Working with Vercel (the hosting platform)

Comprehensive offline documentation for the Vercel platform — the CLI, the official MCP server, and the platform itself (deployments, domains, env vars, functions, storage). Docs are fetched verbatim from vercel.com and stored in references/. Use these files instead of guessing from memory.

Scope. This skill is the platform + CLI + MCP server. The REST API, the OpenAPI spec, and @vercel/sdk live in the sibling skill working-with-vercel-api (split out so each skill stays under the 8 MB size limit). For the Vercel AI SDK (ai package: generateText, streamText, useChat) use working-with-vercel-ai-sdk. For Next.js framework APIs, use the framework docs.

The interfaces

Start with references/overview.md — it explains the CLI vs MCP server vs REST API vs @vercel/sdk, when to reach for each, and the shared token/auth model.

How to use this skill

1. Read the bundled references/ first. references/ mirrors the vercel.com/docs tree (minus /docs/rest-api), named by doc path with / → __ — e.g. https://vercel.com/docs/cli/deploy → references/docs__cli__deploy.md. Each file carries source/fetched_at/sha256 frontmatter.
2. grep the references/ directory by topic (a command name, VERCEL_TOKEN, rolling-release, an error string) to jump to the right page fast.
3. For the REST API, switch to working-with-vercel-api (the OpenAPI spec + REST reference).
4. If something looks stale or missing, fetch the live Markdown — append .md to any vercel.com/docs page URL (e.g. https://vercel.com/docs/cli/env.md).

Behavioral guidance

• Auth: the CLI authenticates with a personal/team token. In CI, set VERCEL_TOKEN (preferred over --token, which leaks in process lists). The MCP server uses OAuth, not a static token. See references/docs__cli__global-options.md.
• Never guess CLI flags — grep references/docs__cli__*.md. Vercel adds commands/flags frequently.
• Prefer the CLI for one-off ops (deploy, env pull, dns); the REST API / @vercel/sdk (sibling skill) for programmatic automation; the MCP server when an agent needs live account access (deploy, fetch build logs, search docs).

Reference map

references/ is grouped by the doc path prefix:

• docs__cli__* — the full CLI surface (~75 commands): deploy, dev, build, env, dns, domains, alias, certs, blob, edge-config, firewall, rolling-release, logs, link, pull, project, tokens, redeploy, rollback, promote, mcp, api, git, … docs__cli.md is the command index; docs__cli__global-options.md covers global flags.
• docs__agent-resources__vercel-mcp* — the official MCP server: setup, supported clients, and the tools reference.
• Platform sections — docs__deployments__*, docs__projects__*, docs__domains__*, docs__functions__*, docs__edge-config__*, docs__vercel-blob__*, docs__cron-jobs__*, docs__fundamentals__*, docs__builds__*, and more.

REST API reference + OpenAPI spec: see the working-with-vercel-api skill.

Keeping this current

references/ is regenerated by scripts/update_docs.js: it reads vercel.com/sitemap.xml, keeps the /docs/ pages (minus /docs/rest-api), and re-fetches each as Markdown (.md suffix). Change-detection via sha256 means fetched_at only moves when content actually changes. A weekly GitHub Action runs it and commits any changes. To refresh locally: make update-working-with-vercel.

Vercel docs and the CLI are not URL-versioned, so these references are a snapshot at fetch time (tracked by fetched_at/sha256), not a version pin — there is intentionally no PINNED_VERSION file.