TIL how to deploy a static site with a bare git repository

2025-10-30 • 1 min

It is possible to deploy a static site without CI/CD by using a bare git repository on a remote server.

1. Initialize a bare git repository on the remote server

$ git clone --bare https://github.com/kencx/source.git blog.git

2. Create a target worktree directory on the remote server

$ mkdir blog

3. Create the following git post-receive hook script inside the bare git repository

This script checks out a copy of the working directory into the directory we created above, before running zola build to build the static site.

$ touch blog.git/hooks/post-receive
$ cat <<EOF > blog.git/hooks/post-receive
#/bin/sh
set -e

TARGET="/path/to/blog"
GIT_DIR="/path/to/blog.git"
BRANCH="master"

while read oldrev newrev ref; do
  if [ "$ref" = "refs/heads/$BRANCH" ]; then
    echo "Ref $ref received. Deploying $BRANCH branch..."
    git --work-tree="$TARGET" --git-dir="$GIT_DIR" clean -fd
    git --work-tree="$TARGET" --git-dir="$GIT_DIR" checkout -f "$BRANCH"
    cp "$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/$BRANCH" "$TARGET/$BRANCH"
    cd "$TARGET" && zola build
  else
    echo "Ref $ref received. Doing nothing..."
  fi
done
EOF
$ chmod u+x blog.git/hooks/post-receive

4. On your local system, setup a new remote in the git repository,

$ cd /path/to/repo

$ git remote add origin git@github.com:kencx/source.git

5. Add multiple sources to the same remote origin

# add the original source as a push remote
$ git remote set-url --add --push origin git@github.com:kencx/source.git

# add the bare git repository in the server on the same remote
$ git remote set-url --add --push origin ssh://foo@my.server/path/to/blog.git

6. Pushing to this remote will push to both remotes at the same time

# Pushing to origin will push to both remotes at the same time
$ git push origin master

7. Point your web server to /path/to/blog/public to serve the static site