Deploy an Astro Site to DigitalOcean With Nginx and Let's Encrypt

This is the exact setup running agenticoutputs.com. Ubuntu 24.04, Nginx, Certbot, and a simple rsync deploy script. No Docker, no CI/CD pipeline — just a fast, reliable static site on infrastructure you control.

Prerequisites

• A DigitalOcean droplet (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, any size — the $6/mo Basic works)
• A domain with DNS pointed at your droplet IP
• An Astro project ready to build (npm run build outputs to dist/)
• SSH access to the droplet

1. Provision the Droplet

When creating the droplet, add your SSH public key. Once it’s live:

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

Create a non-root deploy user:

adduser deploy
usermod -aG sudo deploy
mkdir -p /home/deploy/.ssh
cp ~/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/deploy/.ssh/
chown -R deploy:deploy /home/deploy/.ssh
chmod 700 /home/deploy/.ssh
chmod 600 /home/deploy/.ssh/authorized_keys

Disable root login:

sed -i 's/PermitRootLogin yes/PermitRootLogin no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
systemctl restart sshd

2. Install Nginx

apt update && apt install -y nginx
systemctl enable nginx
systemctl start nginx

3. Create the Web Root

mkdir -p /var/www/agenticoutputs/public
chown -R deploy:deploy /var/www/agenticoutputs

4. Configure the Nginx Virtual Host

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/agenticoutputs.com

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name agenticoutputs.com www.agenticoutputs.com;

    root /var/www/agenticoutputs/public;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/ =404;
    }

    # Cache static assets
    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|webp|svg|ico|woff2)$ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }

    # Gzip
    gzip on;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/javascript image/svg+xml;
}

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/agenticoutputs.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

5. Issue SSL Certificate

apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
certbot --nginx -d agenticoutputs.com -d www.agenticoutputs.com

Certbot will modify your Nginx config to add SSL and set up auto-renewal. Verify renewal works:

certbot renew --dry-run

6. Write the Deploy Script

On your local machine, at the root of your Astro project:

# scripts/deploy.sh
#!/bin/bash
set -e

echo "Building..."
npm run build

echo "Deploying..."
rsync -avz --delete dist/ deploy@YOUR_DROPLET_IP:/var/www/agenticoutputs/public/

echo "Done. https://agenticoutputs.com"

chmod +x scripts/deploy.sh

Add your droplet to ~/.ssh/config for cleaner commands:

Host droplet
  HostName YOUR_DROPLET_IP
  User deploy
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Now update deploy.sh to use the alias:

rsync -avz --delete dist/ droplet:/var/www/agenticoutputs/public/

7. Ship It

bash scripts/deploy.sh

First deploy will take a few seconds (full sync). Subsequent deploys only transfer changed files — typically under 5 seconds for a content update.

Firewall

ufw allow OpenSSH
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable

The Result

A static Astro site on infrastructure you own, with:

• Nginx serving pre-built HTML/CSS/JS directly (no Node.js process running)
• SSL via Let’s Encrypt with auto-renewal
• A one-command deploy from local to live
• Total monthly cost: $6

For a publication or portfolio, this beats managed hosting platforms on cost, performance, and control.