vercel-deployment

Deep knowledge about deploying applications to Vercel (Next.js, static sites, edge functions).

SKILL.md

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Context

Deploying {{project_name}} ({{project_type}}) to Vercel. You will follow a strict 6-phase Deployment Lifecycle Contract.

Instructions

Execute the following phases in order:

Phase 1: Authentication

  1. Ensure the VERCEL_TOKEN environment variable is set.
  2. If running locally, you may authenticate interactively with npx vercel login. However, for automated agents, ensure the token is provided.
  3. Validate by running npx vercel whoami.

Phase 2: Build

  1. Prepare the artifacts for deployment.
  2. Typically, Vercel handles the build process on their servers based on vercel.json or framework detection (like Next.js).
  3. If running a local preview or needing specific pre-build steps, execute your framework's build command (e.g., npm run build). Otherwise, this phase is implicitly handled by Vercel.

Phase 3: Install / Provisioning

  1. Ensure the target Vercel project exists.
  2. If vercel.json is missing, you may need to configure project settings via the CLI (e.g., npx vercel link to link the directory to a Vercel project).
  3. Set any necessary environment variables (npx vercel env add <NAME> <ENVIRONMENT>).

Phase 4: Deploy

  1. Ship the artifact to Vercel.
  2. For a preview deployment, run npx vercel --token $VERCEL_TOKEN.
  3. For a production deployment, run npx vercel --prod --token $VERCEL_TOKEN.

Phase 5: Checking

  1. Verify the deployment was successful.
  2. Vercel outputs the deployment URL upon success.
  3. Use curl -sSf <URL> to ensure the application returns a 200 OK status code.
  4. Check Vercel logs (npx vercel logs <URL>) if the deployment fails or the health check returns an error.

Phase 6: Update / Rollback

  1. If Phase 5 fails, immediately initiate a rollback.
  2. Use npx vercel rollback <DEPLOYMENT_ID> or revert the git commit and trigger a new Vercel deployment.
  3. Note the failure in the progress log.

Validation

  • Vercel authentication (vercel whoami) succeeds.
  • Build succeeds.
  • Artifacts are deployed.
  • Health check (curl) returns 200 OK.