Vercel CLI Guide

Vercel is a serverless platform for deploying, scaling, and managing web applications. This guide provides essential workflows and quick references for common Vercel operations.

Quick Start

# Check Vercel CLI installation
vercel --version

# Authenticate with Vercel
vercel login

# Show current user
vercel whoami

# Link project to Vercel
vercel link

# Pull environment variables
vercel env pull .env.local

Common Workflows

Workflow 1: Initialize and Deploy Project

# Initialize new project
vercel init

# Or link existing project
vercel link

# Start local development
vercel dev

# Create preview deployment
vercel

# Deploy to production
vercel --prod

Workflow 2: Manage Environment Variables

# List all environment variables
vercel env ls

# Add new variable
vercel env add API_KEY

# Pull variables to .env.local
vercel env pull .env.local

# Start dev with environment
vercel dev

Workflow 3: Setup Custom Domain

# Add domain to project
vercel domains add example.com my-project

# Verify domain configuration
vercel domains inspect example.com

# Check DNS records
vercel dns ls example.com

Workflow 4: Monitor Deployments

# List all deployments
vercel list

# View deployment logs
vercel logs https://my-app-xyz.vercel.app

# Follow logs in real-time
vercel logs --follow https://my-app-xyz.vercel.app

# Inspect deployment details
vercel inspect https://my-app-xyz.vercel.app

Workflow 5: Rollback & Recovery

# View recent deployments
vercel list

# Rollback to previous version
vercel rollback https://my-app.vercel.app

# Redeploy if needed
vercel redeploy https://my-app.vercel.app

Decision Tree

When to use which command:

To start local development: Use vercel dev
To create preview deployment: Use vercel (no flags)
To deploy to production: Use vercel --prod
To manage environment variables: Use vercel env add/rm/ls
To setup domains: Use vercel domains add/inspect
To view deployment logs: Use vercel logs [url]
To rollback deployment: Use vercel rollback [url]
For detailed command syntax: See Commands Reference
For complex workflows: See Common Patterns
For troubleshooting: See Troubleshooting Guide

Common Patterns

Deployment Process

# 1. Setup environment variables
vercel env add API_KEY
vercel env add DATABASE_URL

# 2. Test locally
vercel dev

# 3. Create preview
vercel

# 4. Test preview URL
# ... verify at https://my-app-xyz.vercel.app ...

# 5. Promote to production
vercel promote https://my-app-xyz.vercel.app

# 6. Monitor production
vercel logs --follow https://my-app.vercel.app

Team Collaboration

# Switch to team
vercel switch my-team

# Pull team project settings
vercel pull

# Deploy to team project
vercel --scope my-team --prod

Multi-Region Deployment

# Deploy to multiple regions
vercel --regions sfo1,fra1,sin1

# In vercel.json:
{
  "regions": ["sfo1", "fra1"]
}

CI/CD Automation

# Deploy via CI/CD pipeline
vercel --token $VERCEL_TOKEN --prod --yes

# Build and deploy
vercel build
vercel --prebuilt --token $VERCEL_TOKEN

Troubleshooting

Common Issues:

Cannot login
- Solution: Use token-based auth vercel --token $TOKEN whoami
- See: Authentication Issues
Project not linked
- Quick fix: Run vercel link to link project
- See: Project Not Linked
Build fails during deployment
- Quick fix: Run vercel build locally to debug
- See: Build Failures
Deployment crashes after build
- Quick fix: Check logs with vercel logs https://my-app.vercel.app
- See: Runtime Issues
Domain not resolving
- Quick fix: Update nameservers to Vercel's at domain registrar
- See: Domain Issues

For detailed troubleshooting steps, see the Troubleshooting Guide.

Reference Files

Load as needed for detailed information:

Commands Reference - Complete CLI command documentation with all flags and options. Use when you need exact syntax or flag details for any Vercel command.
Common Patterns - Real-world patterns and workflows for development, deployments, domains, environment management, debugging, team collaboration, and production setups. Use for implementing specific workflows or integrations.
Troubleshooting Guide - Detailed error messages, diagnosis steps, and resolution strategies for authentication, deployment, runtime, domain, git integration, and environment variable issues. Use when encountering errors or unexpected behavior.

When to use each reference:

Use Commands Reference when you need exact syntax, flag combinations, or comprehensive command documentation
Use Common Patterns for implementing deployment workflows, team setups, or production configurations
Use Troubleshooting when deployments fail, apps crash, or services are unreachable

Resources

Official Docs: https://vercel.com/docs
CLI Documentation: https://vercel.com/docs/cli
Community: https://github.com/vercel/vercel/discussions
Status: https://status.vercel.com

vercel-cli