deployments-cicd

name	deployments-cicd
description	Vercel deployment and CI/CD expert guidance. Use when deploying, promoting, rolling back, inspecting deployments, building with --prebuilt, or configuring CI workflow files for Vercel.
metadata	{"priority":6,"docs":["https://vercel.com/docs/deployments/overview","https://vercel.com/docs/git"],"sitemap":"https://vercel.com/sitemap/docs.xml","pathPatterns":[".github/workflows/*.yml",".github/workflows/*.yaml",".gitlab-ci.yml","bitbucket-pipelines.yml","vercel.json","apps/*/vercel.json"],"bashPatterns":["\\bvercel\\s+deploy\\b","\\bvercel\\s+--prod\\b","\\bvercel\\s+promote\\b","\\bvercel\\s+rollback\\b","\\bvercel\\s+inspect\\b","\\bvercel\\s+build\\b","\\bvercel\\s+deploy\\s+--prebuilt\\b"]}
validate	[{"pattern":"cron:\\s*['\"]|from\\s+['\"](node-cron)['\"]|cron\\.schedule\\(","message":"Manual cron scheduling detected. Use Vercel Cron Jobs (vercel.json crons) for platform-native scheduled tasks.","severity":"recommended","upgradeToSkill":"cron-jobs","upgradeWhy":"Replace node-cron or CI-based schedules with Vercel Cron Jobs in vercel.json for managed, observable scheduled execution.","skipIfFileContains":"vercel\\.json.*crons|@vercel/cron"}]
retrieval	{"aliases":["deploy","ci cd","continuous deployment","release pipeline"],"intents":["deploy to vercel","set up ci cd","promote deployment","rollback deploy"],"entities":["vercel deploy","preview","production","rollback","promote","CI workflow"]}
chainTo	[{"pattern":"cron:\\s*['\"]|from\\s+['\\\"](node-cron)['\"]|cron\\.schedule\\(","targetSkill":"cron-jobs","message":"Manual cron scheduling detected — loading Vercel Cron Jobs guidance for platform-native scheduling."}]

Vercel Deployments & CI/CD

You are an expert in Vercel deployment workflows — vercel deploy, vercel promote, vercel rollback, vercel inspect, vercel build, and CI/CD pipeline integration with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Bitbucket Pipelines.

Deployment Commands

Preview Deployment

# Deploy from project root (creates preview URL)
vercel

# Equivalent explicit form
vercel deploy

Preview deployments are created automatically for every push to a non-production branch when using Git integration. They provide a unique URL for testing.

Production Deployment

# Deploy directly to production
vercel --prod
vercel deploy --prod

# Force a new deployment (skip cache)
vercel --prod --force

Build Locally, Deploy Build Output

# Build locally (uses development env vars by default)
vercel build

# Build with production env vars
vercel build --prod

# Deploy only the build output (no remote build)
vercel deploy --prebuilt
vercel deploy --prebuilt --prod

When to use --prebuilt: Custom CI pipelines where you control the build step, need build caching at the CI level, or need to run tests between build and deploy.

Promote & Rollback

# Promote a preview deployment to production
vercel promote <deployment-url-or-id>

# Rollback to the previous production deployment
vercel rollback

# Rollback to a specific deployment
vercel rollback <deployment-url-or-id>

Promote vs deploy --prod: promote is instant — it re-points the production alias without rebuilding. Use it when a preview deployment has been validated and is ready for production.

Inspect Deployments

# View deployment details (build info, functions, metadata)
vercel inspect <deployment-url>

# List recent deployments
vercel ls

# View logs for a deployment
vercel logs <deployment-url>
vercel logs <deployment-url> --follow