Skip to content

Deploy a website with your agent

Turn a folder of web files into a live link anyone can open in their browser — no account on your side, none on theirs. Route A gets a URL in ~30 seconds with no signup. Route B keeps it permanent behind one free account.

Time: ~1 min once Claude Code is set up (Route A). The only un-delegable bit on Route B is creating one free account. You'll need: Claude Code, and a built site — a folder with an index.html in it, or an app your agent can build. Last verified: 2026-06-07 · commands checked against Netlify's own CLI docs. [confirmed]

New to all this? Do Set up Claude Code first, then come back. Just want a finished thing people click — not a whole site? A Claude Artifact may be lighter.

Pick a route first

  • Route A — instant, no account. A live URL in ~30 seconds, nothing to sign up for. The catch: claim it within an hour or it's deleted. [confirmed] Perfect for "look at this right now."
  • Route B — permanent, one free account. Same deploy, but it stays up and gets a stable URL. Costs you one signup (~3 min, once). Use this the moment you want the link to outlive the hour.

Both use Netlify, the one major host that lets your agent deploy before you log in. (Vercel and Cloudflare also host static sites well, but both make you log in first — see Other homes at the bottom.) [confirmed]

Route A — instant, no account

With Claude Code running in the folder that holds your site, say:

Deploy this folder to Netlify anonymously so I get a shareable URL.
Run: netlify deploy --prod --allow-anonymous --no-build --dir .
If netlify isn't installed, install the CLI first. Tell me the live URL
and the claim link when it finishes.

What happens, in plain terms:

  1. Your agent installs the Netlify CLI if needed (npm install -g netlify-cli) and runs the deploy. [confirmed]
  2. In ~30 seconds it prints a live URL — that's your share link, already public.
  3. It also prints a claim link. Ignore it if this is throwaway; open it to keep the site (that's Route B).

Caveat — the one-hour clock. An anonymous deploy is deleted within an hour unless you claim it. [confirmed] Send the link, or claim it, before then.

--dir . and --no-build tell Netlify "the site is already built, right here." If your project needs building first (a React/Next/Astro app, not a plain index.html), drop both flags — the CLI builds it for you. Don't know which you have? Tell your agent "build it if it needs building, then deploy" and let it decide. [confirmed]

Route B — permanent, one free account

Two ways in, same result — a site that stays up:

  • Claim the Route-A deploy. Open the claim link it printed, sign up (or log in), and the site is now yours, permanently, on the free plan. Nothing redeploys. [confirmed]
  • Or log in first, then deploy. If you already have an account, say:
Log me into Netlify (netlify login), then deploy this folder to a
permanent site and give me the live URL.

Your agent runs netlify login, hands you the browser approval (one click), then deploys. [confirmed]

The one step that's yours: the account. A signup is the un-delegable cost here — your agent can't click through it for you. ~3 min, once: continue with GitHub/Google or an email, confirm, done. After that every future site is one sentence to your agent. [estimate]

You're done when

Your agent prints a URL like https://something-random-1234.netlify.app and it opens in a browser — yours or anyone's, no login on their end. That URL is the share. Paste it in chat, an email, a doc.

  • Route A: claim or send it within the hour.
  • Route B: it stays up; the random *.netlify.app name is yours until you rename it or add a custom domain.

If it doesn't work

  • command not found: netlify → the CLI didn't install. Ask your agent to run npm install -g netlify-cli, or install Node first if npm is also missing. [confirmed]
  • Page loads but is blank / 404 → you pointed it at the wrong folder. The deploy directory must be the one with index.html (often dist, build, or _site after a build, not the project root). Tell your agent "deploy the built output folder, not the source." [confirmed]
  • It tried to build and failed → for a plain static folder you don't want a build. Re-run with --no-build --dir <your-folder>. For an app, the build error is the real problem — paste it to your agent. [confirmed]
  • The link died → Route A's deploy expired (one-hour anonymous window). Redeploy, and this time claim it (Route B) so it sticks. [confirmed]
  • "You must be logged in" / auth error on Route A → you're on an old CLI without anonymous deploys. Ask your agent to update: npm install -g netlify-cli@latest. The --allow-anonymous flag is recent (added 2026-03). [confirmed]
  • Files won't upload / deploy hangs → a single very large file can stall it. Trim big assets, or for a big site use a git-connected deploy instead. [confirmed]
  • Anything else → Netlify's own CLI deploy reference lists every flag and prompt.

Prefer to do it by hand? (drag-and-drop, no terminal)

No CLI, no agent — just a browser:

  1. Build your site if it needs it, so you have a folder with index.html in it.
  2. Go to app.netlify.com/drop.
  3. Drag the folder onto the page. In seconds you get a live URL. No account to start. [confirmed]
  4. To keep it past the hour, click Claim / Sign up on that page. [confirmed]

Keep it under ~50 MB, and avoid single files over ~10 MB — bigger uploads can get stuck; use the CLI route for those. [confirmed]

Other homes

Netlify wins here only because it deploys before login. Once you're happy creating one account, these are equally good static-site hosts — both need ... login first, then one sentence to your agent:

  • Vercel — vercel login, then vercel --prod. Excellent for Next.js. Live URL in ~30 sec after auth. [confirmed]
  • Cloudflare Pages — wrangler login, then wrangler pages deploy <folder>. Generous free bandwidth. [confirmed]

Per-host pages with the full trade-offs: Deploy a website.

Watch / read

YouTube blocked transcript pulls from here on 2026-06-07, so these aren't line-by-line verified — but all three are Netlify's own channel on the exact task, so the steps match the commands above.

Best written walkthrough: Netlify's own Get started with the CLI — install, log in, netlify deploy, --prod. The authoritative source the commands here were checked against. [confirmed]

Sources

Good to know

  • Free plan covers this fully. Netlify's free tier hosts static sites with a generous bandwidth allowance. Legacy accounts (pre-Sep 2025) get 100 GB bandwidth + 300 build min/month; accounts created since are on a newer credit-based plan (refined 2026-04-14) — re-check live at netlify.com/pricing before relying on limits. [unclear — pricing model changed twice in the last year]
  • The default URL is a random *.netlify.app name. Fine for sharing as-is. A custom domain is free to point at it but is a separate ~10-min DNS step. [confirmed]
  • Anonymous deploys are public. Anyone with the URL can view it — don't put anything sensitive on a quick share. See Who can see it? and Can you trust the company?. [confirmed]