—

Why it Matters

Magento themes and frontend rely on static assets (CSS, JavaScript, images). If these assets are not pre-deployed in production, the system may try to generate them on the fly. This slows down page load, increases CPU usage, and can even expose error details to customers if generation fails.

Deploying static content during the release process ensures consistent assets, faster performance, and no unexpected errors in production. It also helps keep the pub/static/ directory clean and predictable.

Verification Steps

Command line

# Check if pub/static has compiled assets for all themes
ls -l pub/static/frontend/

# Force check deployment
bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f --dry-run

Expected

All required CSS/JS/images exist in pub/static and pages load without fallback generation.

Remediation / Fix Guidance

Always run static content deployment during release:
```
bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f en_US
```
Include all store locales and themes in the deployment command.
Use -f (force) in production to overwrite old files safely.
Clear pub/static/* except for .htaccess before deploying to avoid stale assets.
Automate static content deployment in CI/CD pipelines so production never generates assets on demand.

Examples

Fail Example

# Production missing static assets
pub/static/frontend/Magento/luma/en_US/css/ (empty)
# Browser shows broken layout or error 404

Pass Example

# Production has pre-deployed assets
pub/static/frontend/Magento/luma/en_US/css/styles.css
pub/static/frontend/Magento/luma/en_US/js/bundle.js

References

OWASP Top 10 — A05: Security Misconfiguration