GitHub Actions Pipeline for Static Sites and Services

Push to main, site updates. No manual steps. The pattern works for static sites and container deploys alike.

Static Site Pattern

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
          cache: npm
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build
      - uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: dist

Lessons

• Cache npm/pnpm — cold installs add 2–3 minutes
• Run build on PRs too, deploy only on merge
• Pin action versions (@v4), not @main
• Separate build and deploy jobs for clearer failure signals