activate.
- 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. - Create a new environment variable named
GH_TOKEN
with your newly generated token as its value, thenGH_EMAIL
(your email address) andGH_NAME
(your GitHub username). - Create a
.travis.yml
on the root of your repository with the following:
Now, whenever a new commit lands in master
, Travis CI will run your suite of tests and if everything passes, your website will be deployed via the yarn deploy
script.
Deploying to Netlify
To deploy your Docusaurus 2 sites to Netlify, first make sure the following options are properly configured:
Then, create your site with Netlify.
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 master
.
important
Make sure to disable Netlify setting Pretty URLs
to prevent lowercased URLs, unnecessary redirects and 404 errors.
Deploying to Vercel
Deploying your Docusaurus project to Vercel will provide you with various benefits in the areas of performance and ease of use.
Most importantly, however, deploying a Docusaurus project only takes a couple of seconds:
- First, install their command-line interface:
- Run a single command inside the root directory of your project:
That's all. Your docs will automatically be deployed.
Now you can connect your site to GitHub or GitLab to automatically receive a new deployment every time you push a commit.
Deploying to Render
Render offers free static site hosting with fully managed SSL, custom domains, a global CDN and continuous auto-deploy from your Git repo. Deploy your app in just a few minutes by following these steps.
Create a new Web Service on Render, and give Render permission to access your Docusaurus repo.
Select the branch to deploy. The default is
master
.Enter the following values during creation.
Field Value Environment Static Site
Build Command yarn build
Publish Directory build
That's it! Your app will be live on your Render URL as soon as the build finishes.
Deploying to Surge
Surge is a static web hosting platform, 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).
Deploy your app in a matter of seconds using surge with the following steps:
- First, install Surge using npm by running the following command:
- To build the static files of your site for production in the root directory of your project, run:
- Then, run this command inside the root directory of your project:
First-time users of Surge would be prompted to create an account from the command line(happens only once).
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).
Using your domain
If you have a domain name you can deploy your site using surge to your domain using the command:
Your site is now deployed for free at subdomain.surge.sh
or yourdomain.com
depending on the method you chose.
Setting up CNAME file
Store your domain in a CNAME file for future deployments with the following command:
You can deploy any other changes in the future with the command surge
.