Deployment Workflow - Pre-Rendered Site

Overview

Your Quarto website is now configured to be rendered locally and then deployed to Netlify as a static site. This approach is simpler and avoids the need to install R on Netlify’s build servers.

How It Works

  1. Local Rendering: You render the site on your local machine (where R is installed)
  2. Git Tracking: The _site folder is tracked in Git (not ignored)
  3. Netlify Deployment: Netlify simply serves the pre-built files from the _site folder

Deployment Steps

Every time you update your site:

  1. Make changes to your .qmd files, projects, or blog posts

  2. Render locally:

    quarto render

  3. Commit and push:

    git add -A
git commit -m "Update site content"
git push origin quarto

  4. Netlify automatically deploys the updated _site folder

Configuration Files

netlify.toml

[build]
  command = ""  # No build command - site is pre-rendered
  publish = "_site"

.gitignore

# _site/ is commented out so it's tracked in Git
/.quarto/
**/*.quarto_ipynb

Benefits of This Approach

✅ Simple: No complex build setup on Netlify
✅ Fast: Netlify just serves files, no rendering needed
✅ Reliable: Builds happen locally where you control the environment
✅ R Support: Full R support since you render where R is installed
✅ Preview: You can test the site locally before deploying

Important Notes

  • Always run quarto render before committing
  • The _site folder will be large (contains all HTML, CSS, JS, images)
  • Make sure to push the _site folder to Git
  • Netlify will deploy automatically when you push to the quarto branch

Troubleshooting

If Netlify deployment fails: 1. Check that _site folder exists and is pushed to Git 2. Verify netlify.toml has publish = "_site" 3. Check Netlify build logs for any errors

Your site should now deploy successfully on Netlify! 🎉