Deploy your project to Vercel using GitHub Actions. Supports PR previews and GitHub deployments.
deploy-to-vercel-action uses GitHub Actions to deploy your project/site to Vercel. It offers more customization than Vercel's GitHub integration in terms of when to deploy your site. Using GitHub Actions Events you can choose to deploy every commit, only on new releases or even on a cron schedule. The Action can also deploy every PR and comment on it with a custom preview url. It uses the Vercel CLI and can automatically create a Deployment on GitHub as well.
- Use GitHub Actions events to control when to deploy to Vercel
- Automatically deploy every pull request
- Comment on pull requests with a preview link
- Create a deployment on GitHub
- Assign custom dynamic domains to each deployment or pr
- Can deploy Dependabot PRs and optionally even PRs made from forks
Before you can start using the Action, you have to setup a few Action inputs. Refer to the configuration section below for more info.
Then create a .yml
file in your .github/workflows
folder (you can find more info about the structure in the GitHub Docs) and add the following:
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
To always use the latest version of the Action add the latest
tag to the action name like this:
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@latest
If you want to make sure that your Workflow doesn't suddenly break when a new major version is released, use the v1
tag instead (recommended usage):
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
With the v1
tag you will always get the latest non-breaking version which will include potential bug fixes in the future. If you use a specific version, make sure to regularly check if a new version is available, or enable Dependabot.
Here are all the inputs deploy-to-vercel-action takes:
Key | Value | Required | Default |
---|---|---|---|
GITHUB_TOKEN |
GitHub Token to use when creating deployment and comment (more info below) | Yes | N/A |
VERCEL_TOKEN |
Vercel Token to use with the Vercel CLI (more info below) | Yes | N/A |
VERCEL_ORG_ID |
Id of your Vercel Organisation (more info below) | Yes | N/A |
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID |
Id of your Vercel project (more info below) | Yes | N/A |
GITHUB_DEPLOYMENT |
Create a deployment on GitHub | No | true |
GITHUB_DEPLOYMENT_ENV |
Custom environment for the GitHub deployment. | No | Production or Preview |
PRODUCTION |
Create a production deployment on Vercel and GitHub | No | true (false for PR deployments) |
DELETE_EXISTING_COMMENT |
Delete existing PR comment when redeploying PR | No | true |
CREATE_COMMENT |
Create PR comment when deploying | No | true |
ATTACH_COMMIT_METADATA |
Attach metadata about the commit to the Vercel deployment | No | true |
TRIM_COMMIT_MESSAGE |
When passing meta data to Vercel deployment, trim the commit message to subject only | No | false |
DEPLOY_PR_FROM_FORK |
Allow PRs which originate from a fork to be deployed (more info below) | No | false |
PR_LABELS |
Labels which will be added to the pull request once deployed. Set it to false to turn off | No | deployed |
ALIAS_DOMAINS |
Alias domain(s) to assign to the deployment (more info below) | No | N/A |
PR_PREVIEW_DOMAIN |
Custom preview domain for PRs (more info below) | No | N/A |
VERCEL_SCOPE |
Execute commands from a different Vercel team or user | No | N/A |
BUILD_ENV |
Provide environment variables to the build step | No | N/A |
WORKING_DIRECTORY |
Working directory for the Vercel CLI | No | N/A |
FORCE ย |
Used to skip the build cache. | No | false |
RELEASE_TAG ย |
Release tag for using as output. | No | N/A |
PREBUILT ย |
Deploy a prebuilt Vercel Project. | No | false |
In order for the Action to interact with GitHub and Vercel on your behalf, you have to specify your GitHub and Vercel Access Tokens as well as your Vercel Organization and Project Id.
You can generate your GitHub Personal Access token here and your Vercel Token here and then specify them as GITHUB_TOKEN
and VERCEL_TOKEN
in the Actions inputs.
Note: It is recommended to set the tokens as Repository Secrets.
Before you can start using this Action you have to link your project with Vercel locally.
Run the command vercel
inside your projects root and follow the steps described by the Vercel CLI.
Once set up, a new .vercel
directory will be added to your directory. The .vercel/project.json
file contains both the organization (orgId
) and project (projectId
) id of your project.
You can then specify them as VERCEL_ORG_ID
and VERCEL_PROJECT_ID
in the Actions inputs.
Note: It is recommended to set them as Repository Secrets.
Instead of using the auto generated domain (name-randomString.vercel.app
) for each deployment, you can specify custom domains. Use the ALIAS_DOMAINS
input and seperate each domain on a new line like this:
ALIAS_DOMAINS: |
example.com
example.now.sh
If your team is set up to Pro
, remember to set the VERCEL_SCOPE
to the slug of your team.
with:
VERCEL_SCOPE: "your-team-slug"
Otherwise, the action will fail trying to deploy custom domains with default account credentials. It will result in request for authorisation and action fail.
Even if you extend the scope of VERCEL_TOKEN
to All non-SAML Team
, without properly set up VERCEL_SCOPE
the cli will use default account and fail.
Note: You can use
*.vercel.app
or*.now.sh
without configuration, but any other custom domain needs to be configured in the Vercel Dashboard first
You can also use any of the following variables anywhere in the domain:
{USER}
- the owner of the repository the action was executed in{REPO}
- the name of the repository the action was executed in{BRANCH}
- the branch in which the action was triggered (slashes replaced with dashes){SHA}
- the most recent commit's sha{PR}
- the number of the pr the action was triggered from{RELEASE_TAG}
- transformed input RELEASE_TAG: dots replaced with dashes
Examples:
ALIAS_DOMAINS: |
{BRANCH}.example.com
{USER}-{REPO}-{SHA}.now.sh
This is especially useful if you want to change the PR preview domain with the PR_PREVIEW_DOMAIN
input:
PR_PREVIEW_DOMAIN: "{REPO}-{PR}.now.sh"
Note: You can only specify one custom domain for
PR_PREVIEW_DOMAIN
By default this action will not deploy a PR if it originates from a fork (this is also the default behaviour of Vercel for GitHub).
If you want to deploy a PR made from a fork, you have to set DEPLOY_PR_FROM_FORK
to true and make sure to use the pull_request_target
event instead of the pull_request
event, as GitHub doesn't pass any secrets to workflows triggered by pull_request
on forks (more info in GitHub's docs).
You also have to manually checkout the PR branch, as pull_request_target
runs in the context of the base of the pull request, rather than in the merge commit.
Here's a complete workflow as an example:
name: Deploy CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
pull_request_target:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
jobs:
vercel:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
steps:
- id: script
uses: actions/github-script@v3
with:
script: |
const isPr = [ 'pull_request', 'pull_request_target' ].includes(context.eventName)
core.setOutput('ref', isPr ? context.payload.pull_request.head.ref : context.ref)
core.setOutput('repo', isPr ? context.payload.pull_request.head.repo.full_name : context.repo.full_name)
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
with:
ref: ${{ steps.script.outputs.ref }}
repository: ${{ steps.script.outputs.repo }}
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@develop
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
DEPLOY_PR_FROM_FORK: true # This has some serious security risks you need be aware of
Note: Since the first of March 2021 workflow runs which are triggered by a Dependabot PR will act as if they are made from a fork and have the same limitations described above (more info in GitHub's Changelog), except that DEPLOY_PR_FROM_FORK doesn't have to be set to true.
Here are a few examples to help you get started!
The workflow below will run on every push to master and every time a new PR is created or an existing PR changed. deploy-to-vercel-action will deploy the master branch to your Vercel production environment and comment on every PR with a preview link to the deployed PR.
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
The workflow below will run on every push to the staging branch. The Action will then deploy it to the preview environment on Vercel.
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy staging CI
on:
push:
branches: [staging]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
PRODUCTION: false # Don't deploy to production environment
The workflow below will only run after a new release is created on GitHub.
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy CI
on:
release:
types: [created]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
If you want, deploy-to-vercel-action can assign multiple domains to each deployment and also change the PR preview domain:
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
ALIAS_DOMAINS: |
example.com
{BRANCH}.example.com
PR_PREVIEW_DOMAIN: "{REPO}-{PR}.now.sh"
The workflow below will wait until your other CI jobs are completed until it will deploy your project to Vercel.
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
jobs:
build:
# Your build job (can be anything you want)
# ...
lint:
# Your lint job (can be anything you want)
# ...
deploy:
needs: [build, lint] # wait for other jobs
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
The workflow below will not automatically create a PR comment. This is useful for example when your PR can trigger multiple deployments (think monorepo for example) and you want to take control over PR comment creation by yourself. You can use output produced by this action to build comment by yourself.
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
id: vercel-deploy
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
CREATE_COMMENT: false
- uses: phulsechinmay/[email protected]
if: ${{ steps.vercel-deploy.outputs.DEPLOYMENT_CREATED }}
with:
message: |
This pull request has been deployed to Vercel.
<table>
<tr>
<td><strong>โ
Preview:</strong></td>
<td><a href='${{ steps.vercel-deploy.outputs.PREVIEW_URL }}'>${{ steps.vercel-deploy.outputs.PREVIEW_URL }}</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>๐ Inspect:</strong></td>
<td><a href='${ steps.vercel-deploy.outputs.DEPLOYMENT_INSPECTOR_URL }'>${ steps.vercel-deploy.outputs.DEPLOYMENT_INSPECTOR_URL }</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
[View Workflow Logs](${ LOG_URL })
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
COMMENT_IDENTIFIER: "vercel-deploy"
The workflow below will run at the given interval and deploy your project to Vercel.
Note: You can use any other action to change your project or run your own script before deploying those changes to Vercel
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy CI
on:
schedule:
- cron: "0 8 * * 1" # will run every Monday at 8 am
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
# maybe do something else first
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
As described in the Deploying a PR made from a fork or Dependabot section, Pull Requests created by Dependabot behave as if they where created from a fork and thus the Workflow triggered by the pull_request
event doesn't have access to any secrets.
To overcome this limitation you can use the pull_request_target
event and checkout the PR branch manually:
Note: By default this action doesn't deploy any forks so you can use pull_request_target without any security concerns
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
pull_request_target:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
jobs:
vercel:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
steps:
- id: script
uses: actions/github-script@v3
with:
script: |
const isPr = [ 'pull_request', 'pull_request_target' ].includes(context.eventName)
core.setOutput('ref', isPr ? context.payload.pull_request.head.ref : context.ref)
core.setOutput('repo', isPr ? context.payload.pull_request.head.repo.full_name : context.repo.full_name)
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
with:
ref: ${{ steps.script.outputs.ref }}
repository: ${{ steps.script.outputs.repo }}
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@develop
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
You can define the build environment variables when using the action:
.github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Deploy to Vercel Action
uses: BetaHuhn/deploy-to-vercel-action@v1
with:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
BUILD_ENV: |
FOO="bar"
SOME_TOKEN="${{ secrets.SOME_TOKEN }}"
If you have an idea for another use case, create a discussion and maybe I will add it here!
Issues and PRs are very welcome!
The actual source code of this Action is in the src
folder.
- run
yarn lint
ornpm run lint
to run eslint. - run
yarn start
ornpm run start
to run the Action locally. - run
yarn build
ornpm run build
to produce a production version of deploy-to-vercel-action in thedist
folder.
This project was developed by me (@betahuhn) in my free time. If you want to support me:
deploy-to-vercel-action is in no way affiliated with Vercel.
Copyright 2021 Maximilian Schiller
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.