From a local folder to a live website.
A few practical notes from the journey between “it works on my machine” and a page anyone can visit.
A working local website and a live website are two different milestones. The space between them is a good place to learn how the pieces fit together.
Give each tool one job
In this setup, Astro turns content into a static website. GitHub holds the source files. Dokploy builds and deploys the latest version. Nginx serves the finished pages.
That separation makes problems easier to understand. A successful build tells you the site was generated. It doesn’t tell you that a domain has been routed to it yet.
Check the small details
When a deployment isn’t showing up, a few questions go a long way:
- Is the correct repository selected?
- Does the deployment branch match the branch you’re pushing to?
- Is the domain pointing at the application’s container port?
- Are you opening HTTP or HTTPS, and does the configured route support it?
A single setting can be the difference between a plain 404 and a working homepage.
Make the second deployment smaller
Once the first version is live, the next change can be simple. Change the design, push the commit, and follow it through the deployment log.
That feedback loop is where the process starts to feel useful. The infrastructure becomes something you can rely on while you focus on what to make next.