# Portal deploys are packaged the same way as ee-deploy, up to 1 GiB

> Portal deploys now run in the background on the same packaging tool as ee-deploy. The same folder gives the same package either way, files follow the same rules, and a site can be up to the CDN's 1 GiB limit instead of 100 MiB.

Date: November 4, 2026 · Type: Changed · Products: Portal

Source: https://changelog.evolvingedge.ai/2026/11/portal-deploys-match-ee-deploy/

The portal used to package your site with a packager of its own. It didn't always follow the same file rules as `ee-deploy`, couldn't give the same package for the same folder, and couldn't go past 100 MiB. Now every portal deploy is packaged in the background by ee-builder, the same tool `ee-deploy` and the GitHub Action use.

## What changes for your site

- **The same folder gives the same package.** Deploying a folder from the portal and with `ee-deploy` now gives the same package and the same content hash.
- **Your site gets a new content hash on its next portal deploy**, even if nothing in it changed, because it is now packaged differently.
- **Files follow `ee-deploy`'s [rules](https://docs.evolvingedge.ai/cli/).** `.git/`, `.DS_Store` and `ee.jsonc` are no longer published, `include` in `ee.jsonc` now applies, and patterns match the way `ee-deploy` matches them.
- **A target with a folder serves files from that folder.** If your target names a folder such as `blog`, `blog/index.html` is now served at `/index.html`, as `ee-deploy` of that folder does, instead of at `/blog/index.html`.
- **A site can be up to 1 GiB**, the CDN's limit, instead of 100 MiB. The size counts only the files that will be published, after your `exclude` patterns and the default exclusions.

## How a deploy runs

- **Every deploy runs in the background.** The target shows each stage while it runs: starting the packager, waiting for it, packaging and deploying.
- **A site over the limit is refused before any file is read**, with the limit and a suggestion to use `exclude`, or to deploy with `ee-deploy` or the GitHub Action. Those check only the finished package, so a site whose images shrink when converted can still fit.
- **Your Level 1 key is shown only in the browser tab that started the deploy.** It isn't shown anywhere else.
- **If the packager can't be reached, deploys stop** with "Deploys are unavailable right now". Nothing is deployed.

## Limits

- **An unchanged Level 1 site can't be redeployed from the portal.** Its stored copy keeps the first deploy's key, so the portal refuses, as `ee-deploy` does without that key.
- **Excluded files still count toward the size of the folder you upload.** A folder that passes the 1 GiB check only because of what's excluded, such as a large `.git/`, can still be refused, with its own message.
- **Adding a file from a URL is still limited to 100 MB per file.**

## What you need to do

If a deployment target names a folder, check the addresses your site serves after its next deploy, and update links or add redirects for any that moved. Otherwise, nothing.