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Deploying

The following guides are based on some shared assumptions:

  • You are placing your docs inside the docs directory of your project.

  • You are using the default build output location (.vitepress/dist).

  • VitePress is installed as a local dependency in your project, and you have set up the following scripts in your package.json:

    json
    {
      "scripts": {
        "docs:build": "vitepress build docs",
        "docs:preview": "vitepress preview docs"
      }
    }
    

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If your site is to be served at a subdirectory (https://example.com/subdir/), then you have to set '/subdir/' as the base in your docs/.vitepress/config.js.

Example: If you're using Github (or GitLab) Pages and deploying to user.github.io/repo/, then set your base to /repo/.

Build and Test Locally

  • You may run this command to build the docs:

    sh
    $ npm run docs:build
    
  • Once you've built the docs, you can test them locally by running:

    sh
    $ npm run docs:preview
    

    The preview command will boot up a local static web server that will serve the files from .vitepress/dist at http://localhost:4173. It's an easy way to check if the production build looks fine in your local environment.

  • You can configure the port of the server by passing --port as an argument.

    json
    {
      "scripts": {
        "docs:preview": "vitepress preview docs --port 8080"
      }
    }
    

    Now the docs:preview method will launch the server at http://localhost:8080.

Netlify, Vercel, AWS Amplify, Cloudflare Pages, Render

Set up a new project and change these settings using your dashboard:

  • Build Command: npm run docs:build
  • Output Directory: docs/.vitepress/dist
  • Node Version: 14 (or above, by default it usually will be 14 or 16, but on Cloudflare Pages the default is still 12, so you may need to change that)

WARNING

Don't enable options like Auto Minify for HTML code. It will remove comments from output which have meaning to Vue. You may see hydration mismatch errors if they get removed.

GitHub Pages

Using GitHub Actions

  1. In your theme config file, docs/.vitepress/config.js, set the base property to the name of your GitHub repository. If you plan to deploy your site to https://foo.github.io/bar/, then you should set base to '/bar/'. It should always start and end with a slash.

  2. Create a file named deploy.yml inside .github/workflows directory of your project with the following content:

    yaml
    name: Deploy
    on:
      workflow_dispatch: {}
      push:
        branches:
          - main
    jobs:
      deploy:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        permissions:
          pages: write
          id-token: write
        environment:
          name: github-pages
          url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
        steps:
          - uses: actions/checkout@v3
            with:
              fetch-depth: 0
          - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
            with:
              node-version: 16
              cache: npm
          - run: npm install --frozen-lockfile
          - name: Build
            run: npm run docs:build
          - uses: actions/configure-pages@v2
          - uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v1
            with:
              path: docs/.vitepress/dist
          - name: Deploy
            id: deployment
            uses: actions/deploy-pages@v1
    

    TIP

    Please replace the corresponding branch name. For example, if the branch you want to build is master, then you should replace main with master in the above file.

  3. In your repository's Settings under Pages menu item, select GitHub Actions in Build and deployment's Source.

  4. Now commit your code and push it to the main branch.

  5. Wait for actions to complete.

  6. In your repository's Settings under Pages menu item, click Visit site, then you can see your site. Your docs will automatically deploy each time you push.

GitLab Pages

Using GitLab CI

  1. Set outDir in docs/.vitepress/config.js to ../public.

  2. Still in your config file, docs/.vitepress/config.js, set the base property to the name of your GitLab repository. If you plan to deploy your site to https://foo.gitlab.io/bar/, then you should set base to '/bar/'. It should always start and end with a slash.

  3. Create a file called .gitlab-ci.yml in the root of your project with the content below. This will build and deploy your site whenever you make changes to your content:

    yaml
    image: node:16
    pages:
      cache:
        paths:
          - node_modules/
      script:
        - npm install
        - npm run docs:build
      artifacts:
        paths:
          - public
      only:
        - main
    
  4. Alternatively, if you want to use an alpine version of node, you have to install git manually. In that case, the code above modifies to this:

    yaml
    image: node:16-alpine
    pages:
      cache:
        paths:
          - node_modules/
      before_script:
        - apk add git
      script:
        - npm install
        - npm run docs:build
      artifacts:
        paths:
          - public
      only:
        - main
    

Azure Static Web Apps

  1. Follow the official documentation.

  2. Set these values in your configuration file (and remove the ones you don't require, like api_location):

    • app_location: /
    • output_location: docs/.vitepress/dist
    • app_build_command: npm run docs:build

Firebase

  1. Create firebase.json and .firebaserc at the root of your project:

    firebase.json:

    json
    {
      "hosting": {
        "public": "docs/.vitepress/dist",
        "ignore": []
      }
    }
    

    .firebaserc:

    json
    {
      "projects": {
        "default": "<YOUR_FIREBASE_ID>"
      }
    }
    
  2. After running npm run docs:build, run this command to deploy:

    sh
    firebase deploy
    

Surge

  1. After running npm run docs:build, run this command to deploy:

    sh
    npx surge docs/.vitepress/dist
    

Heroku

  1. Follow documentation and guide given in heroku-buildpack-static.

  2. Create a file called static.json in the root of your project with the below content:

    json
    {
      "root": "docs/.vitepress/dist"
    }
    

Edgio

Refer Creating and Deploying a VitePress App To Edgio.

Released under the MIT License.