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Deploy Your Own Frontend with the CLI

Deploy a frontend you already have as a Wix-managed headless project, keeping the web framework you built it with. Wix hosts and runs your frontend and connects it to Wix business solutions. For how this fits among the Wix-managed options, see About Wix-Managed Headless.

You initialize and deploy from your terminal, which is also what lets you deploy server code alongside your frontend. If your site is a static build and you'd rather skip the terminal, upload it instead.

Important: When you deploy your own existing frontend, Wix doesn't handle authentication for you. You create a Wix client and set up authentication yourself, the same as for self-managed headless. Automatic authentication and extensions are available only with Wix's Astro integration.

Using Astro? Follow Quick Start from an Existing Astro Project instead, or Quick Start with the Wix CLI to scaffold a new one.

Before you begin

Make sure:

Your frontend is built with a supported web framework.
You're logged in to your Wix account.
You have Node.js (v20.11.0 or higher).
Your project isn't already linked to Wix (it doesn't contain a wix.config.json file).

Step 1 | Connect your project to Wix

Navigate to the root of your existing project directory.
Run:
Copy
This creates a new Wix Headless project and a wix.config.json file that links your frontend to it. If you aren't logged in, the CLI prompts you to log in.
Build your project with your framework's own tooling, such as npm run build. Releasing doesn't build your project; it uploads your existing build output.
Run npx wix release to deploy your site. Releasing is the only step you repeat after making changes: build again, then release again.

Point Wix at your build output

By default, wix.config.json expects your build output in ./dist. If your framework builds to a different folder, update the path before you release. To deploy server code as well, set outputDirectory to an object with separate client and server paths.

Wix deploys and runs server files as long as they're built for the Cloudflare Workers runtime. For the field reference and the deploy shapes it supports, see The wix.config.json File.

Step 2 | Set up authentication

Initializing your project creates a client ID for you, stored as the appId in your wix.config.json file. Authentication is yours to wire up, but the groundwork is already done.

To set up authentication, install the Wix JavaScript SDK and create a client with OAuthStrategy, passing the appId from wix.config.json as your client ID. Follow Create an SDK Client with OAuth.

For more information on handling site visitors and members, see About Authentication for Self-Managed Headless.

Continue developing

After your project is set up, keep building:

Develop with an AI agent. Point your agent at the Wix Headless skill to finish setup and integrate Wix business solutions. For more information, see the Headless AI Toolkit.
Manage business data in the dashboard. Manage products, bookings, blog posts, forms, members, and more directly from your project dashboard. No code required.
Preview and deploy with the CLI. Your project supports npx wix preview to test locally, npx wix release to publish, and global commands like npx wix login. These are currently the only CLI commands available for this kind of project. See the CLI command reference.