Publishing on GitHub using github pages

GitHub Pages is available in public repositories with GitHub Free, and in public and private repositories with GitHub Pro, GitHub Team, GitHub Enterprise Cloud, and GitHub Enterprise Server. For more information, see “GitHub’s products.”

You can configure GitHub Pages to publish your site’s source files from master, gh-pages, or a /docs folder on your master branch for Project Pages and other Pages sites that meet certain criteria.

If your site is a User or Organization Page that has a repository named <username>.github.ioor <orgname>.github.io, you cannot publish your site’s source files from different locations. User and Organization Pages that have this type of repository name are only published from the master branch.

For more information about the different types of GitHub Pages sites, see “User, Organization, and Project Pages.”

/docs folder on your master branch

To publish your site’s source files from a /docs folder on your master branch, you must have a master branch and your repository must:

  • have a /docs folder in the root of the repository

  • not follow the repository naming scheme <username>.github.ioor <orgname>.github.io

GitHub Pages will read everything to publish your site, including the CNAME file, from the /docs folder. For example, when you edit your custom domain through the GitHub Pages settings, the custom domain will write to /docs/CNAME.

  1. On GitHub, navigate to your GitHub Pages site’s repository.

  2. Create a folder in the root of your repository on the master branch called /docs.

  3. Under your repository name, click Settings.

  1. Use the Select source drop-down menu to select master branch /docs folder as your GitHub Pages publishing source.

select-master-branch-docs-folder-as-source

Tip: The master branch /docs folder source setting will not appear as an option if the /docs folder doesn’t exist on the master branch.

  1. Click Save.

Further Reading