I hate deployment, don't even mention it
Published on: May 26, 2025
Seems like I’m not getting anything right on the first try. In this edition of Dev Odysseys, I’ll share the rollercoaster of deploying my website—complete with rage-quits, AI rescues, and GitHub Pages chaos.
“It’ll Be Easy,” They Said
In my last post, I bragged about how 11ty would simplify deployment. Foreshadowing alert: this is where the universe decided to humble me (thank god y’all can’t see my graveyard of deleted repos).
I did what any sane person would: Googled “11ty GitHub Pages”. Dozens of tutorials popped up. “ez win!” I thought. Spoiler: It was not.
The Great GitHub Pages Meltdown
First attempt: followed a tutorial. Styles broke. Links back to home. Tried manual fixes. Nothing. Switched to another guide. Same result. By this point, I’d had a very intense weekend and just wanted to finish this project. So I had only one last ace up the sleeve: rage-quit.
Redemption Arc (Thanks, 11ty Docs)
Next day, fresh coffee in hand (not quite, coffee is disgusting), I crawled back to 11ty’s website. Their site-wide search is like Bruno, we don't talk about it; but after some digging, I struck gold: the official deployment guide.
It's alive! Their method worked… mostly. Styles still looked like a first grader's father's day website. However, I sometimes have genius ideas: I remembered that we live in the 21st century, and we have the commodity of AI to help us in some ocassions. A few prompts later, the last gremlins were squashed.
Dear Future Me (and You)
If you’re reading this while battling outdated 2022 tutorials (or worse, 2020 relics), know this: you’re not alone. Next time I’m drowning in deployment hell, I’ll drag y’all down with me—gloriously.
Thanks for reading! If you’ve survived a deployment disaster, tell me about it—misery loves company.