Host on GitLab Pages

Assumptions

Working familiarity with Git for version control
Completion of the Hugo Quick Start
A GitLab account
A Hugo website on your local machine that you are ready to publish

BaseURL

The baseURL in your site configuration must reflect the full URL of your GitLab pages repository if you are using the default GitLab Pages URL (e.g., https://<YourUsername>.gitlab.io/<your-hugo-site>/) and not a custom domain.

Configure GitLab CI/CD

Define your CI/CD jobs by creating a .gitlab-ci.yml file in the root of your project.

.gitlab-ci.yml

variables:
  DART_SASS_VERSION: 1.64.1
  HUGO_VERSION: 0.115.4
  NODE_VERSION: 20.x
  GIT_DEPTH: 0
  GIT_STRATEGY: clone
  GIT_SUBMODULE_STRATEGY: recursive
  TZ: America/Los_Angeles

image:
  name: golang:1.20.6-bookworm

pages:
  script:
    # Install brotli
    - apt-get update
    - apt-get install -y brotli
    # Install Dart Sass
    - curl -LJO https://github.com/sass/dart-sass/releases/download/${DART_SASS_VERSION}/dart-sass-${DART_SASS_VERSION}-linux-x64.tar.gz
    - tar -xf dart-sass-${DART_SASS_VERSION}-linux-x64.tar.gz
    - cp -r dart-sass/ /usr/local/bin
    - rm -rf dart-sass*
    - export PATH=/usr/local/bin/dart-sass:$PATH
    # Install Hugo
    - curl -LJO https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases/download/v${HUGO_VERSION}/hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_linux-amd64.deb
    - apt-get install -y ./hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_linux-amd64.deb
    - rm hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_linux-amd64.deb
    # Install Node.js
    - curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_${NODE_VERSION} | bash -
    - apt-get install -y nodejs
    # Install Node.js dependencies
    - "[[ -f package-lock.json || -f npm-shrinkwrap.json ]] && npm ci || true"
    # Build
    - hugo --gc --minify
    # Compress
    - find public -type f -regex '.*\.\(css\|html\|js\|txt\|xml\)$' -exec gzip -f -k {} \;
    - find public -type f -regex '.*\.\(css\|html\|js\|txt\|xml\)$' -exec brotli -f -k {} \;
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - public
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH

Push your Hugo website to GitLab

Next, create a new repository on GitLab. It is not necessary to make the repository public. In addition, you might want to add /public to your .gitignore file, as there is no need to push compiled assets to GitLab or keep your output website in version control.

# initialize new git repository
git init

# add /public directory to our .gitignore file
echo "/public" >> .gitignore

# commit and push code to master branch
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git remote add origin https://gitlab.com/YourUsername/your-hugo-site.git
git push -u origin master

Wait for your page to build

That’s it! You can now follow the CI agent building your page at https://gitlab.com/<YourUsername>/<your-hugo-site>/pipelines.

After the build has passed, your new website is available at https://<YourUsername>.gitlab.io/<your-hugo-site>/.

Next steps

GitLab supports using custom CNAME’s and TLS certificates. For more details on GitLab Pages, see the GitLab Pages setup documentation.