Summary

Creates a new GitHub Actions workflow gh-pages.yaml that automatically builds and deploys the Next.js portfolio site to GitHub Pages whenever changes are pushed to the main branch.

Changes Made

✅ New GitHub Pages Workflow (gh-pages.yaml)

Created a comprehensive workflow that meets all specified requirements:

• Uses actions/checkout@v3 as specified
• Sets up Node.js 20 with npm caching for efficient dependency installation
• Uses peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3 for deployment as required
• Deploys to gh-pages branch as specified
• Includes comprehensive error handling with continue-on-error: false on critical steps
• Provides detailed logging with a dedicated status job for debugging

🔧 Legacy Workflow Management

• Disabled existing deploy.yml to prevent conflicts
• Added clear documentation explaining the replacement
• Preserved manual trigger capability for the legacy workflow if needed

Workflow Features

🚀 Automated Deployment

• Triggers on push to main branch
• Manual workflow dispatch available for testing
• Concurrency control to prevent multiple simultaneous deployments

⚡ Performance Optimizations

• NPM caching for faster dependency installation
• Force orphan deployment to keep gh-pages branch clean
• Jekyll disabled with .nojekyll file for static site deployment

🛠️ Error Handling & Debugging

• Comprehensive error handling on all critical steps
• Detailed logging job that reports:
  • Repository and branch information
  • Commit SHA and actor details
  • Build status and timestamps
  • Success/failure notifications with next steps

📚 Documentation

• 35+ comment lines explaining each step
• Clear step-by-step documentation for maintainability
• Inline explanations of all configuration options

Workflow Structure

jobs:
  build:
    # 1. Checkout repository code
    # 2. Setup Node.js with caching
    # 3. Install dependencies
    # 4. Build Next.js application
    # 5. Deploy to GitHub Pages
    
  status:
    # 6. Log deployment status for debugging

Testing

• ✅ YAML syntax validation passed
• ✅ Local workflow simulation successful
• ✅ Next.js build process verified (generates static files in out/ directory)
• ✅ All requirements from problem statement satisfied

Next Steps

Once this PR is merged, the workflow will:

1. Automatically trigger on the next push to main
2. Build the Next.js portfolio site
3. Deploy to GitHub Pages via the gh-pages branch
4. Make the site available at https://aloewright.github.io

The workflow includes comprehensive logging, so any issues can be easily debugged through the GitHub Actions interface.

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