GitHub Pages stops deploying randomly

[SnowFlash383935]

Hello. I am deploying my own Jekyll blog. Everything worked fine. But I edited _config.yml (very smol edit) and It stopped deploying from commits. No error, no deploy failure.

[abdulvahabaa]

Jekyll is extremely sensitive to YAML formatting, and even a tiny mistake in _config.yml—like wrong indentation, an unsupported key, or an invalid value—can silently stop GitHub Pages from building. Since GitHub Pages doesn’t always show errors for YAML parse failures, the deploy appears to stop ‘without error.’ Validating the YAML or reverting the change usually fixes the issue.

[abdulvahabaa]

Even a very small mistake in _config.yml can silently break GitHub Pages or any Jekyll deployment because:

1. _config.yml is very sensitive to YAML formatting

A single wrong space, indentation, colon, or quote can cause Jekyll to fail before the build even starts.
GitHub Pages often does not show errors in the Actions tab when YAML fails early.

Examples of silent-breaking mistakes:

• Using tabs instead of spaces
• Missing colon :
• An extra space before a key
• Invalid boolean (Yes instead of true)
• Bad value type (number instead of string)

---

2. GitHub Pages sometimes skips builds if the config is invalid

If Jekyll can’t parse _config.yml, GitHub Pages may ignore the commit and skip the build entirely with no visible error.

---

3. Some keys are not allowed on GitHub Pages

If you added unsupported keys (e.g., plugins not whitelisted), GitHub Pages won’t build, but it may not show a clear error.

---

4. You may have accidentally disabled Jekyll

If _config.yml contains:

markdown: false

or

plugins: []

or you added a file named .nojekyll, the site can stop building.

---

How to fix it

1. Validate YAML here:
   yamlvalidator.com or yamllint.com
2. Check your GitHub Pages build logs:
   Settings → Pages → Build logs
3. Revert _config.yml to the last working version and try again.
4. Commit again—sometimes GitHub Pages caches build failures.

[shinybrightstar]

👋 Welcome to the GitHub Community, @SnowFlash383935! Congratulations on your first post! 🎉

You are more likely to get a useful response if you are posting your question(s) in the applicable category. Check out this Guide on how to post in the right category. It'll ensure your questions and discussions reach the right people faster!

This particular discussion belongs in the Pages category, I've gone ahead and moved it for you. Good luck!

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