vercel deploy

Learn how to deploy your Vercel projects using the vercel deploy CLI command.
Table of Contents

The vercel deploy command deploys Vercel projects, executable from the project's root directory or by specifying a path. You can omit 'deploy' in vercel deploy, as vercel is the only command that operates without a subcommand. This document will use 'vercel' to refer to vercel deploy.

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vercel

Using the vercel command from the root of a Vercel project directory.

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vercel --cwd [path-to-project]

Using the vercel command and supplying a path to the root directory of the Vercel project.

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vercel deploy --prebuilt

Using the vercel command to deploy a prebuilt Vercel project, typically with vercel build. See vercel build and Build Output API for more details.

When deploying, stdout is always the Deployment URL.

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vercel > deployment-url.txt

Using the vercel command to deploy and write stdout to a text file. When deploying, stdout is always the Deployment URL.

In the following example, you create a bash script that you include in your CI/CD workflow. The goal is to have all preview deployments be aliased to a custom domain so that developers can bookmark the preview deployment URL. Note that you may need to define the scope when using vercel alias

deployDomain.sh
# save stdout and stderr to files
vercel deploy >deployment-url.txt 2>error.txt
 
# check the exit code
code=$?
if [ $code -eq 0 ]; then
    # Now you can use the deployment url from stdout for the next step of your workflow
    deploymentUrl=`cat deployment-url.txt`
    vercel alias $deploymentUrl my-custom-domain.com
else
    # Handle the error
    errorMessage=`cat error.txt`
    echo "There was an error: $errorMessage"
fi

The script deploys your project and assigns the deployment URL saved in stdout to the custom domain using vercel alias.

If you need to check for errors when the command is executed such as in a CI/CD workflow, use stderr. If the exit code is anything other than 0, an error has occurred. The following example demonstrates a script that checks if the exit code is not equal to 0:

checkDeploy.sh
# save stdout and stderr to files
vercel deploy >deployment-url.txt 2>error.txt
 
# check the exit code
code=$?
if [ $code -eq 0 ]; then
    # Now you can use the deployment url from stdout for the next step of your workflow
    deploymentUrl=`cat deployment-url.txt`
    echo $deploymentUrl
else
    # Handle the error
    errorMessage=`cat error.txt`
    echo "There was an error: $errorMessage"
fi

These are options that only apply to the vercel command.

The --prebuilt option can be used to upload and deploy the results of a previous vc build execution located in the .vercel/output directory. See vercel build and Build Output API for more details.

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vercel --prebuilt

You should also consider using the archive option to minimize the number of files uploaded and avoid hitting upload limits:

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# Build the project locally
vercel build
 
# Deploy the pre-built project, archiving it as a .tgz file
vercel deploy --prebuilt --archive=split-tgz

This example uses the vercel build command to build your project locally. It then uses the --prebuilt and --archive=split-tgz options on the deploy command to compress the build output and then deploy it.

The --build-env option, shorthand -b, can be used to provide environment variables to the build step.

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vercel --build-env KEY1=value1 --build-env KEY2=value2

Using the vercel command with the --build-env option.

The --yes option can be used to skip questions you are asked when setting up a new Vercel project. The questions will be answered with the provided defaults, inferred from vercel.json and the folder name.

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vercel --yes

Using the vercel command with the --yes option.

The --env option, shorthand -e, can be used to provide environment variables at runtime.

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vercel --env KEY1=value1 --env KEY2=value2

Using the vercel command with the --env option.

The --name option has been deprecated in favor of Vercel project linking, which allows you to link a Vercel project to your local codebase when you run vercel.

The --name option, shorthand -n, can be used to provide a Vercel project name for a deployment.

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vercel --name foo

Using the vercel command with the --name option.

The --prod option can be used to create a deployment for a production domain specified in the Vercel project dashboard.

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vercel --prod

Using the vercel command with the --prod option.

This CLI option will override the Auto-assign Custom Production Domains project setting.

Must be used with --prod. The --skip-domain option will disable the automatic promotion (aliasing) of the relevant domains to a new production deployment. You can use vercel promote to complete the domain-assignment process later.

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vercel --prod --skip-domain

Using the vercel command with the --skip-domain option.

The --public option can be used to ensures the source code is publicly available at the /_src path.

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vercel --public

Using the vercel command with the --public option.

The --regions option can be used to specify which regions the deployments Serverless Functions should run in.

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vercel --regions sfo1

Using the vercel command with the --regions option.

The --no-wait option does not wait for a deployment to finish before exiting from the deploy command.

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vercel --no-wait

The --force option, shorthand -f, is used to force a new deployment without the build cache.

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vercel --force

The --with-cache option is used to retain the build cache when using --force.

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vercel --force --with-cache

The --archive option compresses the deployment code into one or more files before uploading it. This option should be used when deployments include thousands of files to avoid rate limits such as the files limit.

In some cases, --archive makes deployments slower. This happens because the caching of source files to optimize file uploads in future deployments is negated when source files are archived.

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vercel deploy --archive=tgz

The beta format split-tgz improves upon tgz by splitting large archives into smaller parts. This makes uploads faster and helps avoid file size limits.

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vercel deploy --archive=split-tgz

The --logs option, shorthand -l, also prints the build logs.

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vercel deploy --logs

Using the vercel deploy command with the --logs option, to view logs from the build process.

The --meta option, shorthand -m, is used to add metadata to the deployment.

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vercel deploy --meta KEY1=value1

Deployments can be filtered using this data with vercel list --meta.

Use the --target option to define the environment you want to deploy to. This could be production, preview, or a custom environment. For more information, see Using an environment through the Vercel CLI.

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vercel deploy --target=staging

The following global options can be passed when using the vercel deploy command:

For more information on global options and their usage, refer to the options section.

Last updated on November 28, 2024