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Viewing Deployments

After your GitHub Action completes, your deployment will appear in BFFless. This guide covers how to browse deployments, set up aliases, and map domains to serve your content.

Repository Overview​

Navigate to your repository to see all deployments.

The repository page shows:

  • Recent Deployments - Each commit that's been uploaded
  • Aliases - Named pointers to specific deployments (e.g., production)
  • Storage Stats - How much storage the repository is using

Browsing Deployed Content​

Click on any deployment to browse its contents:

Deployment browser showing file tree, preview panel, and commit references
  • File Browser - Navigate through your deployed files and folders
  • Preview - View HTML pages, images, and other assets directly in the browser
  • Deployment Info - Commit SHA, upload time, file count, and size
Quick Preview

Click any HTML file to preview it directly. This is useful for reviewing changes before promoting to production.

Setting Up Aliases​

Aliases provide stable URLs that point to specific deployments. Use them for:

  • production - Your live site
  • staging - Pre-production testing
  • preview - Feature previews
Repository Aliases tab showing production alias pointing to a deployment
Automatic Aliases from GitHub Actions

If you followed the First Deployment guide, your GitHub Action already creates aliases automatically—production for the main branch and preview for feature branches.

Creating an Alias Manually​

You can also create aliases manually:

  1. Go to your repository and click the Aliases tab
  2. Click Create Alias
  3. Enter a name (e.g., staging)
  4. Select the deployment to point to
  5. Click Create

The alias URL will be:

https://admin.yourdomain.com/public/owner/repo/alias/production/

Updating Aliases​

You can update an alias to point to a different commit at any time—useful for rollbacks or promoting a specific version.

Update Alias dialog showing commit selection dropdown
  1. Go to the Aliases tab
  2. Click the edit icon next to the alias you want to update
  3. Select a different commit from the dropdown
  4. Click Update Alias

This enables instant rollbacks—just point production to a previous commit.

Alias Visibility​

Each alias can have its own visibility setting:

  • Private - Requires authentication to access
  • Public - Accessible to anyone with the URL
  • Inherit from project - Uses the repository's default visibility

This lets you keep staging private while making production public.

Mapping Domains to Aliases​

Connect your aliases to domains so users can access your deployments at friendly URLs like www.yourdomain.com or app.yourdomain.com.

Using Your Primary Domain​

The simplest option is to serve content on your primary domain (the one you configured during setup).

Site Settings showing Primary Domain Content configuration
  1. From the homepage, click Site Settings in the Admin section
  2. Enable Primary domain content
  3. Select your Repository (e.g., bffless/demo)
  4. Select the Deployment Alias (e.g., production)
  5. Optionally set a Path if your build outputs to a subdirectory (e.g., /dist)
  6. Optionally enable Add www subdomain to support both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com
  7. Enable Single Page Application (SPA) if using React, Vue, or Angular with client-side routing
  8. Click Save Changes

Your app is now live on your primary domain!

Demo app live on the primary domain

Mapping Custom Subdomains​

For additional deployments, you can map custom subdomains to serve content at URLs like demo.docs.bffless.app ↗ or staging.docs.yourdomain.com.

Create Domain Mapping dialog for subdomain configuration
  1. Click Domains in the sidebar navigation
  2. Click + New Domain
  3. Select Subdomain (Recommended) as the Domain Type
  4. Enter your Subdomain prefix (e.g., demo)
  5. Optionally set a Deployment Alias (e.g., production, staging) — defaults to latest if empty
  6. Optionally set a Path if your build outputs to a subdirectory (e.g., /dist)
  7. Choose the Visibility setting (Public, Private, or inherit from project)
  8. Enable SPA Mode if using React, Vue, or Angular with client-side routing
  9. Click Create Domain

Once created, SSL certificates are automatically provisioned and DNS is verified. The domain card will show:

  • SSL Enabled - HTTPS is active
  • DNS Verified - Domain is properly configured
  • Mapping - Shows the alias and path (e.g., /production/dist)
Multiple Subdomains

You can create as many subdomains as you need — perfect for staging environments, feature previews, or serving multiple projects from the same workspace.

Mapping Custom Domains​

You can also map fully custom domains (like www.example.com or docs.mycompany.io) to your deployments. This is useful when you want to serve content on a domain that isn't a subdomain of your primary domain.

  1. Click Domains in the sidebar navigation
  2. Click + New Domain
  3. Select Custom Domain as the Domain Type
  4. Enter the full domain name (e.g., www.staticassetshostingplatform.com)
  5. Configure the deployment alias, path, and visibility settings
  6. Click Create Domain

After creating the domain, you'll see DNS configuration instructions:

  • A Record - Point your domain to your server's IP address
  • www behavior - Optionally configure redirects between www and non-www versions

Click Verify DNS once you've configured your DNS records. The verification checks that the domain resolves correctly.

Custom Domain Limitations

Custom domains are always public — authentication cookies don't work across different domains. If you need private content, use subdomains instead.

Custom Domains with Cloudflare​

If your custom domain is also managed through Cloudflare (separate from your primary domain), there are special considerations:

DNS Verification​

When a custom domain uses Cloudflare's proxy (orange cloud), DNS lookups return Cloudflare's edge IPs instead of your server IP. BFFless automatically detects Cloudflare IPs and accepts them as valid during DNS verification.

SSL Configuration​

Cloudflare Origin Certificates are domain-specific — a certificate for j5s.dev won't work for staticassetshostingplatform.com. You have two options:

OptionCloudflare SSL ModeSetup
Simple (Recommended)FullSet SSL mode to "Full" in Cloudflare. This accepts any valid certificate from your origin.
StrictFull (Strict)Generate a separate Origin Certificate for each custom domain in its Cloudflare zone.

To configure SSL mode for your custom domain:

  1. Log into Cloudflare for your custom domain's zone
  2. Go to SSL/TLS > Overview
  3. Set encryption mode to Full (not Full Strict)

This allows Cloudflare to connect securely to your origin using the existing certificate, even though the hostname doesn't match.

Primary Domain vs Custom Domains

Your primary domain (configured during setup) can use Full (Strict) with its Origin Certificate. Each Cloudflare zone has independent SSL settings, so custom domains can use Full mode while your primary domain stays on Full (Strict).

Non-Cloudflare Custom Domains​

If your custom domain doesn't use Cloudflare:

  1. Point DNS directly to your server's IP address (shown in the DNS instructions)
  2. BFFless will verify the domain via HTTP health check
  3. For SSL, you can use Let's Encrypt or configure your own certificate

Next Steps​