CI/CD Auto-Deployment

The theme's "Recent Updates" cards fetch external blog RSS at build time — after your blog updates, you need to re-run hexo generate to refresh them. CI/CD automates building and deploying on push or on a schedule, with no manual steps.

Option 1: GitHub Actions + GitHub Pages

The most popular approach: push to GitHub, auto-build and deploy to GitHub Pages.

Step 1: Create the workflow

Create .github/workflows/deploy.yml in your blog repo:

name: Deploy to GitHub Pages

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  # Scheduled build (daily) to refresh the RSS Recent Updates cards
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *'  # UTC 00:00
  workflow_dispatch:  # Manual trigger

permissions:
  contents: read
  pages: write
  id-token: write

concurrency:
  group: pages
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          submodules: true  # if the theme is a submodule
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: npm
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      - name: Build with Hexo
        run: npx hexo generate
      - name: Upload artifact
        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: ./public

  deploy:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
    steps:
      - id: deployment
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

Step 2: Configure GitHub Pages

In the repo Settings → Pages → Build and deployment → Source, select GitHub Actions.

Step 3: Upgrading the theme

If the theme is a git submodule, update the submodule pointer to the new version tag:

cd themes/tranquility
git fetch --tags
git checkout v1.6.1
cd ..
git add themes/tranquility
git commit -m "chore: upgrade tranquility to v1.6.1"
git push

CI auto-builds and deploys on push. If you cloned the theme directly, git pull in the theme directory, then commit and push.

Option 2: Vercel

Vercel offers a faster CDN, automatic HTTPS, and preview deployments.

Step 1: Import the repo

Import your blog repo into Vercel, select the Hexo framework preset (or configure manually):

Setting	Value
Build Command	npx hexo generate
Output Directory	public
Install Command	npm ci or npm install

Step 2: Scheduled builds (optional)

Vercel doesn't natively support scheduled builds. Use GitHub Actions schedule + a Vercel Deploy Hook:

1. In Vercel project Settings → Git → Deploy Hooks, create a hook (e.g. daily-refresh).
2. Create .github/workflows/trigger-vercel.yml in your blog repo:

name: Trigger Vercel Build
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *'
jobs:
  trigger:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: curl -X POST ${{ secrets.VERCEL_DEPLOY_HOOK }}

3. Add VERCEL_DEPLOY_HOOK as the hook URL in repo Settings → Secrets.

Option 3: Netlify / Cloudflare Pages

Configuration is similar to Vercel:

Platform	Build Command	Publish Directory
Netlify	npx hexo generate	public
Cloudflare Pages	npx hexo generate	public

Cloudflare Pages supports scheduled builds; Netlify supports scheduled deploys via Build Hooks.

Build cache optimization

Cache node_modules and Hexo cache in CI to speed up builds:

- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: 20
    cache: npm
- name: Cache Hexo
  uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: |
      .hexo
      node_modules
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-hexo-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}

Notes

• RSS refresh: "Recent Updates" cards fetch RSS at build time. Scheduled builds (cron) keep them fresh — a daily build is recommended.
• Environment variables: to inject variables at build time (e.g. site URL), configure them in CI env or the platform's Environment Variables.
• Theme upgrade compatibility: if CI build fails after a theme upgrade, check for breaking changes — see the Upgrade Guide and Versioning.
• Deploy tokens: GitHub Pages deployment uses id-token: write (OIDC) — no long-lived PAT needed, more secure.