deploy-to-neocities
Efficiently deploy a website to Neocities using Github actions. Uses content aware diffing to only update files that changed.
Alternatively, you can use the bin helper in async-neocities to deploy to neocities locally from your own machine as well as in CI.
Usage
name: Deploy to neocities
# only run on changes to main. Use main or master depending on whatever your default branch is called.
on:
push:
branches:
- main
concurrency: # prevent concurrent deploys doing strange things
group: deploy-to-neocities
cancel-in-progress: true
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
# Set up any tools and build steps here
# This example uses a Node.js toolchain to build a site
- name: Use Node.js
uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version: lts/*
# If you have a different build process, replace this with your own build steps
- name: Install deps and build
run: |
npm i
npm run build
# When the dist_dir is ready, deploy it to neocities
- name: Deploy to neocities
uses: bcomnes/deploy-to-neocities@v3
with:
api_key: $
cleanup: false
neocities_supporter: false # set this to true if you have a supporter account and want to bypass unsuported files filter.
preview_before_deploy: true # print a deployment plan prior to waiting for files to upload.
dist_dir: public
- đ» Example YML
- đ Example Deploy
Create a workflow .yml
file in your repositoryâs .github/workflows
directory. An example workflow is available above. For more information, reference the GitHub Help Documentation for Creating a workflow file.
Youâll need the API token for your site. Go to:
https://neocities.org/settings/#api_key
Get your siteâs API token. In your GitHub repository, set a secret called NEOCITIES_API_TOKEN
. Set the api_token
input on your deploy-to-neocities
action to $
as in the example above.
During your workflow, generate the files you want to deploy to Neocities into a directory. Set this as the dist_dir
directory in your workflow (the default is public
). You can use any tools to generate your site that can be installed or brought into the Github actions environment.
Once the build is complete, deploy-to-neocities
will efficiently upload all new and all changed files to Neocities. Any files on Neocities that donât exist in the dist_dir
are considered âorphanedâ files. To destructively remove these âorphanedâ files, set the cleanup
input to true
.
You most likely only want to run this on the master
branch so that only changes committed to master
result in website updates. Running a test build that does not deploy on all branches and PRs can help catch changes that will break the build.
Inputs
api_key
(REQUIRED): The API token for your Neocities website to deploy to.dist_dir
: The directory to deploy to Neocities. Default:public
. Donât deploy your root repo directory (e.g../
). It contains.git
,.github
and other files that wonât deploy properly to neocities. Keep it clean by keeping or building your site into a subdir and deploy that.neocoties_supporter
: Set this totrue
if you have a paid neocities account and want to bypass the unsupported files filter.cleanup
: Boolean string (true
orfalse
). Iftrue
,deploy-to-neocities
will destructively delete files found on Neocities not found in yourdist_dir
. Default:false
.preview_before_deploy
: Boolean string (true
orfalse
). Iftrue
,deploy-to-neocities
will print a preview of the files that will be uploaded and deleted. Default:true
.protected_files
: An optional glob string used to mark files as protected. Protected files are never cleaned up. Test this option out withcleanup
set to false before relying on it. Protected files are printed whencleanup
is set to true or false. Glob strings are processed by minimatch against remote neocities file paths. Protected files can still be updated.
Outputs
None.
FAQ
Why should I deploy to Neocities?
Neocities offers a bunch of nice properties:
- Neocities CDN uses a pure anycast network providing efficient content serving no matter where your visitors are located around the world.
- Anycast doesnât require special DNS records to achieve geolocation routing characteristics. Simple
A
andAAAA
records are all you need. Bare names and all! - Neocities owns its own ARIN IP block and has its own BGP peering agreements, eliminating entire layers of bureaucracy between your content and the rest of the Internet typical of all major cloud providers.
- Far faster cold cache access than other popular static hosting services. Perfect for personal websites, projects and other infrequently accessed documents.
- Simple and understandable feature set. You can hand upload and edit files along side built/deployed assets.
- First class IPv6 support.
- Fun, friendly, creative and organic community with an interesting social network.
- Independent, sustainable and altruistic service run by @kyledrake and word on the street is that the service is profitable.
- Affordable and predictable pricing. There is a generous free tier and you can get custom domains and additional sites for $5/mo.
- Offers simple, Google-free site analytics.
- Makes accepting tips a breeze.
- Bring your own CI environment, or donât.
- Free https via Lets Encrypt.
- Cute cat logo.
- Support the distributed web. Built in IPFS support.
- Beginner friendly docs for learning how to make your own websites.
What are some of the drawbacks compared to Netlify/Vercel?
- Not appropriate for hyper traffic commercial sites most likely.
- No concept of a Deploy or atomicity when changing files.
- Most features of these services are not included. Neocities is just static file hosting and a few basic features around that.
- Doesnât offer support.
- No deploy previews.
- No Github Deploys API support (yet).
Sites using deploy-to-neocities
- https://github.com/bcomnes/bret.io (bret.io)
- https://github.com/ecomnes/elenacomnes.com (elenacomnes.comnes)
- https://github.com/gumcast/gumcast-client (gumcast.com)
- https://github.com/bcomnes/deploy-to-neocities/blob/master/.github/workflows/neocities.yml (deploy-to-neocities.neocities.org)
- Zambonifofex/stories (zamstories.neocities.org)
- Your Neofeed, (ăŁââĄâ)㣠a personal timeline for Neocities and GitHub Pages.
- https://speakscribe.com
- https://geno7.neocities.org
- https://github.com/M1ssM0ss/deploy-to-neocities-template
- https://nelson.neocities.org
- https://flamedfury.com
- https://keb.neocities.org
- https://missmoss.neocities.org
- https://rarebit.neocities.org
- https://cavacado.neocities.org
- https://wanderinginn.neocities.org
- https://andri.dk/blog/2019/2021/deploy-static-websites-anywhere/
- https://github.com/PersonMeetup/frontiercorps (frontiercorps.neocities.org)
- https://github.com/riastrad/cyberbspace (cyberb.space)
- https://github.com/rogerahuntley/neocities-site (stealdog.neocities.org)
- https://github.com/ConorSheehan1/conorsheehan1.neocities.org (conorsheehan1.neocities.org)
- https://github.com/bechnokid/neocities (bechnokid.neocities.org)
- https://github.com/lime360/website (lime360.neocities.org)
- https://obspogon.neocities.org/
- https://profsugoi.neocities.org/
- https://github.com/tencurse/neocities (10kph.neocities.org)
- https://github.com/alephdfilms/neocities/ (alephd.neocities.org]
- https://sacred.neocities.org/ (https://github.com/M-Valentino/sacredOS)
- https://lenp.net/ (https://github.com/Len42/web-site)
- https://punkfairie.net (https://github.com/punkfairie/punkfairie-site)
- https://github.com/jefbecker/jefbecker.com (jefbecker.com)
- See more!
- âŠPR your site when you set it up!
See also
- async-neocities: diffing engine used for action.
- Neocities API Docs
- neocities/neocities-node: Official Node API
- jonchang/deploy-neocities: An alternative docker + official ruby client based action similar to this one.
- M1ssM0ss/deploy-to-neocities-template: a template repo ready for cloning using deploy-to-neocities.
- professorsugoi/Deploy-Astro-Neocities: a template repo for projets built with Astro. uses deploy-to-neocities.
CHANGELOG
See changelog.md