Hosting a Static Site

A tape can host a whole website. Upload your build with tape deploy and share it at https://<tape-address-base32>.tape.site/ on Tapenet. There is no server to run or DNS to configure. You can add your own domain later.

What you need

The tape CLI (install).
A configured local deployment, or a funded wallet from the Tapenet setup guide.
A built site: a directory with an index.html at its root. Any static site generator’s output works.

The commands use the signing key at ~/.config/solana/id.json, the CLI’s default. Pass -k <path> for another keypair, and use -u <rpc url> or TAPE_RPC_URL to choose the Solana RPC (CLI context).

1. Reserve a tape

A tape is prepaid storage: a capacity, for a number of epochs. Size it to your build with room for redeploys, and pick how long the site should stay up. The example below reserves 100 MiB for at least a week. --duration buys enough epochs to cover that time at the network’s current epoch duration, which is one hour on Tapenet (epochs). Pass --epochs <n> instead to buy an exact number of epochs. Check the price and your balance first. --dry-run spends nothing:

tape create --capacity 100m --duration 7d --dry-run

Output

capacity:         104857600 bytes
epochs:           active=241 expiry=410
epoch duration:   1h
expires:          ~2026-09-23 22:00 UTC (in 7d)
cost:             0.0161226 TAPE + ~0.00564372 SOL
wallet balance:   10.0 TAPE, 1.5 SOL
dry run:          nothing was reserved

The first number is exact: capacity in MiB × epochs × the network’s current storage price. The SOL figure is rent for the tape’s accounts plus transaction fees, so it is an estimate. Uploading the files afterwards costs only small SOL fees. Then reserve it:

tape create --capacity 100m --duration 7d

Output

tape address:     E79y5bh5zTLq9h7SgPGRsDpcmTB1oa7YGscFFFiojy2D
label:            yk5y3rg6cwclvyz7sv763kttt2d2sinpzdm3chuzw72th45s2c3a
capacity:         104857600 bytes
epochs:           active=241 expiry=410
epoch duration:   1h
expires:          ~2026-09-23 22:00 UTC (in 7d)
cost:             0.0161226 TAPE + ~0.00564372 SOL

tape create checks that the wallet can pay before it signs anything. The expiry time is an estimate based on the network’s current epoch duration. The tape’s keypair is saved under ~/.tape/cassettes/ and the tape becomes the active one, so the next commands need no --tape flag. Keep the keypair: it is the only thing that can write to this tape.

2. Upload the site

tape deploy ./dist/index.html

Output

Deployed 4 files (4 uploaded, 0 unchanged)
Tape: E79y5bh5zTLq9h7SgPGRsDpcmTB1oa7YGscFFFiojy2D
URL:  https://yk5y3rg6cwclvyz7sv763kttt2d2sinpzdm3chuzw72th45s2c3a.tape.site/

Each file becomes a named object on the tape, named by its path relative to the directory. Content types are set from the file extension. The command returns when every file is written on chain. Hidden files and directories are skipped, and visible symlinks are rejected. The .well-known/ namespace is never published and cannot be enabled with an override, so tape content cannot answer domain-ownership or ACME challenges. Check what landed:

tape object ls

Output

TYPE            SIZE  CONTENT-TYPE  NAME
object           130  text/html     404.html
object            59  text/css      app.css
object           120  text/html     docs/index.html
object           253  text/html     index.html

If the last file you uploaded is missing from the listing, run it again a few seconds later. The listing can lag the write by a moment.

3. Open it

Open the URL that tape deploy printed and share it. Visitors do not need a wallet or the CLI. The subdomain is the tape address encoded as lowercase base32, because hostnames are case-insensitive while tape addresses are not; the CLI does the encoding for you. The reservation controls how long the site is stored. tape info shows the estimated expiry time, and tape extend --duration 7d adds another week. Paths map to object names. / serves index.html, /docs/ serves docs/index.html, /app.css serves app.css, and a path with no object serves your 404.html with status 404. A request for /docs without the trailing slash redirects to /docs/, so relative links inside the page resolve. The URL uses tape.site, Tapenet’s site domain. For a local deployment or your own gateway, set TAPE_SITE_DOMAIN (or site_domain in the CLI config) to its configured site domain, or use the /site/{tape}/ route.

4. Use your own domain (optional)

The tape.site URL is ready to share without this step. To use a domain you own, choose a gateway with self-serve domains enabled (txt_domains: true). Add two DNS records at your domain:

example.com          A      <gateway address>     (or a CNAME to the gateway)
_tape.example.com    TXT    "E79y5bh5zTLq9h7SgPGRsDpcmTB1oa7YGscFFFiojy2D"

The gateway looks up the TXT record on the first request, checks it with DNSSEC, and serves the tape at https://example.com/ from the domain root. Nothing else is needed. Confirm with:

curl -s https://example.com/ | diff - ./dist/index.html

An empty diff means the page served is the page you built. For a gateway you operate, see custom domains and subdomains below for configuration.

Redeploy

Run the same command again after a rebuild:

tape deploy ./dist/index.html

Output

Deployed 4 files (0 uploaded, 4 unchanged)
Tape: E79y5bh5zTLq9h7SgPGRsDpcmTB1oa7YGscFFFiojy2D
URL:  https://yk5y3rg6cwclvyz7sv763kttt2d2sinpzdm3chuzw72th45s2c3a.tape.site/

Only changed files are uploaded, so a redeploy costs what changed. Nothing changed here, so nothing was written. The gateway caches site responses for 60 seconds and revalidates, so a new version is live everywhere within a minute. Files removed from the build stay on the tape by default. Pass --prune to remove stale names after the new entry point is safely published, or delete a single name with tape object rm <name>.

Frameworks

Astro. astro build output deploys as it is. Nested routes, hashed assets and images all work. Astro’s default output puts each page at about/index.html, and the gateway’s redirect from /about to /about/ handles the links. Vite, React Router, or any single-page app. On tape.site, the site is served from the domain root. Add a settings file to the build output so unknown routes serve the index page instead of the 404 page:

dist/_site.json

{ "spa_fallback": true }

The fallback applies to paths that look like routes. A missing file such as /missing.png still returns 404. The gateway honours _site.json unless the operator has turned per-site settings off (site settings). If you serve through a gateway’s /site/{tape}/ path instead, build with relative asset URLs (vite build --base=./) and configure your router’s base path to match that prefix. Next.js. Use output: 'export' and deploy the out directory. A dapp that calls an RPC from the browser lists its endpoints in _site.json under connect_origins (site settings).

Put Cloudflare in front

If your domain is on Cloudflare, proxy the record from step 4 (the orange cloud). Hashed assets are cached at the edge on the second request. HTML pages are not cached by default and need a cache rule on your zone if you want them cached. The operator side is under fronting with a CDN below.

Deploy from CI with an S3 tool

If your pipeline already speaks S3, the gateway’s S3 endpoint accepts the same site as a bucket sync:

rclone sync ./dist tapedrive:<bucket-label>

This path needs a credential from the gateway operator and a one-time delegation of the tape to the gateway’s key. Both are on the S3 gateway page, and the rclone remote is on the Rclone page. Do not pass --checksum to rclone: ETags here are not MD5 hashes, so rclone would compare sizes instead and miss a changed file of the same length.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause and fix
The root URL returns 404	There is no `index.html` at the top of the directory you synced. Sync the build output, not the project.
A page renders as plain text or downloads	The file has an unusual extension. Content types come from the extension; rename the file.
The site does not update after a redeploy	Responses are cached for 60 seconds. Wait a minute, then reload.
`insufficient capacity` on sync	The tape is full. Grow it with `tape resize --add 100m`.
The site disappears	The reservation expired. `tape info` shows the estimated expiry time. Extend before it with `tape extend --duration 7d`.
`/about` works but `/about/` returns 404	The build wrote `about.html`, not `about/index.html`. Set your generator to directory output, or link to `about.html`.

For operators

The rest of this page is the gateway side: what the site route does, and the settings that give sites domains, caching and a CDN.

Site conventions

Request	Behavior
`/site/{tape}`	`308` to `/site/{tape}/`, so relative links resolve
`/site/{tape}/` or any path ending in `/`	serves that directory’s `index.html`
a path with no matching object	serves the site’s `404.html` with status `404`
any path with `?download=1`	forces a download instead of rendering

Single-page apps can opt into serving index.html for unknown paths instead of the 404 page, per site through _site.json below, or gateway-wide with the operator’s site.spa_fallback setting (off by default).

Custom domains and subdomains

A gateway can serve sites by hostname, from the domain root, with no path prefix. Three forms:

gateway:
  site:
    # exact hostnames -> tape address, operator managed
    domains:
      example.com: "7f3kD9mQxYz2pW8vN4cRtE5uH6bJamd9GvKq2rTeUWXs"
    # every <subdomain-label>.sites.example.net serves that tape
    subdomain_suffix: "sites.example.net"
    # or fully self-serve: serve any domain whose DNS proves a binding
    txt_domains: true

With txt_domains on, any domain owner can attach their domain with two DNS records and no operator involvement:

example.com          A      <gateway address>     (or a proxied CNAME)
_tape.example.com    TXT    "<tape address>"

The gateway resolves the TXT record with DNSSEC validation, honors its TTL (clamped between a minute and an hour), and caches misses briefly. Removing the record detaches the domain on the same schedule. For subdomain_suffix, wildcard DNS plus a wildcard certificate gives every tape a hostname with zero per-site setup; the subdomain label is the lowercase encoding printed by tape info and included in the URL tape deploy prints, because hostnames are case-insensitive while tape addresses are not. Host-served sites each get their own browser origin, which is the real tenant isolation story: cookies and storage on one site are invisible to every other. The path-based /site/ route shares the gateway’s origin across sites, fine for previews and internal use.

Site settings on the tape

A site can carry its own serving settings as a reserved object named _site.json at the tape root, synced like any other file:

{
  "spa_fallback": true,
  "max_age_secs": 300,
  "cors_origins": ["https://app.example.com"],
  "connect_origins": ["https://api.devnet.solana.com", "wss://api.devnet.solana.com"]
}

Every field is optional and falls back to the gateway-wide setting. Unknown fields are ignored, so older gateways serve newer sites. The settings travel with the site: deploy to any gateway and your dapp’s RPC allowlist comes along. Operators keep the last word with site.tenant_overrides: false, which ignores per-site settings entirely.

Caching

Names are pointers that can be re-aimed at new tracks, so site responses are cached briefly and revalidated: Cache-Control: public, max-age=60, must-revalidate with the content commitment as ETag, answering 304 Not Modified to If-None-Match. A redeploy propagates within a minute, and unchanged files revalidate without re-downloading.

Fronting with a CDN

Any pull-through CDN works, and the general guidance in serving through a CDN applies. For Cloudflare in front of a custom-domain site, the operator side:

Add the site hostname to gateway.site.domains and CNAME it to the gateway, proxied.
Trust Cloudflare’s edges in gateway config so per-visitor metering follows the real client IP. trusted_proxies accepts CIDR ranges:

gateway:
  metering:
    trusted_proxies: ["173.245.48.0/20", "2400:cb00::/32"]

Nothing else. The gateway’s revalidation headers mean the edge re-checks every minute with a cheap 304 instead of re-downloading, and Range requests pass through.

Without host mapping, a single Cloudflare Transform Rule rewriting /* to /site/<tape>/$1 serves a path-based site the same way.

Cross-origin reads

When another origin needs to fetch site content (an app embedding hosted assets), allow it explicitly:

gateway:
  site:
    cors_origins: ["https://app.example.com"]   # or ["*"]

Matching responses carry Access-Control-Allow-Origin. With no entries, site content is same-origin only.

Calling APIs from hosted pages

A dapp needs its RPC endpoint, and by default the content security policy keeps hosted pages same-origin, so browser calls to external APIs are blocked. Allow endpoints explicitly:

gateway:
  site:
    connect_origins:
      - "https://api.devnet.solana.com"
      - "wss://api.devnet.solana.com"   # list the websocket form too

Entries are added to the content security policy’s connect-src, so hosted pages can fetch and open websockets to them; a single "*" entry allows any endpoint. Wallet extensions inject their own providers and are unaffected either way. With this set, a statically exported dapp (for example a Next.js output: 'export' build published with tape deploy) runs entirely from the tape.

Boundaries

Site responses carry X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff and a same-origin content security policy, and the gateway sets no cookies. Site reads are metered separately from object reads, with headroom sized for multi-asset page loads (rate limits). Route details live in the gateway API reference.

CLI

S3 Gateway

Integrations

More Tools

Hosting a Static Site

What you need

1. Reserve a tape

2. Upload the site

3. Open it

4. Use your own domain (optional)

Redeploy

Frameworks

Put Cloudflare in front

Deploy from CI with an S3 tool

Troubleshooting

For operators

Site conventions

Custom domains and subdomains

Site settings on the tape

Caching

Fronting with a CDN

Cross-origin reads

Calling APIs from hosted pages

Boundaries

​What you need

​1. Reserve a tape

​2. Upload the site

​3. Open it

​4. Use your own domain (optional)

​Redeploy

​Frameworks

​Put Cloudflare in front

​Deploy from CI with an S3 tool

​Troubleshooting

​For operators

​Site conventions

​Custom domains and subdomains

​Site settings on the tape

​Caching

​Fronting with a CDN

​Cross-origin reads

​Calling APIs from hosted pages

​Boundaries

What you need

1. Reserve a tape

2. Upload the site

3. Open it

4. Use your own domain (optional)

Redeploy

Frameworks

Put Cloudflare in front

Deploy from CI with an S3 tool

Troubleshooting

For operators

Site conventions

Custom domains and subdomains

Site settings on the tape

Caching

Fronting with a CDN

Cross-origin reads

Calling APIs from hosted pages

Boundaries