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Why Did Publishing Fail?

Most of the time publishing just works, but occasionally a publish doesn't complete. Here are the causes our support team sees most often and what to do about each.

Common causes​

A build error​

Behind the scenes, Kite builds your site before it goes live. If that build hits an error, publishing stops. In support cases this often shows up as a step like pnpm install or the build exiting with a non-zero status (for example, exit code 1).

What to do: Ask Kite to retry or fix the build — describe what you changed just before the failure, since recent edits are the usual trigger.

An invalid redirects file​

If your site uses redirect rules, an invalid rule can block a publish. A common mistake is giving a redirect a 200 status instead of a 301 or 302:

  • 301 — permanent redirect
  • 302 — temporary redirect
  • 200 — not a redirect status; using it here is usually invalid

What to do: Remove or correct any redirect rows that use a 200 status, then publish again.

A missing or invalid config​

A missing or malformed site configuration can also stop a publish.

What to do: Ask Kite to check and regenerate the configuration, then retry publishing.

How to recover​

  1. Ask Kite to retry the publish — some failures are transient.
  2. If it fails again, ask Kite to fix the build and describe your most recent changes.
  3. Check for and remove any invalid redirect rules (especially 200 statuses).
  4. Publish again.
tip

If you publish, see a failure, make a fix, and publish again, give the new deploy a moment to complete before judging whether it worked. See My Changes Aren't Showing on the Live Site.

If it keeps failing, contact support​

If publishing still fails after the steps above, reach out to support and include:

  • Your project name or kite.space URL.
  • What you changed just before the failure.
  • The exact error message or build output, if you can see it.
  • The approximate time the failure happened.