Before You Start

Required Tools

Before starting, make sure your computer has the basic tools required to work with the project and its deployment workflow.

At a minimum, you will need:

• Git for version control.

• A modern web browser for GitHub, Cloudflare, and testing the website.

• Node.js if your project uses Node-based tooling or a build process.

• A code editor for creating and modifying project files.

You do not need to install every tool used by every frontend framework. Install the tools required by the particular project you are deploying.

Install Git

Git must be installed on your computer before you can initialize and manage the project repository.

Git will be used throughout this guide to create commits, create branches, inspect changes, connect the project to GitHub, and push your work to the remote repository.

After installing Git, open a terminal and verify that it is available:

git –version

If Git is installed correctly, the command will display the installed Git version.

Git is a command-line tool, so you should also be comfortable opening a terminal and running commands from your project directory.

Install Node.js

Node.js is required if your project uses a Node-based development environment or build process.

For example, projects using tools such as Vite, Astro, Next.js, or other Node-based tooling normally require Node.js during local development and often during the deployment build.

If your project is a simple static website containing only HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and does not use a build tool, Node.js may not be necessary.

If your project requires Node.js, verify the installation with:

node --version
npm --version

Both commands should return version numbers.

GitHub Account

You need a GitHub account because the remote Git repository used throughout this guide will be hosted on GitHub.

Your local Git repository and your GitHub repository are related, but they are not the same thing.

The local repository lives on your computer. The GitHub repository provides the remote copy that can be accessed online and connected to Cloudflare Pages.

Later in the guide, GitHub will also be used for branches, Pull Requests, reviewing changes, and merging approved work into main.

Make sure you can sign in to your GitHub account before continuing.

Cloudflare Account

You will need a Cloudflare account to connect the GitHub repository to Cloudflare Pages.

Cloudflare Pages will use the repository as the source for your deployments. Later in the guide, you will configure the project so that changes pushed to GitHub can create preview deployments and production deployments.

A custom domain is not required to begin learning the deployment workflow. The domain configuration is covered later in the guide.

For now, make sure you can sign in to your Cloudflare account.

Project Structure

It is useful to have a clear project structure before initializing Git.

The exact structure depends on the project and the frontend tools you use. A simple static website might look like this:

my-project/
├── index.html
├── css/
├── js/
└── assets/

Framework-based projects may have additional files and directories. The important point is that the project should already exist as a coherent folder on your computer before you initialize Git.

Git will be initialized inside the project folder, allowing Git to track the files that belong to that project.

Final Readiness Check

• Your project folder is ready.
• Git is installed and available from the terminal.
• Node.js is installed if your project requires it.
• You can sign in to GitHub.
• You can sign in to Cloudflare.

• You can open a terminal and navigate to your project folder.

Once these prerequisites are ready, you can begin creating the project that will be used throughout the deployment workflow.