Skip to main content
Evidence builds static sites that can be deployed to any static hosting platform. This guide covers the build process and available deployment options.

​
Build Process

Evidence uses a two-step build process:
  1. Build source data - Query your data sources and generate static data files
  2. Build the app - Create static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files

​
Build Commands

Evidence provides several CLI commands for building your app: 
# Build data from sources
npm run sources

# Build the app for production
npm run build

# Build with strict error checking
npm run build:strict

​
Build Output

The evidence build command:
  • Runs npx vite build in the .evidence/template directory
  • Generates a static site in the ./build directory
  • Uses @sveltejs/adapter-static to create static HTML files
  • Includes hashed data files for cache invalidation
The build output includes:
  • Static HTML pages for each route
  • JavaScript bundles
  • CSS stylesheets
  • Data files in Parquet format (in data/ directory)
  • A manifest.json file tracking rendered data files

​
Environment Variables

Control the build process with environment variables:
VariableDefaultDescription
EVIDENCE_BUILD_DIR./buildOutput directory for built files
EVIDENCE_DATA_DIR./static/dataDirectory for source data files
EVIDENCE_DATA_URL_PREFIXstatic/dataURL prefix for data files
NODE_OPTIONS-Node.js options (automatically set to --max-old-space-size=4096)

​
Strict Mode

The build:strict command enables strict error checking:
  • Fails the build on query errors
  • Blocks builds when datasets marked with emptySet="error" are empty
  • Useful for CI/CD pipelines to catch errors before deployment
npm run build:strict

​
Deployment Options

Evidence can be deployed to any platform that supports static sites:

​
Platform-Specific Guides

  • Netlify - Deploy with continuous deployment from Git
  • Vercel - Deploy with zero configuration
  • Docker - Deploy with containerization
  • Static Hosting - Deploy to any static hosting provider

​
Self-Hosted Options

Evidence supports deployment to:
  • Netlify
  • Vercel
  • AWS Amplify
  • Azure Static Web Apps
  • Cloudflare Pages
  • Firebase Hosting
  • GitHub Pages
  • GitLab Pages
  • Hugging Face Spaces
  • Any static file server

​
Preview Your Build

Before deploying, preview your production build locally: 
npm run preview
This command:
  • Runs npx serve build to serve the built files
  • Starts a local server (typically on port 3000)
  • Supports SPA mode with the -s flag when VITE_EVIDENCE_SPA=true

​
Memory Configuration

Evidence automatically increases Node.js memory limits during builds to 4096MB. This prevents out-of-memory errors when building large projects. To override this, set NODE_OPTIONS before building: 
NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=8192" npm run build

​
Next Steps

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us