Azure Static Web Apps “Failed to deploy the Azure Functions” error—even with minimal hello world API, all best practices followed

Question

Azure Static Web Apps “Failed to deploy the Azure Functions” error—even with minimal hello world API, all best practices followed

Nathaniel Walker 0

We are unable to deploy any backend API (managed functions) to Azure Static Web Apps. Our static frontend always deploys successfully, but every attempt to deploy the backend fails at the “deploy the Azure Functions” step, even with the simplest possible hello world function.

Error:

Deployment Failure Reason: Failed to deploy the Azure Functions.

What we have tried:

Minimal v3 “hello world” function at /api/hello/index.js and /api/hello/function.json, no dependencies, no extensionBundle, basic package.json, and correct host.json.

Confirmed /api structure matches all Microsoft docs (screenshot available).

Set FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME=node and all secrets in Azure portal.

Removed all other endpoints—only /api/hello present.

Tested in multiple Azure regions and on new SWA resources.

Locally, everything works with Azure Functions Core Tools.

Frontend-only deploys are always successful.

All builds succeed and Oryx detects Functions Runtime ~4, but deployment fails at the final step (“Failed to deploy the Azure Functions”).

Blocking impact: We are unable to deploy any backend/API for production and this is blocking our internship program.

Request:

Please review logs and confirm if this is a known issue or platform bug with SWA managed Functions.

Advise if there is a workaround or hotfix for unblocking managed Functions deployment.

Attached:

Screenshot of /api structure

Sample code for index.js and function.json

Full Oryx deploy log and error message

Workflow YAML (build/deploy section)

Thank you—this is urgent for our production use.We are unable to deploy any backend API (managed functions) to Azure Static Web Apps. Our static frontend always deploys successfully, but every attempt to deploy the backend fails at the “deploy the Azure Functions” step, even with the simplest possible hello world function.

Error:

Deployment Failure Reason: Failed to deploy the Azure Functions.

What we have tried:

Minimal v3 “hello world” function at /api/hello/index.js and /api/hello/function.json, no dependencies, no extensionBundle, basic package.json, and correct host.json.

Confirmed /api structure matches all Microsoft docs (screenshot available).

Set FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME=node and all secrets in Azure portal.

Removed all other endpoints—only /api/hello present.

Tested in multiple Azure regions and on new SWA resources.

Locally, everything works with Azure Functions Core Tools.

Frontend-only deploys are always successful.

All builds succeed and Oryx detects Functions Runtime ~4, but deployment fails at the final step (“Failed to deploy the Azure Functions”).

Blocking impact:
We are unable to deploy any backend/API for production and this is blocking our internship program.

Request:

Please review logs and confirm if this is a known issue or platform bug with SWA managed Functions.

Advise if there is a workaround or hotfix for unblocking managed Functions deployment.

Attached:

Screenshot of /api structure

Sample code for index.js and function.json

Full Oryx deploy log and error message

Workflow YAML (build/deploy section)

Thank you—this is urgent for our production use.

Sampath 3,750 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello @Nathaniel Walker ,

Below is the sample example I tried. From this MSDOC , Azure Static Web Apps provide support only for integrating APIs, whether through managed Azure Functions or by bringing your own APIs hosted in other Azure services.

Follow the below steps for Azure Static Web configuration with git.

After creating a new Vite project using npm, add the code to fetch data/ messages from back end in the frontend

App.vue: The below sample code fetches a message from an API/backend and displays it in an UI.


<template>

  <div>

    <h1>{{ message }}</h1>

  </div>

</template>

<script>

import axios from 'axios';

export default {

  data() {

    return {

      message: ''

    };

  },

  created() {

    axios.get('http://localhost:5000/api') /

      .then(response => {

        this.message = response.data.message;

      })

      .catch(error => {

        console.error('There was an error fetching the data!', error);

      });

  }

};

</script>

<style scoped>

</style>

I Configured the backend/api using this document .

Add Staticwebapp.config.json to the root directory of the front end.


{

  "navigationFallback": {

    "rewrite": "index.html"

  }

}

Git Hub Folder Strucure:

enter image description here

Now change the git yml according to your Folder Strucure


app_location to `./vite-project`,

api_location` to `./my-backend` ,

output_location to "dist"

Yml:


name: Azure Static Web Apps CI/CD

on:

  push:

    branches:

      - main

  pull_request:

    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, closed]

    branches:

      - main

jobs:

  build_and_deploy_job:

    if: github.event_name == 'push' || (github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.action != 'closed')

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    name: Build and Deploy Job

    steps:

      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

        with:

          submodules: true

          lfs: false

      - name: Build And Deploy

        id: builddeploy

        uses: Azure/static-web-apps-deploy@v1

        with:

          azure_static_web_apps_api_token: ${{ secrets.AZURE_STATIC_WEB_APPS_API_TOKEN_WITTY_POND_06001940F }}

          repo_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} 

          action: "upload"

       

          app_location: "./vite-project" 

          api_location: "./my-backend" 

          output_location: "dist" 

       

  close_pull_request_job:

    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.action == 'closed'

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    name: Close Pull Request Job

    steps:

      - name: Close Pull Request

        id: closepullrequest

        uses: Azure/static-web-apps-deploy@v1

        with:

          azure_static_web_apps_api_token: ${{ secrets.AZURE_STATIC_WEB_APPS_API_TOKEN_WITTY_POND_06001940F }}

          action: "close"

Deployment status:

enter image description here Azure Static Web App:

enter image description here

Hope this helps

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Hi @Nathaniel Walker,

Even a simple "Hello World" function can fail to deploy if the folder structure doesn't meet the requirements expected by SWA.

Make sure you have the below folder structure.

{EC31D197-EDF0-417B-A81B-DE20F869B34F}

api - hello folder (with function.json and index.js)
src - with index.html

The issue seems to be with your app_location and api_location.
If you have dist folder , then set the output_location as dist. As I am not using any dist folder, I have set it as .

app_location: "src" 
api_location: "api"  
output_location: "."

My function.json:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "authLevel": "anonymous",
      "type": "httpTrigger",
      "direction": "in",
      "name": "req",
      "methods": [ "get" ]
    },
    {
      "type": "http",
      "direction": "out",
      "name": "res"
    }
  ]
}

My Workflow file:

name: Azure Static Web Apps CI/CD
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, closed]

    branches:
      - main

jobs:

  build_and_deploy_job:
    if: github.event_name == 'push' || (github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.action != 'closed')

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Build and Deploy Job

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with:
          submodules: true
          lfs: false

      - name: Build And Deploy
        id: builddeploy
        uses: Azure/static-web-apps-deploy@v1

        with:
          azure_static_web_apps_api_token: ${{ secrets.AZURE_STATIC_WEB_APPS_API_TOKEN_WONDERFUL_FOREST_003096B1E }}
          repo_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} # Used for Github integrations (i.e. PR comments)

          action: "upload"
          app_location: "src" 
          api_location: "api" 
          output_location: "." 

  close_pull_request_job:

    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.action == 'closed'

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Close Pull Request Job

    steps:
      - name: Close Pull Request
        id: closepullrequest
        uses: Azure/static-web-apps-deploy@v1

        with:

          azure_static_web_apps_api_token: ${{ secrets.AZURE_STATIC_WEB_APPS_API_TOKEN_WONDERFUL_FOREST_003096B1E }}
          action: "close"

Deployment:

{2BE2553C-9D01-4054-89F1-7BCF26AEB4FA}

Output:

User's image

Hope this helps

If the answer is helpful, please click Accept Answer and kindly upvote it. If you have any further questions, please reply back

Harshitha Veeramalla 1,301 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-09T06:50:42.3233333+00:00

Hi @Nathaniel Walker, just checking in to see if above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to post back.
Harshitha Veeramalla 1,301 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-10T06:04:47.9133333+00:00

Hi @Nathaniel Walker, just checking in to see if the provided answer helped. If this answers your query, do click "Accept the answer” for the same, which might be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. And, if you have any further queries do let us know.

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Azure Static Web Apps “Failed to deploy the Azure Functions” error—even with minimal hello world API, all best practices followed

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