Deploy Power Pages Code Site

Guide the user through deploying an existing Power Pages code site to a Power Pages environment using PAC CLI. Follow a systematic approach: verify tooling, authenticate, confirm the target environment, build and upload the site, and handle any blockers.

Core Principles

• Verify before acting: Always confirm PAC CLI availability, authentication status, and the target environment before attempting any deployment.
• Use TaskCreate/TaskUpdate: Track all progress throughout all phases — create the todo list upfront with all phases before starting any work.
• Never change environment settings without consent: If deployment requires modifying environment configuration (e.g., unblocking JavaScript attachments), always explain the change and get explicit user permission first.

Initial request: $ARGUMENTS

Phase 1: Verify PAC CLI

Goal: Ensure PAC CLI is installed and available on the system PATH

Actions:

1. Create todo list with all 6 phases (see Progress Tracking table)

2. Run pac help to check if the PAC CLI is installed and available on the system PATH.

   pac help

3. If the command succeeds: PAC CLI is installed. Proceed to Phase 2.

4. If the command fails (command not found / not recognized):

   1. Inform the user that PAC CLI is required but not installed.

   2. Fetch installation instructions from https://aka.ms/PowerPlatformCLI using the following approach:

      • Tell the user: "PAC CLI is not installed. You can install it by running:"

        dotnet tool install --global Microsoft.PowerApps.CLI.Tool

      • If dotnet is also not available, direct the user to https://aka.ms/PowerPlatformCLI for full installation instructions including .NET SDK setup.

   3. After installation, verify by running pac help again.

   4. If it still fails, stop and ask the user to resolve the installation manually.

Output: PAC CLI installed and verified

Phase 2: Verify Authentication

Goal: Ensure the user is authenticated with PAC CLI and has a valid session

Actions:

1. Run pac auth who to check the current authentication status.

   pac auth who

2. If authenticated: Extract the following values from the output:

   • Environment name and URL
   • Environment ID — the GUID after Environment ID:
   • Cloud — the value after Cloud: (e.g., Public, UsGov, UsGovHigh, UsGovDod, China)

   Proceed to Phase 3.

3. If not authenticated:

   1. Inform the user they are not authenticated with PAC CLI.

   2. Use AskUserQuestion to ask for the environment URL:

      Question	Header	Options
      You are not authenticated with PAC CLI. Please provide your Power Pages environment URL (e.g., https://org12345.crm.dynamics.com) so I can authenticate you.	Auth	(free text input via "Other")

      Provide two placeholder options to guide the user:

      • "I'll paste the URL" (description: "Select 'Other' below and paste your environment URL")
      • "I don't know my URL" (description: "You can find it in the Power Platform admin center under Environments > your environment > Environment URL")

   3. Once the user provides the URL, run the authentication command:

      pac auth create --environment "<USER_PROVIDED_URL>"

      This will open a browser window for the user to sign in.

   4. After the command completes, verify by running pac auth who again.

   5. If authentication succeeds, proceed to Phase 3.

   6. If authentication fails, present the error to the user and help them troubleshoot.

Output: Authenticated PAC CLI session with environment name and URL extracted

Phase 3: Confirm Environment

Goal: Ensure the user is deploying to the correct target environment

Actions:

1. Present the current environment information to the user and ask them to confirm.

   Use AskUserQuestion with the following structure:

   Question	Header	Options
   You are currently connected to environment: <ENV_NAME> (<ENV_URL>). Do you want to deploy to this environment?	Environment	Yes, use this environment, No, let me choose a different one

2. If "Yes, use this environment": Proceed to Phase 4.

3. If "No, let me choose a different one":

   1. Run pac org list to retrieve all available environments:

      pac org list

   2. Parse the output to extract environment names and URLs.

   3. Use AskUserQuestion to present the available environments as options (pick up to 4 most relevant, or let user specify).

   4. Once the user selects an environment, switch to it:

      pac org select --environment "<SELECTED_ENV_ID_OR_URL>"

   5. Verify the switch by running pac auth who again.

Output: Confirmed target environment for deployment

Phase 4: Deploy the Code Site

Goal: Locate the project, build it, and upload to Power Pages

Actions:

4.1 Locate the Project Root

Determine the project root directory. The project root is the directory containing powerpages.config.json. Use Glob to search for it:

**/powerpages.config.json

If found in the current working directory or a subdirectory, use that directory as PROJECT_ROOT. If multiple are found, ask the user which one to deploy using AskUserQuestion.

If not found, ask the user to provide the path to the project root.

4.2 Build the Site

Before uploading, ensure the site is built:

cd "<PROJECT_ROOT>"
npm run build

If the build fails, stop and help the user fix the build errors before retrying.

4.3 Upload to Power Pages

Run the upload command:

pac pages upload-code-site --rootPath "<PROJECT_ROOT>"

If the upload succeeds: Proceed to Phase 5 to verify the deployment.

If the upload fails: Check the error message:

• If the failure is related to blocked JavaScript (.js) attachments → proceed to Phase 6
• If the failure mentions .html type attachments are currently blocked → this is a misleading error. See Troubleshooting: HTML Blocked Attachment Error below
• For other errors → present the error to the user and help them troubleshoot

Output: Site built and uploaded to Power Pages

Phase 5: Verify Deployment

Goal: Confirm the deployment was successful and handle post-deployment steps

Actions:

5.1 Verify .powerpages-site Folder

Confirm the .powerpages-site folder was created (first deploy) or still exists:

Get-ChildItem -Path "<PROJECT_ROOT>/.powerpages-site" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

List its contents to confirm site configuration files are present (e.g., web-roles/, site-settings/, table-permissions/).

5.2 Record Skill Usage

Reference: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/skill-tracking-reference.md

Follow the skill tracking instructions in the reference to record this skill's usage. Use --skillName "DeploySite".

5.3 Confirm Upload Output

Review the output from the pac pages upload-code-site command in Phase 4 (or Phase 6 retry). Verify it reported a successful upload with no errors.

5.4 Commit Changes

Stage and commit deployment artifacts:

git add -A
git commit -m "Deploy site to Power Pages"

5.5 Check Activation Status

Before asking about activation, check whether the site is already activated by running the shared activation status script. This avoids prompting the user unnecessarily when the site is already live.

Run the check-activation-status script, passing the project root (determined in Phase 4.1):

node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/check-activation-status.js" --projectRoot "<PROJECT_ROOT>"

The script reads siteName from powerpages.config.json, looks up the websiteRecordId via pac pages list, queries the Power Platform GET websites API, and matches the response against both the websiteRecordId (exact GUID match) and name (case-insensitive). It outputs a JSON result to stdout.

Evaluate the result:

• If activated is true: This site is already activated. Inform the user: "Your site <siteName> is already activated — no further provisioning needed." If the result includes a websiteUrl, show it to the user. Skip to Suggest Next Steps. Do NOT ask about activation.
• If activated is false: This site is not yet activated. Proceed to step 5.5.1.
• If error is present: The check could not complete (e.g., Azure CLI not installed, PAC CLI not authenticated, config not found). Fall back to step 5.5.1. Do not block the deployment flow due to a failed activation check.

5.5.1 Ask About Activation (only if site is NOT already activated)

Ask the user if they want to activate the site using AskUserQuestion:

If "Activate now": Invoke the /power-pages:activate-site skill. If "Skip for now": Suggest next steps (see Suggest Next Steps).

Output: Deployment verified, changes committed, activation offered

Phase 6: Handle Blocked JavaScript

Goal: Resolve blocked JavaScript attachment errors and retry deployment

Actions:

6.1 Explain the Issue

Tell the user:

"The upload failed because JavaScript (.js) file attachments are blocked in your Power Pages environment. This is a security setting that prevents uploading .js files. To deploy a code site, this restriction needs to be relaxed for .js files."

6.2 Ask for Permission

Use AskUserQuestion:

If "No": Stop and inform the user that the deployment cannot proceed without unblocking .js attachments.

If "Yes": Proceed to 6.3.

6.3 Update Blocked Attachments

1. Run pac env list-settings to retrieve the current environment settings:

   pac env list-settings

2. Find the blockedattachments property in the output. It will contain a semicolon-separated list of file extensions (e.g., ade;adp;app;asa;ashx;asmx;asp;bas;bat;cdx;cer;chm;class;cmd;com;config;cnt;cpl;crt;csh;der;dll;exe;fxp;hlp;hta;htr;htw;ida;idc;idq;inf;ins;isp;its;js;jse;ksh;lnk;mad;maf;mag;mam;maq;mar;mas;mat;mau;mav;maw;mda;mdb;mde;mdt;mdw;mdz;msc;msh;msh1;msh1xml;msh2;msh2xml;mshxml;msi;msp;mst;ops;pcd;pif;prf;prg;printer;pst;reg;rem;scf;scr;sct;shb;shs;shtm;shtml;soap;stm;tmp;url;vb;vbe;vbs;vsmacros;vss;vst;vsw;ws;wsc;wsf;wsh).

3. Remove js from the list. Parse the semicolon-separated values, filter out js, and rejoin with semicolons.

4. Update the setting:

   pac env update-settings --name blockedattachments --value "<UPDATED_LIST_WITHOUT_JS>"

5. Confirm the update was successful.

6.4 Retry Upload

Run the upload command again:

pac pages upload-code-site --rootPath "<PROJECT_ROOT>"

If it succeeds: Proceed to Phase 5 to verify the deployment.

If it fails again with a different error, present the error to the user and help troubleshoot.

Output: JavaScript unblocked and site deployed successfully

Troubleshooting: HTML Blocked Attachment Error

If the upload fails with an error like:

Error: Unable to upload webfile name 'index.html' with record Id <GUID> as '.html' type attachments are currently blocked on this environment.

This error is misleading. The .html extension is not actually blocked — the real cause is a stale environment manifest file in the .powerpages-site folder. This manifest maps local files to Dataverse record IDs from a previous upload. When the mapping becomes outdated (e.g., after environment changes or record deletions), the upload fails with this confusing error.

Fix

1. Locate the environment-specific manifest file in the .powerpages-site folder. It follows the naming pattern <environment-host>-manifest.yml (e.g., demo1.crm.dynamics.com-manifest.yml). List the folder contents to find it:

   Get-ChildItem -Path "<PROJECT_ROOT>/.powerpages-site" -Filter "*-manifest.yml"

2. Delete the manifest file:

   Remove-Item -Path "<PROJECT_ROOT>/.powerpages-site/<environment-host>-manifest.yml"

3. Retry the upload:

   pac pages upload-code-site --rootPath "<PROJECT_ROOT>"

If the retry succeeds, proceed to Phase 5. If it fails with a different error, present the error to the user and help them troubleshoot.

Important: Do NOT attempt to unblock .html in the environment's blocked attachments list — the error is not caused by the attachment block setting.

Suggest Next Steps

If the user skips activation (or after activation completes), suggest:

• /power-pages:activate-site — Provision the site with a subdomain and make it live (if not already activated)
• /power-pages:setup-datamodel — Create Dataverse tables for dynamic content
• /power-pages:add-seo — Add meta tags, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, favicon

Important Notes

Throughout All Phases

• Use TaskCreate/TaskUpdate to track progress at every phase
• Ask for user confirmation at key decision points (see list below)
• Present errors clearly — when a command fails, show the user the relevant error output and explain what went wrong before suggesting fixes

Key Decision Points (Wait for User)

1. After Phase 2: If not authenticated, get environment URL from user
2. At Phase 3: Confirm or switch the target environment
3. At Phase 4: If multiple powerpages.config.json found, ask which project to deploy
4. At Phase 5: Activate site now or later
5. At Phase 6: Get permission before modifying blocked attachments setting

Progress Tracking

Before starting Phase 1, create a task list with all phases using TaskCreate:

Mark each task in_progress when starting it and completed when done via TaskUpdate. Phase 6 may be marked completed immediately if no JavaScript blocking issue is encountered. This gives the user visibility into progress and keeps the workflow deterministic.

Begin with Phase 1: Verify PAC CLI