MonsterASP.NET
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Deploy with GitHub Actions

Build and publish your application on every push with a GitHub Actions workflow.

3 min read Updated October 5, 2026

With GitHub Actions your .NET application is built on GitHub and published to your website through Web Deploy every time you push. The workflow below restores, builds, tests and publishes the project and then uploads the result.

Note

This is different from Git deploy in the Control Panel, where our server pulls and builds the repository. With GitHub Actions the build runs on GitHub and only the finished output is sent to your website.

Enable WebDeploy

  1. Open the Deploy page

    Sign in to the Control Panel, go to Websites, select your website and choose Deploy in the left menu.

  2. Enable WebDeploy

    On the Visual Studio access card switch WebDeploy to Enabled.

  3. Note the login details

    You will need the Server, Site, Login and Password values from this card for the repository secrets.

Create the workflow

  1. Open Actions

    Sign in to GitHub, open your repository and select Actions in the top menu.

  2. Start a new workflow

    Choose New workflow in the left menu and click set up a workflow yourself.

  3. Paste the workflow

    Name the file publish.yml and paste this content into the editor:

    name: Build, publish and deploy to MonsterASP.NET
on: [push]

jobs:
  build_and_deploy:
    runs-on: windows-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup .NET 8
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
        with:
          dotnet-version: 8.0

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: dotnet restore

      - name: Build
        run: dotnet build --configuration Release --no-restore

      - name: Publish
        run: dotnet publish --configuration Release --output ./publish --runtime win-x86

      - name: Test with .NET
        run: dotnet test

      - name: Deploy to MonsterASP.NET via WebDeploy
        uses: rasmusbuchholdt/simply-web-deploy@2.1.0
        with:
          website-name: ${{ secrets.WEBSITE_NAME }}
          server-computer-name: ${{ secrets.SERVER_COMPUTER_NAME }}
          server-username: ${{ secrets.SERVER_USERNAME }}
          server-password: ${{ secrets.SERVER_PASSWORD }}

  4. Commit

    Save (commit) the workflow file.

Add the secrets

The workflow reads the Web Deploy login details from the secrets of the repository, so the password never appears in the workflow file. Add these four repository secrets on GitHub and fill them with the values from the Visual Studio access card:

Secret Value
WEBSITE_NAME siteXXXX
SERVER_COMPUTER_NAME https://siteXXXX.siteasp.net:8172
SERVER_USERNAME siteXXXX
SERVER_PASSWORD Your Web Deploy password

Run it

From now on every git push to the repository starts the workflow and deploys the application to your website. You can also start the workflow manually on GitHub.

Warning

A deployment script must never leave the application pool of your website stopped. If you extend the workflow with your own step that stops the application before the upload, a failed or cancelled run can end before the start step is reached, and the website then stays offline until you start it again. Use a restart (recycle) instead of a stop without a matching start. If it does happen, start the website with the Start button on its Overview page in the Control Panel.

Something went wrong?

  • The deploy step cannot sign in. Check that WebDeploy is still Enabled and that the four secrets match the values on the Deploy page. After changing the Web Deploy password, update SERVER_PASSWORD too.
  • The application returns an error after the deployment. See HTTP Error 500 – the application failed to start.
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