Preview environments in Azure Static Web Apps

By default, when you deploy a site to Azure Static Web Apps each pull request deploys a preview version of your site available through a temporary URL. This version of the site allows you to review changes before merging pull requests. Once the pull request (PR) is closed, the temporary environment disappears.

Beyond PR-driven temporary environments, you can enable preview environments that feature stable locations. The URLs for preview environments take on the following form:

<DEFAULT_HOST_NAME>-<BRANCH_OR_ENVIRONMENT_NAME>.<LOCATION>.azurestaticapps.net

Limitations

• Custom domains do not work with preview environments.
• Pre-production environments aren't geo-distributed.

Deployment types

The following deployment types are available in Azure Static Web Apps.

• Production: Changes to production branches are deployed into the production environment. Your custom domain points to this environment, and content served from this location is indexed by search engines.

• Pull requests: Pull requests against your production branch deploy to a temporary environment that disappears after the pull request is closed. The URL for this environment includes the PR number as a suffix. For example, if you make your first PR, the preview location looks something like <DEFAULT_HOST_NAME>-1.<LOCATION>.azurestaticapps.net.

• Branch: You can optionally configure your site to deploy every change made to branches that aren't a production branch. This preview deployment is published at a stable URL that includes the branch name. For example, if the branch is named dev, then the environment is available at a location like <DEFAULT_HOST_NAME>-dev.<LOCATION>.azurestaticapps.net. You can delete a branch environment in the portal via the Environments tab of your static web app.

• Named environment: You can configure your pipeline to deploy all changes to a named environment. This preview deployment is published at a stable URL that includes the environment name. For example, if the deployment environment is named release, then the environment is available at a location like <DEFAULT_HOST_NAME>-release.<LOCATION>.azurestaticapps.net.

Next Steps