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GitHub Basics for Your First W7S Deploy

· 3 min read

You do not need to become a Git expert before deploying to W7S.

You do need one basic idea: GitHub should become the home of the project, not just a place you visit after the project is finished.

Once the project is in GitHub, W7S can deploy it from GitHub Actions.

The Pieces​

There are only a few concepts to learn first:

WordMeaning
RepositoryThe project folder on GitHub
CommitA saved checkpoint
BranchA line of work, usually starting with main
PushSending local commits to GitHub
GitHub ActionsAutomation that runs from the repository
WorkflowA YAML file that tells GitHub Actions what to do

W7S uses those pieces instead of asking you to recreate the project in a separate dashboard.

Start With the Web UI​

If the command line is still unfamiliar, start in the GitHub website:

  1. Create a GitHub account.
  2. Create a new repository.
  3. Choose a short repository name, such as portfolio or landing-page.
  4. Upload your index.html, CSS, JavaScript, images, and other files.
  5. Commit the upload to the main branch.

At this point, the project has a permanent home and a first checkpoint.

Add a W7S Workflow​

In the repository, create this file:

.github/workflows/deploy.yml
.github/
  workflows/
    deploy.yml

Paste this workflow:

.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - uses: w7s-io/w7s-cloud@v1
        with:
          token: ${{ github.token }}

Commit the file.

The next push to main runs the workflow. You can also run it manually with workflow_dispatch from the Actions tab.

If Your Project Has a Build Step​

Some projects are not plain HTML. React, Vite, Astro, Docusaurus, and similar tools usually need dependencies installed and a build command run first.

The workflow becomes:

.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: 22
          cache: npm
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build
      - uses: w7s-io/w7s-cloud@v1
        with:
          token: ${{ github.token }}

This says: check out the code, install Node, install dependencies, build the project, then deploy.

What You Learn​

This path teaches enough GitHub to be productive:

  • where the project lives;
  • how to save a change;
  • where deploy automation runs;
  • how to see whether a deploy failed;
  • how to change the build later.

That is the ramp. You can learn branches, pull requests, issues, and command-line Git after the first successful deploy.

Sources​