versite

versite is a versioned static-site deployment tool for prebuilt static site directories. It manages a deployment branch containing multiple published site versions, aliases, redirects, and per-version metadata.

Why it exists

versite focuses on deployment branch management only. It copies a prebuilt static site into a versioned path, updates versions.json, manages aliases and redirects, and commits the result to the deployment branch.

It does not:

• build MkDocs sites
• build Jekyll sites
• run custom build commands
• rewrite generated asset URLs after a site is built

Installation

pip install -e .
versite --help

Configuration

versite reads versite.yml if present. The config loader only uses lightweight YAML parsing.

remote: origin
branch: gh-pages
deploy_prefix: ""
alias_type: redirect
redirect_template: null
push: false

CLI flags override config values.

Prebuilt Site Deployment

Deploy expects a prebuilt static site directory:

versite deploy 1.0 latest --site-dir path/to/site

versite publishes the contents of --site-dir into the deployment branch under the version path, updates versions.json, manages aliases, and writes redirects when needed.

If the generated site needs a versioned base path, that must be handled during the build step before versite sees the output. versite does not rewrite generated HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or asset URLs after the fact.

Migration Examples

MkDocs:

VERSION=1.0
VERSITE_VERSION="$VERSION" MIKE_DOCS_VERSION="$VERSION" mkdocs build --clean --site-dir dist/site
versite deploy "$VERSION" latest --site-dir dist/site

Jekyll:

VERSION=1.0
bundle exec jekyll build --destination dist/site --baseurl "/$VERSION"
versite deploy "$VERSION" latest --site-dir dist/site

For Jekyll and other generators that emit root-based asset or page URLs, build with the correct base path for the versioned deployment location.

Command Reference

versite deploy VERSION [ALIAS...] --site-dir path/to/site
versite list [IDENTIFIER]
versite delete [IDENTIFIER...] [--all]
versite alias IDENTIFIER [ALIAS...]
versite retitle IDENTIFIER TITLE
versite props IDENTIFIER [PROP]
versite set-default IDENTIFIER
versite serve

Important options:

• --config-file FILE
• -r, --remote REMOTE
• -b, --branch BRANCH
• -m, --message MESSAGE
• -p, --push
• --allow-empty
• --deploy-prefix PATH
• --alias-type {redirect,copy,symlink}
• -T, --template FILE
• --ignore-remote-status
• --site-dir DIR
• --json

Alias Modes

• redirect: writes static HTML redirects. This is the default and works well on GitHub Pages.
• copy: copies the deployed version directory into each alias directory.
• symlink: creates symlink aliases in the target branch for compatibility-focused setups.

GitHub Pages

versite is designed for branch-based static hosting. A common setup is gh-pages with redirect aliases and a root index.html redirect created by set-default.

Example:

branch: gh-pages
alias_type: redirect
push: false

GitHub Action

The repository includes a reusable composite action at action.yml.

Example usage:

- uses: owner/repo@main
  with:
    version: 1.0
    aliases: latest
    default-to: latest
    site-dir: dist/site
    branch: gh-pages
    push: true

The action installs versite from the checked-out repository, then runs versite deploy with the inputs you provide. It is meant for prebuilt site output, so your workflow should build the site before invoking it. Internally it uses github.action_path, so consumers do not need to check out the action repository manually. The action also configures a default git author for the deployment commit when running in GitHub Actions.

Example Jekyll workflow:

name: Site

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      version:
        description: Version identifier to publish
        required: true
        type: string

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  site:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
        with:
          ruby-version: "3.3"
          bundler-cache: true

      - name: Build site
        env:
          VERSION: ${{ inputs.version }}
        run: |
          bundle exec jekyll build \
            --destination _site \
            --baseurl "/$VERSION"

      - uses: owner/repo@main
        with:
          version: ${{ inputs.version }}
          aliases: latest
          default-to: latest
          site-dir: _site
          branch: gh-pages
          push: true

Set default-to when you also want a root index.html redirect written in the deployment branch. A common pattern is default-to: latest, which makes / forward to the alias that tracks your current preferred version.

This repository also includes a reusable workflow at .github/workflows/site.yml that builds with Jekyll and deploys with versite. It computes the Jekyll baseurl from the version and optional deploy prefix before calling versite deploy.

Migration From mike

• mike deploy roughly maps to building the site first and then running versite deploy --site-dir ....
• mike list, delete, alias, retitle, props, and set-default roughly map to the same versite subcommands.
• Unlike mike, versite does not run MkDocs builds.
• Shared deployment settings should move into versite.yml.