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Automatically Triggering Deploys on Netlify with Submodules

Automatically Triggering Deploys on Netlify with Submodules

One of my goals was to rebuild my site on Netlify whenever there was a new commit on a Git submodule that was included in the repository.

Unfortunately, Netlify does not natively provide this functionality. It only “watches” the main repository for new commits.

To overcome this limitation, I took the following steps:

  1. I accessed the Deploy settings on Netlify and navigated to “Build hooks.”
  2. I clicked on “Add build hook” to create a unique URL that could be used to trigger the deployment.

Netlify Build Hook

After saving the settings, I obtained a URL like https://api.netlify.com/build_hooks/UNIQUE_STRING.

Next, I created a GitHub Action in the submodule repository to automatically trigger the redeployment:

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name: Trigger redeploy on Netlify
on:
  push:
    branches: [ "main" ]
jobs:
  build:
    name: Make POST request
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Curl request
      shell: bash
      env:
        UNIQUE_STRING: ${{ secrets.NETLIFY_BUILD_HOOK_UNIQUE_STRING }}
      run: curl -X POST -d {} https://api.netlify.com/build_hooks/$UNIQUE_STRING

To use the Netlify UNIQUE_STRING value, you need to add it as an Action secret in your repository’s Settings -> Secrets -> Actions.

After committing the action, the deployment process should start working seamlessly.

Netlify Deployment

Tags: Netlify, Git submodule, GitHub Actions, Deployment triggers