GitHub Pages

In this tutorial, we use GitHub Actions to deploy GitHub Pages. It works in both public and private repositories. Skip to the One-command deployment section if you prefer not to upload your source folder to GitHub.

  1. Create a repo named username.github.io, where username is your username on GitHub. If you have already uploaded to another repo, rename the repo instead.
  2. Push the files of your Hexo folder to the default branch of your repository. The default branch is usually main, older repositories may use master branch.

  • To push main branch to GitHub:

    $ git push -u origin main

  • The public/ folder is not (and should not be) uploaded by default, make sure the .gitignore file contains public/ line. The folder structure should be roughly similar to this repo.

  1. Check what version of Node.js you are using on your local machine with node --version. Make a note of the major version (e.g., v20.y.z)
  2. In your GitHub repo’s setting, navigate to Settings > Pages > Source. Change the source to GitHub Actions and save.
  3. Create .github/workflows/pages.yml in your repo with the following contents (substituting 20 to the major version of Node.js that you noted in previous step):
.github/workflows/pages.yml
name: Pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main  # default branch

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          # If your repository depends on submodule, please see: https://github.com/actions/checkout
          submodules: recursive
      - name: Use Node.js 20
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          # Examples: 20, 18.19, >=16.20.2, lts/Iron, lts/Hydrogen, *, latest, current, node
          # Ref: https://github.com/actions/setup-node#supported-version-syntax
          node-version: '20'
      - name: Cache NPM dependencies
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: node_modules
          key: ${{ runner.OS }}-npm-cache
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.OS }}-npm-cache
      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: npm install
      - name: Build
        run: npm run build
      - name: Upload Pages artifact
        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: ./public
  deploy:
    needs: build
    permissions:
      pages: write
      id-token: write
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        id: deployment
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4
  1. Once the deployment is finished, check the webpage at username.github.io.

Note - if you specify a custom domain name with a CNAME, you need to add the CNAME file to the source/ folder. More info.

Project page

If you prefer to have a project page on GitHub:

  1. Navigate to your repo on GitHub. Go to the Settings tab. Change the Repository name so your blog is available at username.github.io/repository, repository can be any name, like blog or hexo.
  2. Edit your _config.yml, change the url: value to https://username.github.io/repository.
  3. In your GitHub repo’s setting, navigate to Settings > Pages > Source. Change the source to GitHub Actions and save.
  4. Commit and push to the default branch.
  5. Once the deployment is finished, check the webpage at username.github.io/repository.

One-command deployment

The following instruction is adapted from one-command deployment page.

  1. Install hexo-deployer-git.
  2. Add the following configurations to _config.yml, (remove existing lines if any).
deploy:
  type: git
  repo: https://github.com/<username>/<project>
  # example, https://github.com/hexojs/hexojs.github.io
  branch: gh-pages
  1. Run hexo clean && hexo deploy.
  2. Check the webpage at username.github.io.

Useful links