GitHub Actions actions/upload-pages-artifact "missing artifact"

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

actions/deploy-pages consumes a specially-named artifact produced by actions/upload-pages-artifact. If that upload step did not run, or its path matched nothing, the deploy step has no Pages artifact to publish.

What this error means

A deploy-pages step fails saying no Pages artifact was found, usually because the upload step was skipped, failed, or had an empty path.

Error: No artifact named 'github-pages' found for this workflow run.
Ensure a Pages artifact was uploaded with actions/upload-pages-artifact.

Common causes

Upload step skipped or failed

A job ordering or conditional issue meant upload-pages-artifact never produced the artifact.

Empty publish path

upload-pages-artifact path pointed at a directory with no built files.

How to fix it

Build, upload, then deploy

1. Run the site build and confirm it produces files.
2. Use actions/upload-pages-artifact with the correct path.
3. Keep build job and deploy job dependency (needs:) correct.

- uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
  with:
    path: ./dist
- uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

How to prevent it

• Verify the build output exists before uploading the Pages artifact.
• Keep needs: ordering between build and deploy jobs.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation
• Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions