---
id: deployment
title: Deployment
sidebar_label: Deployment
---

`npm run build` creates a `build` directory with a production build of your app. Set up your favorite HTTP server so that a visitor to your site is served `index.html`, and requests to static paths like `/static/js/main.<hash>.js` are served with the contents of the `/static/js/main.<hash>.js` file.

## Static Server

For environments using [Node](https://nodejs.org/), the easiest way to handle this would be to install [serve](https://github.com/zeit/serve) and let it handle the rest:

```sh
npm install -g serve
serve -s build
```

The last command shown above will serve your static site on the port **5000**. Like many of [serve](https://github.com/zeit/serve)’s internal settings, the port can be adjusted using the `-p` or `--port` flags.

Run this command to get a full list of the options available:

```sh
serve -h
```

## Other Solutions

You don’t necessarily need a static server in order to run a Create React App project in production. It works just as fine integrated into an existing dynamic one.

Here’s a programmatic example using [Node](https://nodejs.org/) and [Express](http://expressjs.com/):

```javascript
const express = require('express');
const path = require('path');
const app = express();

app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build')));

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'build', 'index.html'));
});

app.listen(9000);
```

The choice of your server software isn’t important either. Since Create React App is completely platform-agnostic, there’s no need to explicitly use Node.

The `build` folder with static assets is the only output produced by Create React App.

However this is not quite enough if you use client-side routing. Read the next section if you want to support URLs like `/todos/42` in your single-page app.

## Serving Apps with Client-Side Routing

If you use routers that use the HTML5 [`pushState` history API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/History_API#Adding_and_modifying_history_entries) under the hood (for example, [React Router](https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router) with `browserHistory`), many static file servers will fail. For example, if you used React Router with a route for `/todos/42`, the development server will respond to `localhost:3000/todos/42` properly, but an Express serving a production build as above will not.

This is because when there is a fresh page load for a `/todos/42`, the server looks for the file `build/todos/42` and does not find it. The server needs to be configured to respond to a request to `/todos/42` by serving `index.html`. For example, we can amend our Express example above to serve `index.html` for any unknown paths:

```diff
 app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build')));

-app.get('/', function (req, res) {
+app.get('/*', function (req, res) {
   res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'build', 'index.html'));
 });
```

If you’re using [Apache HTTP Server](https://httpd.apache.org/), you need to create a `.htaccess` file in the `public` folder that looks like this:

```
    Options -MultiViews
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ index.html [QSA,L]
```

It will get copied to the `build` folder when you run `npm run build`.

If you’re using [Apache Tomcat](http://tomcat.apache.org/), you need to follow [this Stack Overflow answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/41249464/4878474).

Now requests to `/todos/42` will be handled correctly both in development and in production.

On a production build, and when you've [opted-in](making-a-progressive-web-app.md#why-opt-in),
a [service worker](https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/primers/service-workers/) will automatically handle all navigation requests, like for
`/todos/42`, by serving the cached copy of your `index.html`. This
service worker navigation routing can be configured or disabled by
[`eject`ing](available-scripts.md#npm-run-eject) and then modifying the
[`navigateFallback`](https://github.com/GoogleChrome/sw-precache#navigatefallback-string)
and [`navigateFallbackWhitelist`](https://github.com/GoogleChrome/sw-precache#navigatefallbackwhitelist-arrayregexp)
options of the `SWPreachePlugin` [configuration](../config/webpack.config.prod.js).

When users install your app to the homescreen of their device the default configuration will make a shortcut to `/index.html`. This may not work for client-side routers which expect the app to be served from `/`. Edit the web app manifest at [`public/manifest.json`](public/manifest.json) and change `start_url` to match the required URL scheme, for example:

```js
  "start_url": ".",
```

## Building for Relative Paths

By default, Create React App produces a build assuming your app is hosted at the server root.<br>
To override this, specify the `homepage` in your `package.json`, for example:

```js
  "homepage": "http://mywebsite.com/relativepath",
```

This will let Create React App correctly infer the root path to use in the generated HTML file.

**Note**: If you are using `react-router@^4`, you can root `<Link>`s using the `basename` prop on any `<Router>`.<br>
More information [here](https://reacttraining.com/react-router/web/api/BrowserRouter/basename-string).<br>
<br>
For example:

```js
<BrowserRouter basename="/calendar"/>
<Link to="/today"/> // renders <a href="/calendar/today">
```

### Serving the Same Build from Different Paths

> Note: this feature is available with `react-scripts@0.9.0` and higher.

If you are not using the HTML5 `pushState` history API or not using client-side routing at all, it is unnecessary to specify the URL from which your app will be served. Instead, you can put this in your `package.json`:

```js
  "homepage": ".",
```

This will make sure that all the asset paths are relative to `index.html`. You will then be able to move your app from `http://mywebsite.com` to `http://mywebsite.com/relativepath` or even `http://mywebsite.com/relative/path` without having to rebuild it.

## Customizing Environment Variables for Arbitrary Build Environments

You can create an arbitrary build environment by creating a custom `.env` file and loading it using [env-cmd](https://www.npmjs.com/package/env-cmd).

For example, to create a build environment for a staging environment:

1. Create a file called `.env.staging`
1. Set environment variables as you would any other `.env` file (e.g. `REACT_APP_API_URL=http://api-staging.example.com`)
1. Install [env-cmd](https://www.npmjs.com/package/env-cmd)
   ```sh
   $ npm install env-cmd --save
   $ # or
   $ yarn add env-cmd
   ```
1. Add a new script to your `package.json`, building with your new environment:
   ```json
   {
     "scripts": {
       "build:staging": "env-cmd .env.staging npm run build"
     }
   }
   ```

Now you can run `npm run build:staging` to build with the staging environment config.
You can specify other environments in the same way.

Variables in `.env.production` will be used as fallback because `NODE_ENV` will always be set to `production` for a build.

## [Azure](https://azure.microsoft.com/)

See [this](https://medium.com/@to_pe/deploying-create-react-app-on-microsoft-azure-c0f6686a4321) blog post on how to deploy your React app to Microsoft Azure.

See [this](https://medium.com/@strid/host-create-react-app-on-azure-986bc40d5bf2#.pycfnafbg) blog post or [this](https://github.com/ulrikaugustsson/azure-appservice-static) repo for a way to use automatic deployment to Azure App Service.

## [Firebase](https://firebase.google.com/)

Install the Firebase CLI if you haven’t already by running `npm install -g firebase-tools`. Sign up for a [Firebase account](https://console.firebase.google.com/) and create a new project. Run `firebase login` and login with your previous created Firebase account.

Then run the `firebase init` command from your project’s root. You need to choose the **Hosting: Configure and deploy Firebase Hosting sites** and choose the Firebase project you created in the previous step. You will need to agree with `database.rules.json` being created, choose `build` as the public directory, and also agree to **Configure as a single-page app** by replying with `y`.

```sh
    === Project Setup

    First, let's associate this project directory with a Firebase project.
    You can create multiple project aliases by running firebase use --add,
    but for now we'll just set up a default project.

    ? What Firebase project do you want to associate as default? Example app (example-app-fd690)

    === Database Setup

    Firebase Realtime Database Rules allow you to define how your data should be
    structured and when your data can be read from and written to.

    ? What file should be used for Database Rules? database.rules.json
    ✔  Database Rules for example-app-fd690 have been downloaded to database.rules.json.
    Future modifications to database.rules.json will update Database Rules when you run
    firebase deploy.

    === Hosting Setup

    Your public directory is the folder (relative to your project directory) that
    will contain Hosting assets to uploaded with firebase deploy. If you
    have a build process for your assets, use your build's output directory.

    ? What do you want to use as your public directory? build
    ? Configure as a single-page app (rewrite all urls to /index.html)? Yes
    ✔  Wrote build/index.html

    i  Writing configuration info to firebase.json...
    i  Writing project information to .firebaserc...

    ✔  Firebase initialization complete!
```

IMPORTANT: you need to set proper HTTP caching headers for `service-worker.js` file in `firebase.json` file or you will not be able to see changes after first deployment ([issue #2440](https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/issues/2440)). It should be added inside `"hosting"` key like next:

```
{
  "hosting": {
    ...
    "headers": [
      {"source": "/service-worker.js", "headers": [{"key": "Cache-Control", "value": "no-cache"}]}
    ]
    ...
```

Now, after you create a production build with `npm run build`, you can deploy it by running `firebase deploy`.

```sh
    === Deploying to 'example-app-fd690'...

    i  deploying database, hosting
    ✔  database: rules ready to deploy.
    i  hosting: preparing build directory for upload...
    Uploading: [==============================          ] 75%✔  hosting: build folder uploaded successfully
    ✔  hosting: 8 files uploaded successfully
    i  starting release process (may take several minutes)...

    ✔  Deploy complete!

    Project Console: https://console.firebase.google.com/project/example-app-fd690/overview
    Hosting URL: https://example-app-fd690.firebaseapp.com
```

For more information see [Firebase Hosting](https://firebase.google.com/docs/hosting).

## [GitHub Pages](https://pages.github.com/)

> Note: this feature is available with `react-scripts@0.2.0` and higher.

### Step 1: Add `homepage` to `package.json`

**The step below is important!**<br>
**If you skip it, your app will not deploy correctly.**

Open your `package.json` and add a `homepage` field for your project:

```json
  "homepage": "https://myusername.github.io/my-app",
```

or for a GitHub user page:

```json
  "homepage": "https://myusername.github.io",
```

or for a custom domain page:

```json
  "homepage": "https://mywebsite.com",
```

Create React App uses the `homepage` field to determine the root URL in the built HTML file.

### Step 2: Install `gh-pages` and add `deploy` to `scripts` in `package.json`

Now, whenever you run `npm run build`, you will see a cheat sheet with instructions on how to deploy to GitHub Pages.

To publish it at [https://myusername.github.io/my-app](https://myusername.github.io/my-app), run:

```sh
npm install --save gh-pages
```

Alternatively you may use `yarn`:

```sh
yarn add gh-pages
```

Add the following scripts in your `package.json`:

```diff
  "scripts": {
+   "predeploy": "npm run build",
+   "deploy": "gh-pages -d build",
    "start": "react-scripts start",
    "build": "react-scripts build",
```

The `predeploy` script will run automatically before `deploy` is run.

If you are deploying to a GitHub user page instead of a project page you'll need to make two
additional modifications:

1. First, change your repository's source branch to be any branch other than **master**.
1. Additionally, tweak your `package.json` scripts to push deployments to **master**:

```diff
  "scripts": {
    "predeploy": "npm run build",
-   "deploy": "gh-pages -d build",
+   "deploy": "gh-pages -b master -d build",
```

### Step 3: Deploy the site by running `npm run deploy`

Then run:

```sh
npm run deploy
```

### Step 4: Ensure your project’s settings use `gh-pages`

Finally, make sure **GitHub Pages** option in your GitHub project settings is set to use the `gh-pages` branch:

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/HUjEr9l.png" width="500" alt="gh-pages branch setting">

### Step 5: Optionally, configure the domain

You can configure a custom domain with GitHub Pages by adding a `CNAME` file to the `public/` folder.

Your CNAME file should look like this:

```
mywebsite.com
```

### Notes on client-side routing

GitHub Pages doesn’t support routers that use the HTML5 `pushState` history API under the hood (for example, React Router using `browserHistory`). This is because when there is a fresh page load for a url like `http://user.github.io/todomvc/todos/42`, where `/todos/42` is a frontend route, the GitHub Pages server returns 404 because it knows nothing of `/todos/42`. If you want to add a router to a project hosted on GitHub Pages, here are a couple of solutions:

- You could switch from using HTML5 history API to routing with hashes. If you use React Router, you can switch to `hashHistory` for this effect, but the URL will be longer and more verbose (for example, `http://user.github.io/todomvc/#/todos/42?_k=yknaj`). [Read more](https://reacttraining.com/react-router/web/api/Router) about different history implementations in React Router.
- Alternatively, you can use a trick to teach GitHub Pages to handle 404 by redirecting to your `index.html` page with a special redirect parameter. You would need to add a `404.html` file with the redirection code to the `build` folder before deploying your project, and you’ll need to add code handling the redirect parameter to `index.html`. You can find a detailed explanation of this technique [in this guide](https://github.com/rafrex/spa-github-pages).

### Troubleshooting

#### "/dev/tty: No such a device or address"

If, when deploying, you get `/dev/tty: No such a device or address` or a similar error, try the following:

1. Create a new [Personal Access Token](https://github.com/settings/tokens)
2. `git remote set-url origin https://<user>:<token>@github.com/<user>/<repo>` .
3. Try `npm run deploy` again

#### "Cannot read property 'email' of null"

If, when deploying, you get `Cannot read property 'email' of null`, try the following:

1. `git config --global user.name '<your_name>'`
2. `git config --global user.email '<your_email>'`
3. Try `npm run deploy` again

## [Heroku](https://www.heroku.com/)

Use the [Heroku Buildpack for Create React App](https://github.com/mars/create-react-app-buildpack).<br>
You can find instructions in [Deploying React with Zero Configuration](https://blog.heroku.com/deploying-react-with-zero-configuration).

### Resolving Heroku Deployment Errors

Sometimes `npm run build` works locally but fails during deploy via Heroku. Following are the most common cases.

#### "Module not found: Error: Cannot resolve 'file' or 'directory'"

If you get something like this:

```
remote: Failed to create a production build. Reason:
remote: Module not found: Error: Cannot resolve 'file' or 'directory'
MyDirectory in /tmp/build_1234/src
```

It means you need to ensure that the lettercase of the file or directory you `import` matches the one you see on your filesystem or on GitHub.

This is important because Linux (the operating system used by Heroku) is case sensitive. So `MyDirectory` and `mydirectory` are two distinct directories and thus, even though the project builds locally, the difference in case breaks the `import` statements on Heroku remotes.

#### "Could not find a required file."

If you exclude or ignore necessary files from the package you will see a error similar this one:

```
remote: Could not find a required file.
remote:   Name: `index.html`
remote:   Searched in: /tmp/build_a2875fc163b209225122d68916f1d4df/public
remote:
remote: npm ERR! Linux 3.13.0-105-generic
remote: npm ERR! argv "/tmp/build_a2875fc163b209225122d68916f1d4df/.heroku/node/bin/node" "/tmp/build_a2875fc163b209225122d68916f1d4df/.heroku/node/bin/npm" "run" "build"
```

In this case, ensure that the file is there with the proper lettercase and that’s not ignored on your local `.gitignore` or `~/.gitignore_global`.

## [Netlify](https://www.netlify.com/)

**To do a manual deploy to Netlify’s CDN:**

```sh
npm install netlify-cli -g
netlify deploy
```

Choose `build` as the path to deploy.

**To setup continuous delivery:**

With this setup Netlify will build and deploy when you push to git or open a pull request:

1. [Start a new netlify project](https://app.netlify.com/signup)
2. Pick your Git hosting service and select your repository
3. Click `Build your site`

**Support for client-side routing:**

To support `pushState`, make sure to create a `public/_redirects` file with the following rewrite rules:

```
/*  /index.html  200
```

When you build the project, Create React App will place the `public` folder contents into the build output.

## [Now](https://zeit.co/now)

Now offers a zero-configuration single-command deployment. You can use `now` to deploy your app for free.

1. Install the `now` command-line tool either via the recommended [desktop tool](https://zeit.co/download) or via node with `npm install -g now`.

2. Build your app by running `npm run build`.

3. Move into the build directory by running `cd build`.

4. Run `now --name your-project-name` from within the build directory. You will see a **now.sh** URL in your output like this:

   ```
   > Ready! https://your-project-name-tpspyhtdtk.now.sh (copied to clipboard)
   ```

   Paste that URL into your browser when the build is complete, and you will see your deployed app.

Details are available in [this article.](https://zeit.co/blog/unlimited-static)

## [S3](https://aws.amazon.com/s3) and [CloudFront](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/)

See this [blog post](https://medium.com/@omgwtfmarc/deploying-create-react-app-to-s3-or-cloudfront-48dae4ce0af) on how to deploy your React app to Amazon Web Services S3 and CloudFront.

## [Surge](https://surge.sh/)

Install the Surge CLI if you haven’t already by running `npm install -g surge`. Run the `surge` command and log in you or create a new account.

When asked about the project path, make sure to specify the `build` folder, for example:

```sh
       project path: /path/to/project/build
```

Note that in order to support routers that use HTML5 `pushState` API, you may want to rename the `index.html` in your build folder to `200.html` before deploying to Surge. This [ensures that every URL falls back to that file](https://surge.sh/help/adding-a-200-page-for-client-side-routing).

## Publishing Components To npm

Create React App doesn't provide any built-in functionality to publish a component to npm. If you're ready to extract a component from your project so other people can use it, we recommend moving it to a separate directory outside of your project and then using a tool like [nwb](https://github.com/insin/nwb#react-components-and-libraries) to prepare it for publishing.
