Deploy on Cloudflare Pages

Cloudflare Pages is an excellent hosting choice for Kiln sites due to its speed and simple "git-push-to-deploy" workflow.

Instead of committing the Kiln binary to your repository, we use a simple build script. This script runs automatically on Cloudflare's servers to download the latest version of Kiln, generate your site, and publish it.

Prerequisites

1. A GitHub repository containing your Obsidian vault.
2. A Cloudflare account.

Step 1: Add the Build Script

Create a new file in the root of your repository named build.sh.

Paste the following script into it. This script automatically fetches the latest version of Kiln and builds your site.

#!/bin/bash

# --- CONFIGURATION START ---
SITE_NAME="Kiln"
INPUT_DIR="./docs"
DEPLOYMENT_URL="https://kiln.talesign.com"
# --- CONFIGURATION END ---

# Exit immediately if any command fails
set -e

echo "Kiln build script"

# Find the latest version of Kiln
LATEST_TAG=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/otaleghani/kiln/releases/latest | grep '"tag_name":' | sed -E 's/.*"([^"]+)".*/\1/')

if [ -z "$LATEST_TAG" ]; then
  echo "Error: Could not determine latest Kiln version."
  exit 1
fi

echo "Detected latest version: $LATEST_TAG"

# Download the binary
URL="https://github.com/otaleghani/kiln/releases/download/${LATEST_TAG}/kiln_linux_amd64"

echo "Downloading binary from $URL..."
curl -L -o ./kiln "$URL"
chmod +x ./kiln

# Run the build
echo "Building site..."
./kiln generate \
  --input "$INPUT_DIR" \
  --output ./public \
  --flat-urls=true \
  --name "$SITE_NAME" \
  --url "$DEPLOYMENT_URL"

echo "Kiln build complete successfully"

Step 2: Critical Configuration

There are two variables at the top of the build.sh file that you must customize for your specific project:

The Input Directory (INPUT_DIR)

Change INPUT_DIR to point to the folder containing your markdown notes.

• Example: If your notes are in the root of the repo, use ".".
• Example: If your notes are in a folder named content, use "./content".

The Deployment URL (DEPLOYMENT_URL)

Change DEPLOYMENT_URL to the actual address where your site will be hosted.

• Why? Kiln uses this to generate the sitemap.xml, robots.txt, and canonical meta tags.
• Tip: Cloudflare provides a *.pages.dev subdomain (e.g., https://my-site.pages.dev), or you can use your own custom domain.

The Website Name (SITE_NAME)

Change SITE_NAME to change the navbar name and site meta tags.

Step 3: Configure Cloudflare Pages

1. Push the build.sh file to your GitHub repository.
2. Log in to the Cloudflare Dashboard and go to Compute (Workers & Pages).
3. Click Create application > Pages > Connect to Git.
4. Select your repository.
5. In the Build settings section, configure the following:

6. Click Save and Deploy.

Cloudflare will now clone your repository, run your script (which downloads Kiln), and deploy the resulting ./public folder to the global edge network.

_redirects

Cloudflare Pages handles redirects using a special file in the root directory named _redirects. Kiln directly supports this feature and copies over if present the _redirects file found in the root of your vault. For more information about redirects in Cloudflare Pages, check out the official documentation.