Using the CLI in CI/CD pipelines

The Quant CLI is designed for seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines. When your static site generator builds, your pipeline can automatically deploy content to Quant.

Looking for a complete workflow?

For a full end-to-end example with GitHub Actions, see our Deploy via CI/CD guide.

Environment variables

Configure these environment variables in your CI provider’s secrets management:

Variable	Description
QUANT_CUSTOMER	Your organisation ID (found in dashboard URL)
QUANT_PROJECT	The project machine name
QUANT_TOKEN	Project API token (from Integrations section)

You can retrieve the project token from the Integrations section of the Quant Dashboard.

Non-interactive initialisation

In CI environments, use command-line flags to skip interactive prompts:

quant init \
  -c "$QUANT_CUSTOMER" \
  -t "$QUANT_TOKEN" \
  --project="$QUANT_PROJECT" \
  -e "https://api.quantcdn.io" \
  -d ./dist

Flag	Description
-c, --clientid	Organisation ID
-t, --token	Project API token
--project	Project machine name
-e, --endpoint	API endpoint (use https://api.quantcdn.io)
-d, --dir	Directory containing build assets

Deploying content

After initialisation, deploy your built assets:

quant deploy

Recommended options

quant deploy \
  --revision-log .quant-revision \
  --skip-purge

Option	Description
--revision-log	Track deployed file hashes locally for faster incremental deploys
--skip-purge	Skip automatic cache purge (purge separately after deploy completes)
--chunk-size	Concurrent upload count (default 10, max 20)
--skip-unpublish	Don’t unpublish removed content
--force	Push all assets regardless of hash match

Cache the revision log

Store the revision log file between builds (e.g., using GitHub Actions cache) to skip unchanged assets and speed up deployments. Use a unique cache key per run (e.g., including github.run_id) since GitHub Actions cache keys are immutable — a static key like quant-revision will be saved once and never updated.

Purging the cache

After deployment, purge the CDN cache:

quant purge --url-pattern "/*"

This clears all cached content. For targeted purges, specify a more specific pattern:

quant purge --url-pattern "/blog/*"

CI provider examples

GitHub Actions

Use the official Quant Deploy Action:

- name: Restore revision log
  uses: actions/cache@v5
  with:
    path: .quant-revision
    key: quant-revision-${{ github.ref }}-${{ github.run_id }}
    restore-keys: |
      quant-revision-${{ github.ref }}-

- name: Deploy to QuantCDN
  uses: quantcdn/deploy-action@v6
  with:
    customer: ${{ secrets.QUANT_CUSTOMER }}
    project: ${{ secrets.QUANT_PROJECT }}
    token: ${{ secrets.QUANT_TOKEN }}
    dir: dist
    revision-log: .quant-revision

- name: Purge cache
  uses: quantcdn/purge-action@v6
  with:
    customer: ${{ secrets.QUANT_CUSTOMER }}
    project: ${{ secrets.QUANT_PROJECT }}
    token: ${{ secrets.QUANT_TOKEN }}
    url_pattern: "/*"

GitLab CI

deploy:
  image: node:20
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - npm install -g @quantcdn/quant-cli
    - quant init -c "$QUANT_CUSTOMER" -t "$QUANT_TOKEN" --project="$QUANT_PROJECT" -e "https://api.quantcdn.io" -d dist
    - quant deploy --revision-log .quant-revision --skip-purge
    - quant purge --url-pattern "/*"
  cache:
    paths:
      - .quant-revision
  only:
    - main

CircleCI

version: 2.1
jobs:
  deploy:
    docker:
      - image: node:20
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run:
          name: Install Quant CLI
          command: npm install -g @quantcdn/quant-cli
      - restore_cache:
          keys:
            - quant-revision-{{ .Branch }}-
      - run:
          name: Deploy to Quant
          command: |
            quant init -c "$QUANT_CUSTOMER" -t "$QUANT_TOKEN" --project="$QUANT_PROJECT" -e "https://api.quantcdn.io" -d dist
            quant deploy --revision-log .quant-revision --skip-purge
            quant purge --url-pattern "/*"
      - save_cache:
          key: quant-revision-{{ .Branch }}-{{ .Revision }}
          paths:
            - .quant-revision

Generic CI

For any CI provider:

1. Install Node.js 18+
2. Install the CLI: npm install -g @quantcdn/quant-cli
3. Set environment variables for credentials
4. Run quant init with flags (no interactive prompts)
5. Run quant deploy with --revision-log for efficiency
6. Run quant purge to clear CDN caches

Branch-based deployments

Deploy different branches to different projects for staging/production workflows:

if [ "$CI_BRANCH" = "main" ]; then
  export QUANT_PROJECT="my-site-production"
  export QUANT_TOKEN="$QUANT_TOKEN_PROD"
else
  export QUANT_PROJECT="my-site-staging"
  export QUANT_TOKEN="$QUANT_TOKEN_STAGING"
fi

quant init -c "$QUANT_CUSTOMER" -t "$QUANT_TOKEN" --project="$QUANT_PROJECT" -e "https://api.quantcdn.io" -d dist
quant deploy

Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

• Verify the token hasn’t expired or been revoked
• Check the project machine name matches exactly (case-sensitive)
• Ensure the token has deploy permissions for the project

Slow deployments

• Use --revision-log and cache it between builds
• Increase --chunk-size up to 20 for faster parallel uploads
• Use --skip-unpublish if you don’t need automatic content removal

Missing content after deploy

• Check your build output directory matches the -d flag
• Verify the build completed successfully before deploy
• Check for .gitignore patterns excluding build output

Next steps

• Complete CI/CD workflow guide - Full Astro + GitHub Actions example
• CLI get started - CLI installation and basic usage