Publish on GitHub Pages

Français · Type: how-to · Audience: author · Context: created project · Status: ready · Applies from: 4.2.5

A created project has no CI workflow. This page gives one: on every push to main, GitHub builds the game with the repository's base path and publishes dist/ on GitHub Pages, at https://<user>.github.io/<repo>/.

What you get

A workflow file, .github/workflows/pages.yml, in your game's repository. Each push to main runs the game's checks and build, and deploys the result to Pages only when they pass.

Context and versions

• A created project (quest-n-click create), pushed to a GitHub repository. The engine repository has its own Pages job in .github/workflows/ci.yml; this workflow is its game part, without what the engine adds there (the Studio demo and the documentation under /docs/).
• From 4.2.5 (the quest-n-click command). BASE_PATH is read by the engine's Vite configuration (tools/vite/plugins.ts).
• Verified on: not run as written on a created project. The steps are the engine repository's Pages job (run on every push to main) with the created project's commands in place of the repository's. Check the first run's log.

Prerequisites

• The project builds on your machine: npm run build passes (Build and release a game).
• package-lock.json committed (it is written by npm install): the workflow installs with npm ci.
• Pages enabled once for the repository: Settings → Pages → Build and deployment → Source: "GitHub Actions".

Where to run the commands

The file goes in the created project, committed and pushed to main; GitHub runs it. The local check of the same build runs in the created project, on your machine.

Steps

1. In the repository's settings, set Pages' source to GitHub Actions.

2. Create .github/workflows/pages.yml in the created project:

   name: pages
   on:
     push:
       branches: [main]
     workflow_dispatch:
   # The token reads; only the deploy job asks for more.
   permissions:
     contents: read
   # One deployment at a time; a newer push waits rather than cancelling one in flight.
   concurrency:
     group: pages
     cancel-in-progress: false
   jobs:
     build:
       runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
       timeout-minutes: 30
       steps:
         - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7.0.1
         - uses: actions/setup-node@949feb2413d6458794dcd2491c4babbbce0c15c1 # v7.1.0
           with:
             node-version: 22
             cache: npm
         - uses: actions/setup-python@5fda3b95a4ea91299a34e894583c3862153e4b97 # v7
           with:
             python-version: '3.12'
         - run: npm ci
         # The asset step (npm run assets, inside build) needs Pillow; the list ships with the engine.
         - run: pip install -r node_modules/quest-n-click/requirements.txt
         # Only when game/audio or a video holds files to encode: the runner has no ffmpeg.
         - run: command -v ffmpeg || (sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg)
         # Assets, verify (validate, solve, translations, lint, playtests), the build, dist/ accounted for.
         - run: npm run build
           env:
             # https://<user>.github.io/<repo>/: every path of the build under /<repo>/.
             BASE_PATH: /${{ github.event.repository.name }}/
         - uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@fc324d3547104276b827a68afc52ff2a11cc49c9 # v5
           with:
             path: dist
     deploy:
       needs: build
       runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
       timeout-minutes: 15
       permissions:
         pages: write
         id-token: write
       environment:
         name: github-pages
         url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
       steps:
         - id: deployment
           uses: actions/deploy-pages@368f82528645a54fb793d4d04e342629a3f51346 # v5
   

   The actions are pinned to the commits the engine repository uses. To release with the gates (npm run release), put npm run release in place of npm run build.

3. Choose BASE_PATH for your address:

   Address	BASE_PATH
   https://<user>.github.io/<repo>/ (a project site)	/<repo>/, as in the workflow
   https://<user>.github.io/ (a repository named <user>.github.io)	remove the env block: /
   A custom domain at its root	remove the env block: /

   Write it with a slash at both ends. The page's manifest and icons are written as <BASE_PATH>icons/…: without the trailing slash they point to /<repo>icons/….

4. Build the same thing on your machine, and play it:

   # in the created project
   BASE_PATH=/my-repo/ npm run build
   BASE_PATH=/my-repo/ npm run preview
   

   Then open http://127.0.0.1:4173/my-repo/.

5. Commit and push to main. The run appears under Actions; the deploy job's summary gives the site's address.

Limit · no-studio-no-docs This workflow publishes the game only. The engine repository's Pages also builds the Studio demo (STUDIO=1, VITE_STUDIO_DEMO=1) and assembles /docs/; neither is part of a created project's site.

Expected result, and how to check it

• The run is green and the deploy job links https://<user>.github.io/<repo>/.
• The game opens there, the browser's address bar keeps /<repo>/, and the pause menu's "Offline" row ends at "complete" (the warm-up of the offline cache).
• The browser's developer tools show https://<user>.github.io/<repo>/sw.js as the active service worker.

Common errors

Files or data changed

• .github/workflows/pages.yml in your repository.
• The repository's github-pages environment, which GitHub creates on the first deployment.
• Nothing in dist/ is committed: the workflow builds it each time.

Recovery or going back

To put an earlier version back, revert the commit on main (git revert) and push, or re-run the workflow run of an earlier commit (Actions → that run → Re-run all jobs): it builds that commit and deploys it. Players already on the newer version get the older one through the update banner, and saves follow the rules in Going back. Turning Pages off (Settings → Pages) unpublishes the site.

References

• The engine repository's Pages job: .github/workflows/ci.yml (check, the build with BASE_PATH, and pages).
• BASE_PATH and the manifest: tools/vite/plugins.ts; BASE_PATH.
• What npm run build and release run in a created project: cli/quest-n-click.mjs; the project's files: cli/create.mjs.

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