This guide shows you how to deploy a Hugo application on Layer0.


System Requirements

Sign up for Layer0

Deploying requires an account on Layer0. Sign up here for free.

Install the Layer0 CLI

If you have not already done so, install the Layer0 CLI

npm i -g @layer0/cli

Create a new Hugo app

Step 1: Install Hugo

brew install hugo
# or
port install hugo

To verify your new install:

hugo version

Step 2: Create a New Site

hugo new site quickstart

Step 3: Add a Theme

See for a list of themes to consider. This quickstart uses the beautiful Ananke theme.

First, download the theme from GitHub and add it to your site’s themes directory:

cd quickstart
git init
git submodule add themes/ananke

Note for non-git users:

Then, add the theme to the site configuration:

echo theme = \"ananke\" >> config.toml

Step 4: Add Some Content

You can manually create content files (for example as content/<CATEGORY>/<FILE>.<FORMAT>) and provide metadata in them, however you can use the new command to do a few things for you (like add title and date):

hugo new posts/

Step 5: Start the Hugo server

hugo server -D

Configuring your Hugo app for Layer0

Create a package.json at the root of your project with the following:

  "name": "hugo",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "hugo -D",
    "deploy": "0 deploy"
  "dependencies": {},
  "devDependencies": {}

Initialize your project

In the root directory of your project run 0 init:

0 init

This will automatically update your package.json and add all of the required Layer0 dependencies and files to your project. These include:

  • The @layer0/core package - Allows you to declare routes and deploy your application on Layer0
  • The @layer0/prefetch package - Allows you to configure a service worker to prefetch and cache pages to improve browsing speed
  • layer0.config.js - A configuration file for Layer0
  • routes.js - A default routes file that sends all requests to Hugo.

Configure the routes

Update routes.js at the root of your project to the following:

// This file was added by layer0 init.
// You should commit this file to source control.

import { Router } from '@layer0/core/router'

export default new Router().static('public', ({ cache }) => {
    edge: {
      maxAgeSeconds: 60 * 60 * 60 * 365,
      forcePrivateCaching: true,
    browser: {
      maxAgeSeconds: 0,
      serviceWorkerSeconds: 60 * 60 * 24,

Refer to the Routing guide for the full syntax of the routes.js file and how to configure it for your use case.

Run the Hugo app locally on Layer0

Create a production build of your app by running the following in your project’s root directory:

npm run build

Run Layer0 on your local machine:

0 dev

Load the site



npm run build

Next, deploy the build to Layer0 by running the 0 deploy command:

0 deploy

Refer to the Deploying guide for more information on the deploy command and its options.