Static HTML

A repository with an index.html and no package.json is served as is by nginx: no build step, no Node.js.

Where the site can be

The builder looks for index.html at the root of the root directory, and if there is none, in dist/, public/, build/, site/, www/, out/ or _site/. The first match is served.

Behaviour

• Served by nginx-unprivileged on $PORT.
• Clean URLs: /about serves about.html or about/index.html.
• Missing pages return 404, using your 404.html if there is one.
• HTML is always revalidated; gzip is on; a /healthz endpoint is added.
• Dotfiles (.env, .git...) are never served.

A custom build command or start command is ignored for plain HTML sites. If you need a build step (Tailwind, a static site generator), add a package.json with a build script, and the builder treats it as a Node.js project that outputs a static site.