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Website Deployment Workflow

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Web Development · Website Deployment Workflow

From a Claude-generated course sitting in content/ to it actually appearing live on the site. content/ is the only thing anyone edits — nothing watches it automatically, so every step below has to be run on purpose.

The Two Folders

content/Source of truth — fragments, PDFs, solutions. Only place anyone hand-edits.

astro-site/dist/Build output. Regenerated fresh every build; WinSCP syncs from here directly.

website/Legacy — no longer part of the pipeline.

→Files flow content/ → dist/ → server. Never backwards.

Deploy: Steps 1–3

1Course content lands in content/<subject>/<course>/ (automatic when Claude writes it)

2python scripts/python/build_<course>_pdf.py — combined PDF, only once a course completes

3Sanity-check the course folder — no stray .html files that aren't real chapters

Deploy: Steps 4–6

4cd astro-site && npm run build — local machine only, never on the server

—npm run preview — optional local check before syncing

5WinSCP: astro-site/dist/ → server → rsync -avz --delete → /var/www/html/

6Verify live — chapters listed, PDF/solution links work

Admin Page (`/admin/`)

whatRead-only stats dashboard — course/PDF counts. Not a content editor.

authApache Basic Auth; .htpasswd exists only on the server, never committed

createhtpasswd -c .htpasswd <user> — first time only (-c overwrites the whole file)

resethtpasswd .htpasswd <user> — file already exists, drop -c

forgot usercat .htpasswd on the server — each line is username:hash

Common Failure Symptoms

old content liveForgot Step 4 — content changed, but nobody rebuilt since

chapters missingA stray .html file in the course folder got treated as a fake chapter, breaking the whole course's build

chapters missing (2)A dist/-built page got copied back into content/ — the reverse-direction mistake

edit "disappeared"Someone hand-edited dist/ — always edit content/, then rebuild

The one rule that matters most

Files only ever flow content/ → dist/ → live server — never backwards. Every build fully regenerates dist/ from scratch, so it's always safe to delete; content/ is the only folder that should ever be hand-edited.