Ftp

FTP Deployment

This project deploys a static Eleventy site to GoDaddy shared hosting via FTP. Two deployment paths exist:

• Local: npm run deploy runs deploy.js using basic-ftp with credentials from .env
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions workflows use SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@v4.3.5 with credentials from GitHub Secrets

Both paths upload _site/ to /public_html/ on the remote server.

Quick Start

Local Deploy

# 1. Copy and fill in credentials
cp .env.example .env

# 2. Build and deploy
npm run deploy

CI Deploy

Push to main triggers .github/workflows/deploy.yml automatically. No manual step needed.

Key Concepts

Deploy Script (deploy.js)

const client = new ftp.Client();
client.ftp.verbose = true;

await client.access({
  host: process.env.FTP_HOST,
  user: process.env.FTP_USER,
  password: process.env.FTP_PASSWORD,
  secure: true
});

const localDir = path.join(__dirname, '_site');
const remoteDir = process.env.FTP_REMOTE_DIR || '/public_html';

await client.ensureDir(remoteDir);
await client.clearWorkingDir();
await client.uploadFromDir(localDir);

WARNING: clearWorkingDir Deletes Everything

deploy.js calls client.clearWorkingDir() before uploading. This deletes all files in the remote directory before uploading the new build. Any files on the server not generated by the build (e.g., uploaded PDFs, .htaccess customizations) will be permanently lost.

If the server has non-build files that must persist, remove clearWorkingDir() and use uploadFromDir with overwrite mode instead.

Environment Variables

See Also

• patterns - Connection handling, error patterns, credential management
• workflows - Deploy checklists, CI pipeline, troubleshooting

Related Skills

• See the github-actions skill for CI/CD workflow configuration
• See the eleventy skill for the build that produces _site/