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Astrolock build

astrolock build

astrolock build

Builds your site for production deployment, creating optimized static files ready to host.

Usage

astrolock build

What It Does

The build command:

  1. Validates configuration - Checks .astrolock/astrolock.yaml
  2. Processes content - Converts markdown to HTML
  3. Generates pages - Creates all routes and pagination
  4. Optimizes assets - Compresses images, minifies CSS/JS
  5. Creates search index - Generates .json/search.json
  6. Builds sitemap - Creates sitemap.xml
  7. Outputs to dist/ - Final static site ready to deploy
$ astrolock build

Building Astrolock site for production...

✓ Validating configuration
✓ Processing 25 content files
✓ Generating 48 pages
✓ Optimizing 12 images
✓ Building search index
✓ Creating sitemap

Build completed in 8.2s

Output: dist/
Size: 4.2 MB
Pages: 48
Assets: 23

Ready to deploy!

All files are output to the dist/ directory:

dist/
├── index.html              # Homepage
├── blog/
│   ├── index.html         # Blog listing
│   ├── my-post/
│   │   └── index.html     # Post page
│   ├── page/2/            # Pagination
│   ├── categories/
│   └── tags/
├── media/mixes/
│   ├── index.html         # Collection listing
│   └── summer-mix/
├── about/index.html       # Static page
├── assets/                # CSS, JS, fonts
├── audio/                 # Copied from public/
├── images/                # Copied from public/
├── video/                 # Copied from public/
├── sitemap.xml
├── robots.txt
└── .json/search.json      # Search index

When to Build

Build your site when:

  • Ready to deploy: After finishing content changes
  • Testing production: Verify everything works
  • Before deploying: Always build fresh before deployment

Build vs Development

Featurebuild (Production)write (Development)
SpeedSlower (8-15s)Faster (3-5s)
OptimizationFullMinimal
MinificationYesNo
Image optimizationYesNo
Hot reloadNoYes

Tip

Use write while developing, build when deploying.

Images

  • Converts to modern formats (WebP, AVIF)
  • Generates responsive sizes
  • Compresses for web
  • Preserves originals in public/

CSS

  • Minifies stylesheets
  • Removes unused CSS
  • Combines files
  • Adds vendor prefixes

JavaScript

  • Minifies code
  • Tree-shakes unused code
  • Code splits by route

HTML

  • Minifies markup
  • Inlines critical CSS
  • Preloads fonts and assets

Typical Build Times

Site SizeContentBuild Time
Small<50 posts3-5s
Medium50-200 posts8-15s
Large200-500 posts20-40s
Very Large500+ posts60s+

Improving Build Speed

  1. Use incremental builds during development with astrolock write
  2. Optimize images before adding - Pre-resize large images
  3. Reduce media file sizes - Use 128-320 kbps for audio
  4. Limit collection sizes - Archive old content, use pagination

Build Errors

Error: Invalid frontmatter in content/blog/my-post.md
  Line 5: Unexpected token

Fix: Check YAML syntax in frontmatter - quotes, colons, indentation.

Preview Before Deploying

Warning

Always preview your build before deploying to catch issues early.

astrolock build
astrolock preview
# Visit http://localhost:4321

Clean Builds

Sometimes you need a completely clean build:

rm -rf dist/ .json/
astrolock build

Check Build Size

du -sh dist/
# 4.2M    dist/

du -sh dist/* | sort -h

Reduce Build Size

  1. Compress images before adding to public/
  2. Use WebP instead of PNG where possible
  3. Remove unused assets from public/
  4. Archive old content to a separate directory
  5. Limit audio quality to 128-192 kbps for samples

GitHub Actions

- name: Build site
  run: astrolock build

- name: Upload dist
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: dist
    path: dist/

Docker

docker run -v $(pwd):/site astrolock:latest build

Exit Codes

  • 0: Build succeeded
  • 1: Build failed
if astrolock build; then
    astrolock deploy
else
    echo "Build failed"
    exit 1
fi

See Also

Tip

Run astrolock build --help for all available options.