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Buzz

Make A Site Private

A site is either public or private. A private site is visible to its owner and any GitHub users the owner adds. Protection covers the whole site: every path, every asset.

Make A Site Private

Section titled “Make A Site Private”

Run this from a project containing its Buzz CNAME file:

Terminal window
buzz access private

To publish a new site without briefly exposing it, make it private as part of its first deployment:

Terminal window
buzz deploy ./dist --private

The site stays private across later deployments. A deployment token can update files but cannot change whether a site is private.

Check Or Change Visibility

Section titled “Check Or Change Visibility”
Terminal window
buzz access
buzz access public

buzz access prints the current state. buzz access public asks for confirmation first, since it exposes every file. Pass -y to skip the prompt.

In the dashboard, use the visibility button next to the site’s address. The site list shows the same state in its Visibility column.

Share A Private Site

Section titled “Share A Private Site”

Open the site in the dashboard, choose Private, then select Manage access. Enter an exact GitHub username and confirm the account. Buzz does not send invitations; share the site URL yourself.

Readers sign in with GitHub. They can view the shared site but cannot manage it or use the Buzz dashboard. Removal takes effect on their next request.

Making a site public takes effect immediately, ends every Access session, and clears the reader list. If you make the site private later, it starts owner-only.

Why Whole Sites

Section titled “Why Whole Sites”

Buzz has no per-path protection because a static site serves one file under several URLs: a page built to admin.html answers at both /admin and /admin.html, and one built to admin/index.html answers at /admin, /admin/, and /admin/index.html. A rule naming one of those leaves the others open. The same applies to what a page loads, since a protected page whose content lives in /assets/app-a1b2c3.js gains nothing if that asset is public.

Caching Limitation

Section titled “Caching Limitation”

Buzz prevents responses from a private site from being cached, but making a site private cannot recall copies downloaded, indexed, handled by a service worker, or cached by another proxy while it was public. Treat anything a site served while public as already distributed.