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A bare Git repository and a post-receive hook can turn a push to your production branch into a complete Hugo deployment on your VPS. The hook checks out the received source, builds Hugo’s public tree, and publishes that tree for Nginx to serve. Keep the Git repository, build workspace, and web document root separate, run the hook as a dedicated account, and clean the destination on every build so removed or unpublished pages do not remain online.
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What the deployment pipeline does
This setup is a small, self-hosted continuous-deployment system. Your local machine pushes Hugo source to a bare repository on the VPS. Git runs the repository’s hooks/post-receive script, which checks out the selected revision into a private workspace, executes Hugo, and publishes the generated files. Nginx serves only the generated directory; it never serves the repository or the source checkout.
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- You commit a change and push the production branch over SSH.
- The bare repository receives the objects and invokes
post-receive. - The hook ignores every ref except the configured production branch.
- Git checks out that revision into the build workspace.
- Hugo renders the site into a destination directory, normally called
public. - Only a successful build is made available under Nginx’s document root.
Hugo’s deployment documentation describes the same fundamental choice: push source to a Git repository and let a platform build and deploy it, or build locally and transfer the generated files to the host. A VPS hook keeps the build under your control while avoiding a separate hosted runner.
Use three separate directories
Do not combine the repository, checkout, and web root. Separation limits accidental exposure and makes it possible to inspect or replace a build without changing Git history.
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| Role | Example path | What belongs there |
|---|---|---|
| Bare repository | /srv/git/site.git |
Git objects and hooks; no working tree and no files intended for visitors. |
| Build workspace | /srv/build/site |
The checked-out Hugo source, themes, modules, and configuration used by the hook. |
| Nginx document root | /var/www/site/public |
Only the generated HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, feeds, sitemap, and other publishable files. |
Use a dedicated deployment account for all three operations. The account needs to write the repository and build directories and publish the destination, but it should not be a general-purpose administrator. Nginx only needs read access to the generated tree. If your distribution uses the www-data group, you can assign the destination to that group after a successful build; adapt the ownership to your VPS.
Prerequisites and decisions
VPS and DNS
- An Ubuntu or comparable Linux VPS with SSH access and enough storage for the repository, checkout, and generated site.
- A hostname whose DNS record points to the VPS.
- Nginx installed and able to bind the HTTP and HTTPS ports.
- Git and the Hugo executable installed for the deployment account or available at a fixed path such as
/usr/local/bin/hugo.
Choose the Hugo edition before installing
Hugo’s Linux installation guidance lists standard, deploy, extended, and extended/deploy editions. Select the smallest edition that supports your project. Sass or SCSS processing requires an extended-capability edition. Direct deployment from Hugo to object storage requires a deploy edition. A site that only renders Markdown and publishes to a VPS generally does not need the deploy edition, but it may still need extended features used by its theme or asset pipeline.
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The examples use main, represented in receive-hook input as refs/heads/main. Decide whether that branch is always production or whether a separate branch is promoted after review. The hook must compare the complete ref name and exit without building for every other branch.
Create the deployment account and directories
Run administrative commands as root or through sudo; run Git and Hugo as the deployment account. The exact username is your choice. The following layout follows the architecture above:
sudo useradd --system --create-home --home-dir /srv/deploy --shell /usr/sbin/nologin deploy
sudo install -d -o deploy -g deploy -m 0750 /srv/git
sudo install -d -o deploy -g deploy -m 0750 /srv/build
sudo install -d -o deploy -g deploy -m 0750 /srv/build/site
sudo install -d -o deploy -g deploy -m 0750 /var/www/site/public
sudo git init --bare --initial-branch=main /srv/git/site.gitIf your Git version does not support --initial-branch, initialize the bare repository without that option and let the first push create main. Ensure the deployment account can execute Hugo and read any private modules or theme files required by the build.
Give Git a restricted SSH entry point
Create an SSH key used only for this repository. Do not reuse a personal administrator key. Place the public key in the deployment account’s authorized_keys file and restrict it so the key can submit Git data but cannot open an unrestricted shell. A typical entry uses Git’s forced command, disables forwarding, and permits no terminal:
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command="git-shell -c "$SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND"",no-port-forwarding,no-agent-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-pty ssh-ed25519 AAAA... production-deployUse the key’s actual public-key line in place of the shortened example. Confirm that the forced command matches the repository path you intend to expose. The important property is that an SSH connection made with this key can run the Git receive operation, not arbitrary shell commands. Keep administrative access on a separate key and account.
From your workstation, add the bare repository as a remote:
git remote add production deploy@example-vps:/srv/git/site.gitReplace the account, hostname, and path with your values. Before enabling automatic publication, make a harmless test commit so you can observe the first receive-hook run.
Install and verify Hugo for the hook
Install the Hugo edition and version required by the site. Verify the executable as the deployment account, not only as an administrator:
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sudo -u deploy git --versionPin the executable path in the hook. Hooks run with a minimal environment, so relying on an interactive shell’s PATH is a common reason a manual build succeeds while a push fails. If the project uses Hugo modules, make sure the deployment account has the required module cache access and that the repository contains any files needed to resolve those modules.
Install the post-receive hook
Create /srv/git/site.git/hooks/post-receive, make it executable, and keep it owned by the deployment account. Git sends one line for each updated reference on standard input: the old object ID, the new object ID, and the full ref name. The hook below builds only main:
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#!/bin/sh
set -eu
REPO=/srv/git/site.git
WORK=/srv/build/site
DEST=/var/www/site/public
BRANCH=refs/heads/main
while read oldrev newrev refname; do
[ "$refname" = "$BRANCH" ] || continue
git --work-tree="$WORK" --git-dir="$REPO" checkout -f main
/usr/local/bin/hugo
--source "$WORK"
--destination "$DEST"
--cleanDestinationDir
--environment production
chown -R www-data:www-data "$DEST"
donesudo chown deploy:deploy /srv/git/site.git/hooks/post-receive
sudo chmod 0750 /srv/git/site.git/hooks/post-receiveset -eu makes an unset variable or failed command stop the hook. The explicit ref check prevents a feature-branch push from replacing production. Adapt the repository, workspace, destination, branch, Hugo path, and web-server ownership to your system.
Why --cleanDestinationDir matters
Hugo can leave files in the destination when a page is renamed, deleted, changed to a draft, expired, or given a future publication date. Those files can remain reachable even though they are no longer produced by the current source. --cleanDestinationDir removes stale output during the build. You can set the equivalent cleanDestinationDir configuration value, but an explicit production flag makes the behavior visible in the hook.
Build into a temporary directory for safer publication
The compact hook writes directly to the document root. A safer variant builds elsewhere and updates the live tree only after Hugo exits successfully. This preserves the previous good output when a build fails and lets Nginx continue serving it:
#!/bin/sh
set -eu
REPO=/srv/git/site.git
WORK=/srv/build/site
DEST=/var/www/site/public
BRANCH=refs/heads/main
while read oldrev newrev refname; do
[ "$refname" = "$BRANCH" ] || continue
git --work-tree="$WORK" --git-dir="$REPO" checkout -f main
TMP=$(mktemp -d /srv/build/site-release.XXXXXX)
trap 'rm -rf "$TMP"' EXIT
/usr/local/bin/hugo
--source "$WORK"
--destination "$TMP"
--cleanDestinationDir
--environment production
rsync -a --delete "$TMP"/ "$DEST"/
chown -R www-data:www-data "$DEST"
trap - EXIT
rm -rf "$TMP"
doneThis version requires rsync. The --delete option makes the live tree match the successful build, including removals. If you use concurrent pushes, serialize hook executions or reject a second build while one is running; otherwise two builds can race to update the same destination.
Log every build
Redirect Hugo’s standard output and error to a log that the deployment account can append to, or run the hook under a service manager that captures them. Include the commit or ref in the log message. A push client may report only that the remote hook failed; a persistent log gives you the actual template, content, module, or permission error.
Configure Nginx to serve only generated output
Point the site’s Nginx server block at /var/www/site/public, set the production hostname, and configure TLS for that hostname. Do not set root to /srv/git/site.git or /srv/build/site. Those locations contain Git metadata, source content, and possibly secrets used by the build.
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server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
root /var/www/site/public;
index index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}Use your existing HTTPS configuration or certificate automation for TLS. Validate before reloading:
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginxReload Nginx only after nginx -t succeeds. A static Hugo site normally needs no application upstream, process supervisor, or runtime interpreter; Nginx reads the files Hugo generated.
Make the first production push
Use a harmless change such as a small text edit. Push the exact production branch:
git add .
git commit -m "Test production deployment"
git push production mainThen check the receive output and the server log. The hook should show a checkout followed by a successful Hugo exit. The destination should contain at least the generated home page and the assets your site references. Visit the hostname over HTTPS and inspect the response headers and page source to confirm Nginx is serving the new revision.
Acceptance checks before relying on automation
- Account: confirm the hook runs as the deployment account and that the SSH key cannot obtain an interactive shell.
- Revision: verify that a push to the production branch changes the checkout and a push to another branch does not publish anything.
- Build: confirm Hugo exits successfully and that templates, assets, feeds, and the sitemap are present where expected.
- Web serving: check the new page through Nginx, including its canonical host and TLS endpoint.
- Deletion: remove or rename a page, push, and verify that its old path disappears after the clean build.
- Unpublished content: mark a page as draft, expired, or future-dated and confirm it is not left in the live tree.
- Failure behavior: introduce a controlled template error and verify that the hook fails visibly while the last successful output remains available when using a temporary build directory.
These checks are operational acceptance criteria. They are not a substitute for monitoring: keep watching hook logs and disk usage after launch.
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The push succeeds but nothing changes
Check that the client pushed the branch the hook accepts. A hook that compares refs/heads/main will intentionally ignore tags, pull-request refs, and other branches. Confirm the hook is executable and located inside the bare repository’s hooks directory, not in the build checkout.
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“hugo: not found” or a module cannot be read
Use an absolute Hugo path and test it with sudo -u deploy. Inspect permissions on the module cache, theme directory, and any private repository credentials. Hooks do not inherit your login shell, aliases, or user-level environment files.
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Nginx returns a 403 or 404
Check that the destination exists, contains index.html, and is readable and traversable by the Nginx worker account. Verify the server block selected the expected hostname and that nginx -t passed before the reload. A successful Hugo build in the wrong destination is indistinguishable from a missing deployment until you compare the configured paths.
Old URLs remain after content is removed
Build with --cleanDestinationDir or the equivalent configuration setting. If you use a staged build, retain rsync --delete (or another deletion-aware publish step) so files absent from the new tree are removed from the live tree.
A bad commit replaced the site
First restore the last known-good source revision through normal Git history: revert the offending change, commit the revert, and push the production branch. If your team maintains a release branch, promote the known-good commit according to that process. Keep generated output out of Git; the source commit and hook log are the audit trail.
Rollback, audit, and operational safeguards
Git gives you an immutable reference to every pushed source revision, while the hook log should record which revision was built and whether Hugo succeeded. For a quick rollback, push a revert or a branch pointer that restores the desired source state; the same hook then rebuilds it. Do not edit files manually inside /var/www/site/public, because the next deployment will overwrite them.
- Restrict write access to the repository, workspace, and destination to the deployment account and the web-server read path.
- Keep the bare repository and workspace outside every Nginx
root. - Use a dedicated SSH key with forwarding and terminal access disabled.
- Pin Hugo and theme/module versions so a rebuild is reproducible.
- Monitor available disk space; the repository, checkout, temporary builds, and logs all consume storage.
- Serialize deployments if more than one push can arrive at once.
- Back up the bare repository if its history is part of your recovery plan.
How this compares with other Hugo deployment methods
| Method | Build location | Strengths | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| VPS bare repository and hook | Your VPS | One push publishes directly; full control over the host, keys, logs, and web server; no separate runner required. | You maintain Linux updates, Git access, Hugo versions, TLS, storage, and the deployment script. |
| Managed Git CI/CD | A hosted runner | Hosted build environments, clearer job history, easier previews, and less server maintenance. | You must configure deployment credentials and trust the runner; build minutes, preview features, or storage may be subject to the provider’s plan. |
| Local build and file transfer | Your workstation | Simple server requirements; useful for a very small site or an offline-controlled release. | Publication depends on one workstation, is easier to perform inconsistently, and needs a secure transfer and cleanup strategy. |
hugo deploy to object storage |
Where you run Hugo | Targets services such as Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage; supports dry runs, confirmations, deletion limits, worker controls, and CDN invalidation options. | Requires object-storage credentials, bucket policy, and a different edge-serving design than an Nginx VPS. |
Choose the hook when direct control and a short push-to-publish path matter more than minimizing server administration. Choose managed CI when previews, centralized audit trails, and disposable builders are more valuable. Hugo’s official deployment methods document both source-driven builds and local-build transfers; neither is universally superior.
Production checklist
- Create a non-login deployment account and separate repository, workspace, and document-root directories.
- Install the Hugo edition required by your modules and asset pipeline; verify it as the deployment account.
- Initialize a bare repository and add an executable
post-receivehook. - Restrict the SSH key with a forced Git command and disable forwarding and terminals.
- Make the hook accept only the intended production ref.
- Build with the production environment and clean the destination on every successful release.
- Prefer a temporary build directory so a failed build does not replace the last good output.
- Point Nginx only at the generated directory, validate with
nginx -t, and reload. - Test a harmless push, a deletion, an unpublished page, and a deliberate build failure.
- Keep logs, source history, backups, and a documented rollback path.
When to change the design
A hook on one VPS is intentionally small. Reconsider it when you need pull-request previews, builds for several sites, parallel environments, secret scanning, approval gates, or multiple production regions. At that point, a managed CI runner or a dedicated build service can separate compilation from the web host. You can still keep Nginx as the final static-file server; only the trigger and build ownership change.
For a single Hugo site, however, the bare-repository pattern remains easy to understand and audit: Git receives source, the hook builds a clean public tree, and Nginx serves that tree. The safety of the arrangement comes from the boundaries—restricted SSH, branch filtering, clean output, and a previous release that remains intact until the new build succeeds.
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