Own server deployment

Deploy PreactPress static output to your own VPS, dedicated server, or shared hosting via rsync, SFTP, or a reverse proxy.

PreactPress needs Node.js only at build time. Production is plain static files from dist/ — any web server that can serve HTML, CSS, and JavaScript works.

Build pipeline#

Run the same checks locally or in CI before upload:

pnpm run check
pnpm run build
pnpm run preview

Preview serves dist/ at http://localhost:4173 by default. Fix any issues before uploading.

Set site.url (and site.base when serving from a subpath) in .preactpress/config.ts before the production build.

rsync over SSH#

A common pattern for VPS or dedicated servers:

pnpm run build
rsync -avz --delete dist/ deploy@example.com:/var/www/docs/

Use SSH keys instead of passwords. In GitHub Actions, store the private key as a secret (for example DEPLOY_SSH_KEY) and the target path as a variable:

- run: pnpm run build

- name: Deploy via rsync
  env:
    DEPLOY_HOST: ${{ vars.DEPLOY_HOST }}
    DEPLOY_USER: ${{ vars.DEPLOY_USER }}
    DEPLOY_PATH: ${{ vars.DEPLOY_PATH }}
    DEPLOY_SSH_KEY: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_SSH_KEY }}
  run: |
    install -m 600 -D /dev/null ~/.ssh/deploy_key
    printf '%s\n' "$DEPLOY_SSH_KEY" > ~/.ssh/deploy_key
    rsync -avz --delete -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/deploy_key -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new" \
      dist/ "${DEPLOY_USER}@${DEPLOY_HOST}:${DEPLOY_PATH}/"

Never commit private keys or passwords to the repository.

Nginx#

Serve the uploaded dist/ directory:

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name docs.example.com;

    root /var/www/docs;
    index index.html;

    location /assets/ {
        add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=31536000, immutable";
        try_files $uri =404;
    }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ $uri/index.html =404;
    }

    error_page 404 /404.html;
}

PreactPress emits clean URLs as path/index.html. The try_files directive above resolves them correctly.

Caddy#

docs.example.com {
    root * /var/www/docs
    file_server
    try_files {path} {path}/ {path}/index.html
    handle_errors {
        rewrite * /404.html
        file_server
    }
}

Apache#

DocumentRoot /var/www/docs

<Directory /var/www/docs>
    Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /$1/index.html [L]
</Directory>

ErrorDocument 404 /404.html

Shared hosting (SFTP/FTP)#

Many shared hosts only expose FTP or SFTP:

Build locally or in CI.
Upload the contents of dist/ to the web root (public_html, www, or similar).
Do not upload node_modules or source files unless your host requires them for builds.

Prefer SFTP over plain FTP when available. Store credentials in your CI secret store, not in workflow files.

Systemd + preview (smoke test only)#

preactpress preview is for local verification, not production:

pnpm exec preactpress preview --host 127.0.0.1 --port 4173

In production, use Nginx, Caddy, Apache, or another static file server in front of dist/.

Subpath deployment#

When the site lives under a path such as /docs/:

export default {
  site: {
    url: "https://example.com",
    base: "/docs/",
  },
};

Build with:

pnpm exec preactpress build --base /docs/

Upload to the matching directory on the server (/var/www/example/docs/).

Monorepos#

Build from the site package:

cd packages/docs
pnpm run check
pnpm run build
rsync -avz --delete dist/ deploy@example.com:/var/www/docs/