Deploying an Astro Blog to a Server (nginx)

Astro’s static output is a perfect fit for nginx.

Build locally

npm install
npm run build
# output is in dist/

Before building, make sure site in astro.config.mjs is your real domain, otherwise sitemap and hreflang links will point to the wrong address.

Upload to the server

rsync -avz --delete dist/ user@server:/var/www/blog/

nginx site config

/etc/nginx/sites-available/blog.conf:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name blog.example.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name blog.example.com;

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

    gzip on;
    gzip_types text/css application/javascript application/json image/svg+xml;

    # long cache for static assets
    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|svg|woff2|ico)$ {
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }

    # clean URL support
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ $uri.html =404;
    }
}

Enable and issue a certificate

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/blog.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d blog.example.com

Automated deploy flow

Create a deploy script deploy.sh on the server:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e
cd /path/to/blog
git pull
npm ci
npm run build
rsync -avz --delete dist/ /var/www/blog/

Combine it with cron or a webhook for push-to-publish.

Common issues

• Refresh gives 404: make sure try_files includes $uri.html
• Assets 404: a non-/ base needs manual asset prefix handling
• Wrong domain in sitemap: check site in astro.config.mjs