vercel-cli

Vercel CLI Skill

Deploy and manage Vercel projects via CLI. Org: skillrecordings.

⚠️ CRITICAL: Environment Variable Newlines

NEVER use heredocs (<<<) or plain echo to pipe values to vercel env add.

These add trailing newlines that WILL break secrets silently:

# ❌ BAD - adds newline
echo "secret" | vercel env add MY_VAR production
vercel env add MY_VAR production <<< "secret"

# ✅ GOOD - no newline
echo -n 'secret' | vercel env add MY_VAR production

Always use echo -n (no newline flag) when piping values.

Prerequisites

bun add -g vercel
vercel login

Project Setup (Monorepo)

This is a Turborepo. Each app deploys as a separate Vercel project.

Link all projects at once (preferred)

vercel link --repo

This links all apps to their Vercel projects using Git integration.

Link individual app

cd apps/web
vercel link --project support-web

First-time project creation

cd apps/web
vercel --yes
# Creates project, prompts for settings

Deployments

Preview deployment (PR/branch)

vercel
# or from root:
vercel --cwd apps/web

Production deployment

vercel --prod
# or from root:
vercel --cwd apps/web --prod

Deploy without waiting

vercel --no-wait

Force rebuild (skip cache)

vercel --force

Deploy with build logs

vercel --logs

Environment Variables

List env vars

vercel env ls
vercel env ls production
vercel env ls preview feature-branch

Add env var

# Interactive (prompts for value)
vercel env add MY_VAR

# With value piped (MUST use echo -n to avoid newline!)
echo -n 'secret-value' | vercel env add MY_VAR production

# Sensitive (hidden in dashboard)
vercel env add API_KEY --sensitive

Push from local .env to Vercel

To push all vars from a local .env file:

# Parse .env and push each var (excludes comments and empty lines)
while IFS='=' read -r key value; do
  [[ -z "$key" || "$key" =~ ^# ]] && continue
  echo -n "$value" | vercel env add "$key" production
done < .env.local

Or push specific vars:

# Read from .env.local and push to production
source .env.local
echo -n "$FRONT_API_TOKEN" | vercel env add FRONT_API_TOKEN production
echo -n "$INNGEST_SIGNING_KEY" | vercel env add INNGEST_SIGNING_KEY production

Pull env vars to local file

vercel env pull .env.local
vercel env pull --environment=preview .env.preview

Run command with env vars (no file)

vercel env run -- bun run dev
vercel env run -e production -- bun run build

Remove env var

vercel env rm MY_VAR production

Update existing env var

# Remove then add (no update command exists)
vercel env rm MY_VAR production -y
echo -n 'new-value' | vercel env add MY_VAR production

Project Management

List projects

vercel project ls
vercel project ls --json

Inspect project

vercel project inspect
vercel project inspect support-web

Remove project

vercel project rm support-web

Domains

List domains

vercel domains ls

Webhook URLs (no wildcards)

Use the exact Vercel app domain for webhooks. Wildcards are not supported by most providers.

# Find the exact production domain for the current project
vercel project inspect | rg -n "Domains|domain"

# Or list deployments and pick the latest
vercel ls

Add domain

vercel domains add example.com

Alias deployment to domain

vercel alias <deployment-url> my-custom-domain.com

Logs

View deployment logs

vercel logs <deployment-url>
vercel logs <deployment-url> --follow

CI/CD Usage

Use VERCEL_TOKEN env var or --token flag:

vercel --token $VERCEL_TOKEN --prod

Monorepo vercel.json

Each app should have its own vercel.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://openapi.vercel.sh/vercel.json",
  "framework": "nextjs"
}

Root vercel.json for shared settings (optional):

{
  "$schema": "https://openapi.vercel.sh/vercel.json",
  "ignoreCommand": "npx turbo-ignore"
}

Common Patterns

Deploy only if app changed (turbo-ignore)

bun add -D turbo-ignore

In app's vercel.json:

{
  "ignoreCommand": "npx turbo-ignore"
}

Capture deployment URL in CI

DEPLOY_URL=$(vercel --prod 2>&1)
echo "Deployed to: $DEPLOY_URL"

Promote preview to production

vercel promote <deployment-url>

Scope

Always deploy to skillrecordings org:

vercel --scope skillrecordings

Or set globally:

vercel switch skillrecordings

Troubleshooting

Clear local Vercel cache

rm -rf .vercel
vercel link

Check current link status

cat .vercel/project.json

Redeploy with fresh build

vercel --force --logs